Review Social Kitchen - New Plymouth

We enjoyed dinner here, as walk-ins and were seated in a roofed outdoor area because inside was full at 6pm on a Monday. Quite pleasant despite the wind and rain as there were heaters on. The service was prompt and enthusiastic. As vegetarian diners, we were pleased to share the eggplant parmigiana ($50). The eggplant was cooked to perfection and the flavour was delicious. We needed a bit more so ordered rosemary and garlic potatoes. Both the garlic and rosemary were missing so these were large, expensive ($17) fries. I had baked toffee custard (aka crème caramel). The caramel needed to be a bit sharper and the custard was overly rich for me. Black Forest mousse was “okay I suppose”. You won’t know they charge for using a credit card unless you ask for a print out. I wish such charges were made clear so you could choose your own method of payment. I would certainly go again when in NP- Social Kitchen has been going 9 years so must have the success recipe right. We might need to be a bit more discerning in our choices.

Definitely come here if you enjoy meat! We really liked the steak, the pork belly was OK. Some very nice entrees too. Dessert was so so, probably didn't need to order. Slightly expensive but we did order alot for 3ppl.

Amazing food, highly recommend. We had a good range, it was slightly small for the price but if you order a good range it will be very filling and plenty of food. My only complaint was that the music was a bit loud and the bass somewhat shook the ground at times.

Stumbled onto this place on our drive from Wellington to Waitomo. Fantastic food, great ambience in the covered courtyard, and good service. They actually make the effort to pace your dishes. The home made flatbread with hummus is delicious. The snapper fish fillet was so tasty and done perfectly. The carrots were amazing as well as the fennel salad. Gorgeous plating and generous portions are just right for two, maybe even three light eaters. Wish we lived here so we could come back!

Had a function there with 35 people. Food was great but drinks/desert took a really long time to come, with some waiting up to 45mins or forgotten so had to reorder. Service staff did all they can, was not their fault they cpuld not handle a large group would have been great if there were more help around, and we would possibly be having 2x the number of drinks.

what a beautiful restaurant! came with a group of 8 friends from out of town, food was DELISH, they were lovely and understanding about allergies (nuts and gluten), and the lady who was looking after our table was super friendly, good communication. Was hard to book a table, but we were a large group - finally got through on the phone after several tries and they were super lovely about it and found a place even though the restaurant was mostly booked out! Also... the Lemon Curd Cheesecake was AMAZING! the best cheesecake I've ever had! 10/10 would recommend, and will definitely be back!! thank you Social Kitchen for the lovely experience.

Rolled into the beautiful Taranaki region late afternoon on a Tuesday, had researched this place and managed to get in without a booking. Delicious! Great staff, very salty dirty martini (always a nice surprise when the mixologist nails a dirty martini) and husband enjoyed an Australian Shiraz. Food was beautiful, well seasoned, generous portions. Staff were friendly, helpful and knew their menu and clarified specials and changes before we ordered. Highly recommend.

We had dinner with a group of friends and everything we ordered was delicious. Although there’s no kids menu, all the kids enjoyed the food. The fresh fish fillets was the best fish I have had in a long time. The Angus steak, lamb shoulder, and pork belly were super delicious too. All the side dishes were great accompaniments to the mains! Great experience 👍

If you haven't been to Social Kitchen, fix that right now! Not only is the variety excellent, the food is stunning. If like real flare in your meals, try the fried halloumi cheese - you'll see what I mean! The wait staff were the perfect level of attentive and interacted very well with the obviously large number of regulars. Social Kitchen will become a favourite for meals in general but also a go-to for events with their ability to cater for large groups. Do yourself a favour and give it a try right now.

This place didn't disappoint,, we were greeted with friendly staff and the food was absolutely delicious. We got prawn cutlets and bbq lamb hearts to start (we wanted to be adventurous and the hearts were actually very tasty), and then had the beef cheeks and gnocci and salad for sides. The portions were huge! But oh so yummy you'll still wanna empty your plates 🤤

What a super experience. Amazing choice of delicious small and large plates in a very buzzy environment. Fascinating to be able to see the hard work of the kitchen staff at the open counter. Would definitely go again, and again...

We had a group of 12 sharing a variety of dishes. The food was amazing and everyone enjoyed them. We enjoyed having a mix of lamb, beef, pork belly and chicken, which were all cooked to perfection. The service was outstanding and we felt very much catered for.The environment was welcoming and very relaxed and one which we found easy to communicate with each other even over a large rou d table. Pricing was on point. I would definitely recommend this restaurant, you won't regret it!!

Best food I have eaten in New Zealand! Wasn't sure how our fussy eaters would cope but they loved it especially the firecracker chicken. Great ambience, staff and like I said the food is just incredible!!!! Thanks again

We’re so glad we discovered Social Kitchen while in New Plymouth. We’ve had a fabulous evening out. The food was amazing, service from Alex outstanding and the atmosphere very cool.

Recommended by the locals. Lovely experience to have dinner here with friends. Quick service and 5/5 customer service! The food was amazing! Great selection of vegetarian as well. Great selection of wine and drinks. Very cool ambience and wall decor. Best to reserve a table just in case they fully booked. Really recommended!

Nice atmosphere, cool interior. Food was good, the dishes that stood out in the grouping we ordered were the Chicken Poblano, Lamb Shoulder, White Fish Crudo, Fennel Salad, and the Gnocchi. The Broccoli Waldorf needed to be marinated longer and with more mayo. The Chorizo didn't taste like Chorizo rather just a plain beef meatball. Presentation was nice.

Dinner in Social Kitchen felt like being in a busy Auckland or Wellington bar. I think this atmosphere is trendy. And I tickled a bison lol (wall-mounted). The food is tasty and my favourite dish was the beautiful lamb shoulder cooked in the style of the cuisine from Southern France. My side of fresh vegetables was delicious and well made. We paid prices that I'm happy with and the service was good.

what an amazing place. The food was delicious and the the service was out of this world. We were a big group and our waiter Martin was just a superstar. Thank you for making a really important evening even more special, I can not rate this place high enough.

My husband and I came in for dinner last night. Barrie was our waiter and he was probably the best waiter I have ever had at a restaurant. He paid us enough attention so that if we needed anything else we could ask. He made us feel so welcome and helped us choose our food so that we even had room for pudding! The food was insane - we'll definitely be back!

This place was A++. The team was incredibly friendly and made you feel very welcome. Great suggestions made to things on the menu and the food when it came out was probably the most delicious meal I’ve had at a restaurant in a long time. Loved the Shared Style of serving the food. Great atmosphere. Would definite recommend to anyone visiting New Plymouth. Will definitely be back the next time I’m in town.

Totally recommend Social Kitchen for group functions or with friends.. exceptional food, all too good to mention - with the goat, chicken & pork my favorites, along with equally delicious sides of duck fat potatoes, glazed whole carrots. Great waiting staff - well done!

have had great meals here, but last night's SBS was the best so far, great menu and we couldn't even do dessert we were too full! also made a believer out of the other half who was not sure at all about the SBS menu! thanks so much. we will be back.

We loved this place great atmosphere great menu! We had dinner here last night! It was good to find a restaurant that does good Spanish food great service and good variety of tapas. Loved the charcuterie wall!!

With so much hype lately, I had to finally make my way there after living in N.P for so long now Nice atmos, wonderful staff, and food was great! Polenta fries were a little odd but still eatable �. I'll definitely be back to cross more off the menu!

My hubby & I had a most wonderful experience at Social Kitchen. The food was amazing - especially the fried calamari balls & the lemon meringue cheese cake. Our waitress had a great understanding of the food & drink menus & made good recommendations. We wouldn't hesitate to go back again! �

Awesome dinner. Duck fat potatoes so yummy. Really filling. Amazing place and started to get really busy on a Sunday night. Would recommend Social Kitchen

Always love dining here. It is the go to eatery for my group of friends. Amazing food and service. The gnocchi is a must have every time. Great vibe in the restaurant.

Exceptional - best restaurant in New Plymouth and up there with some of the best in NZ!

Awesome place! Loved the delicious food and helpful staff. The real deal.... New Plymouth hold onto this place love it well!!!

Great staff, cool vibe and delicious food! The polenta chips..... mmmmm and the gnocchi was out of this world, and they were just the side dishes! Enjoyed a couple of glasses of Wooing Tree Blondie, Central Otago which I had never heard of before but will now be actively seeking out. Thanks for a fab meal.

Fantastic food and service with a really good atmosphere. Highly recommend if you’re in New Plymouth

A bit disappointed with the service. Wanted to have a relaxing lunch with family. Specifically stated during online booking that we require high chair. We could have been informed early on that they don't have one and we could have brought ours. Instead, the waitress made a remark that "this isn't really a kids place". Poor communication.

Been dying to try social kitchen, worth the wait. Ordered the white fish large dish with garlic potatoes and brussel sprouts. Potatoes were not garlic at all, just average. Fish was tasty and flaky. The brussel sprouts were AMAZING! OMG I am totally converted to loving brussel sprouts.

Food was absolutely amazing. Well presented and cooked to perfection. Meals were hot and tasted phenomenal. The service was excellent. I have no issue recommending this fabulous restaurant.

I love Social Kitchen. I have been there 4 times now, and will continue to go. <br/>The staff are amazing, so professional and helpful. The interior is super cool, and has a great atmosphere, you definitely don't feel like you are in New Plymouth. The cocktails are so delicious, best espresso martini I have had in NP. There sides are a good size and priced well, and very flavorful. I also would like to mention they are very considerate when asking for dietary requirements to be met. Have recommended this to everyone! Love this place, keep up the great work.

Dinner in Social Kitchen felt like being in a busy Auckland or Wellington bar. I think this atmosphere is trendy. And I tickled a bison lol (wall-mounted). The food is tasty and my favourite dish was the beautiful lamb shoulder cooked in the style of the cuisine from Southern France. My side of fresh vegetables was delicious and well made. We paid prices that I'm happy with and the service was good.

The sides were probably my favourite part of the meal, because it was an opportunity to try so many different things. I must say the brussel sprouts were amazing (and I'm someone who hates brussel sprouts!). Everyone in my group loved the peas and ricotta. Also the polenta fries.<br/><br/>The lamb ribs were disappointing, quite greasy; it didn't seem like they'd been rendered very well; I couldn't take more than a few bites. We ordered a steak too but it didn't go that far, what I did manage to try was quite nice and tender.<br/>My group enjoyed the pork belly (but I don't eat pork).<br/><br/>I checked out the outdoor area which looks like it will be really nice in the summer. I loved the decor and layout of the restaurant. It's quite cool how the kitchen is open and you can see what's going on.<br/><br/>Overall the atmosphere and the food was good.<br/>I get the concept of social and sharing but I think this restaurant would be better suited to a couple or a group of no more than 4. Unfortunately for me I feel like I missed out, so I'd have to try it another time.

Been here 3 times now, twice for lunch and once for dinner.  It is a place where a good group of foodies that like to share will love.  Very happy to recommend

Very poor service. We were in a hurry to go. A waitress walked pass and I called her she pretend did not hear me. Food is not so good either. I would not recommend this restaurant. Poor derive even and poor food for the price.

was in New Plymouth for a weekend when I was on Business Trip to NZ. I had shortlisted few places and this was one. Me and one of my friends visited this place for lunch. We ordered one Small Plate Prawns, One Salad for Sides, and Beef for Mains. Loved the food. It was great.

Week day lunches that are quick, easy and intimate. Best spot in NP for Lunch and Dinner if you are under 36. If you are over 36, it will be to loud, to dark and you’ll just complain to your dinner date.

Not your usual hangout spot. The ambience is a bit quirky, might not be to everyone's liking. That being said, the food is delicious and staff's great too. It can get busy on a weekend night so booking your table in advance might be a good Idea. It can be a bit on the pricey side but their portions are a decent size and offer some excellent meats and steaks.

Loved dining here! On a cold , damp night in NP, we could only sit in the courtyard as the inside area was full. This was not a problem as the courtyard area was toasty warm, with a great atmosphere. The staff were friendly, and great at explaining the menu and how much to order for the three of us. The food arrived promptly and was out of this world. I can't rave enough about this place, it has everything to offer.... a great menu , onto it staff, and food to die for!!!! We are from Wgtn and super impressed 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

The ambience and decor of this were quite special. Good mix of family and young and hip clientele. Menu is exceptional and the food matches expectations in quality and taste set by the excellent service. <br/><br/>They deserve more than a gold star for bringing the edge of cosmopolitan fusion to provincial Taranaki. New Plymouth is growing and with places like this can clearly compete with Zurich, Toronto or my Melbourne home. <br/><br/>Great job done by the whole team here. <br/>I hope you've won some awards and got the recognition you deserve. <br/><br/>A must do when visiting this gorgeous part of NZ!

What a great concept to sharing your food. I came here with my mates for dinner and the host was so warm and he gave us a good walk through the menu. For once I didn't take pictures as I was famished. The food was gone in minutes. <br/>Come and eat here with those you'd love sharing food with and the atmosphere will soothe your soul to the core.

Before our trip, Kran had found Social Kitchen restaurant. It was meant to be one of the best restaurants in town. That was a challenge, we had to find out if it was! If it was awesome, we wanted to be there to eat all their foods. Unfortunately they didn’t have any bookings for that night (Whaaaaat??!!! We exclaimed in disbelief… No bookings for a night out in New Plymouth?!) So I put my name down on the waitlist in the afternoon and we tried our luck by just popping in anyway. No luck. Disappointed but not to be discouraged, we thought we’d go to Freddy’s (another institution in NP apparently) for a drink and a snack (since I was getting super hangryface) before trying Social Kitchen again.

Great concept for a restaurant. Was busy and popular. Party of six started with small plates. The hot chicken was my favourite. Followed this with three large plates. Shared meals are so much fun. Venison was over cooked but goat and spare ribs were excellent. All with a mix of veges and a good red wine. We couldn't get through the ribs but everything else went. I'll go back.

Utterly fantastic, from the service to the quirky decor, and of course the food. There was a great range of sharing plates to gorge on. The 12 hour slow cooked goat with pomegranate was a stand out.

Sunday at The Social kitchen wasn't as social as we expected however, on a chilly spring day we hadn't anticipated there to be a long wait for a table. What we did expect was for the staff to be a little more engaging with us than they were with each other. I find it so frustrating watching staff leaning over tills gossiping/giggling with each other and ignoring tables - ESPECIALLY when you're the only table in the joint. <br/>First impressions aside, we were seated comfortably, the interiors were a credit to their designer, an intentionally eclectic mash up of French bistro booth seating, New York loft style glass partitions and hunting lodge stags heads that worked so well together they set the stage with a bold identity that was both masculine, feminine and a little dominatrix all at the same time.<br/>Our menus were introduced by a charming blonde - 'the food will be brought to the table when it's ready' she proclaimed, 'it's all about sharing and the portion sizes are large, you'll need to order two from the large section and two sides' - we couldn't help but feel that the relaxed social dining experience we expected from a sharing plate menu was a little more formal at The Social Kitchen.<br/>Our drinks arrived promptly on the first occasion and then again on the second though - they would benefit from sending the team on a Barista training course as I can remember having better coffee at a roadside shack en route to Cape Reinga for $2.<br/>We ordered Squid Balls, Chicken Liver Pate and Spanish Sausage. <br/>'The squid balls come as 3, would you like a fourth or can you just cut one in half' asked the blonde - we ordered a fourth and were surprised to find a $5 charge for it on the bill when it came to settling - what we had assumed was a service to improve our sharer experience was actually a genius way of upping our spend.<br/>The squid balls (3 for $15) were the first to arrive and were rather underwhelming, we couldn't taste the squid - or anything else for that matter though the texture was good. They were well coated in a crispy fried breadcrumbs shell and had a soft inside - a great bar snack option for late night boozers maybe?<br/>The chicken liver Pate ($14) was truly divine, the pate tasted wonderfully of sweet and savoury without being overpowering. The house baked bread accompaniment was soft and salty which allowed the flavour of the pate to shine, though the cuts were a little tricky to spread onto and the portion size was great to share. <br/>Finally we had the Spanish sausage ($29) a whopping great wheel of tasty sausage fresh from the chargrill which was exactly what was listed on the menu - it was nothing more and nothing less than a huge amount of spicy sausage which after nibbling away on a quarter of its mammoth size had lost all momentum with both of us - we were expediently 'over sausaged' and spent the next 10 minutes looking at it with the same feelings of disappointment and regret you feel after waking up with a colleague the night after the Christmas party. <br/>Finally we settled our tab at $81 which for 2 small plates, one large, 3 sodas and a bad latte we felt was pretty top end for lunch. <br/>Ultimately we had expected the experience to be a social spectacular, a mix and mingle of New Plymouths who's who with excellent gastronomy and an equally wonderful beverage selection however, after a rather basic dining experience we left underwhelmed and most probably wouldn't return. <br/>3.5/5 <br/><br/><br/><br/>

Stunning. The meat was melt in your mouth, gnocchi to die for and the service was impeccable. The decor is funky and makes for a great dining experience.

Went here for dinner with my colleagues duringa work trip to New Plymouth. Their meals are to share and we asked the staff to bring out an assortment. The meat were perfect and had some good sangrias to match!

This spot appeared relatively new, and with one review so far I wasn't sure what to expect. As it was close to my hotel, I decided to give it a try. Well I'm glad I did!<br/>I was looking for a light lunch & on a sunny day decided to sit in the courtyard. There was shade as well as sunny spots which makes this a great location. Seating inside also looks good on a colder day or if you prefer to sit inside. <br/>I was given a friendly welcome & the service throughout was great - this really makes a place for me & should be non-negotiable. <br/>I ordered the Invivo Rose which is always nice on a hot day. The wine list looked good covering most bases.<br/>It felt like a prawn kind of day so that's what I ordered. They were fresh & delicious. Served with asparagus which again was great - not thick & stringy. Chilli, garlic slivers & chargrilled tomato + lemon rounded the dish off.<br/>A little expensive at $19 for 3 prawns however I would happily pay this again for such a delicious dish with the great service & location.<br/>Will definitely visit again next time I'm in New Plymouth.<br/>03/17 re-visit, and things have gone from good to great so have updated my rating from 4/5 to 4.5/5 based on the service, food & environment.

After our lunch we dropped in and had a tea.<br/>Nobody else but us in the bistro. The environment was so comfortable and the staff was so friendly.<br/><br/>The lady recommended a small plate of prawns and a small plate of squid balls. She also recommended us to try Hopt salty lychee soda water. They were all very nice. I especially loved its prawns and strawberry sorbet.<br/><br/>A must try bistro.