aucklanddatenight-blog

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Custom cocktails at @caretaker.nz followed by a waffle stack feast for the eyes and tummy at @orleansnz 🍸too much to eat! Would recommend to a friend 😊👍 feeling a little slow today though 🤦‍♂️ (at Britomart , Auckland)

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

My face really sums up my reaction when we learned that gin cocktails were covered in the ticket price. That explains the head today.. at the #grease night at @seafarersclub - much fun was had!

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

2016 in dates

2016 marked the year that Ricky and I invested in quality time together, AKA Date Nights!  I’m so glad we did. Here are a few of faves, looking back:

Escape the room (The Great Escape, prison theme) + berries. Would do again in a heartbeat! First off, escaping a room is not as terrifying as it sounds - you do get clues, and they do let you out. You can pick the theme and the degree of difficulty. It’s a pretty good adventure!

Burger Geek and beers in the Albert Park Rotunda. I wore my tiger print dress because I didn’t know what we were doing for our date, and looked like “White Beyonce” (Ricky quote) for what turned out to be a picnic. This date also saw me getting cat-called for the first time since the baby (refer to “White Beyonce” outfit). And the burger was definitely worth a sequel date! 

Dinner at Coco’s Cantina, followed by a bicycle taxi (Bike Man) to Giapo for gelato. It was a double date, plus a bicycle taxi race down the pink bike track was a great mix of beautiful views and hilarity.

BlastaCars Go-carting and dinner at Coco’s Cantina. I’m obsessed with Coco’s. I sucked at car racing but I think I impressed Ricky by doing it, plus it was super fun.

Early morning Hot Yoga (EastWest), down to Wynyard Quarter to put an engraved padlock on the wall (awwww), breakfast at Dear Jervois (yum!) This was pretty much the most romantic thing that Ricky has done to date.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Why we started regular date nights

We hit a crisis point before we realised the need to make time for each other. Having a baby changed everything. After making it through the “newborn” months, we talked about feeling like we were getting the hang of the ‘parenting thing’, but our relationship had kind of fallen by the wayside as we went through the motions every day of keeping our new human alive. My mum bought around a book called “And a baby makes three”. It was a bit embarrassing to admit that we’d got to a point where we needed a self-help book… But it was there in our house, so one day I got over myself and read it. I realised that it’s easy to get competitive and resentful about who does what, but at the end of the day we’re both on the same side, trying to do what’s best for our family in our own way. We both try to be empathetic towards each other, and prioritise making time for each other outside of the daily grind – because now I understand that relationships don’t just exist – they are living things that require care and maintenance. We should have been doing this before we had a baby. You get out what you put in.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

5 signs that you NEED to make time for date night

1. You haven’t seen them wear anything other than yoga/sweat pants for far too long. 2. Noone holds in their farts anymore. 3. All your texts are “what do we need from the supermarket” or “what do you want for dinner tonight”. 4. You’re always “getting things done” when you’re together, instead of enjoying spending time together. 5. Things might be feeling a little frosty – definitely time to make time for each other!

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Secret Menus

Have you heard of the ‘secret menus’ available at some of your fave fast food joints? Don’t knock them til you try them, a Butter Beer Frappuccino from Starbucks secret menu might be just the ticket to cap off a brilliant date night! (KFC, McD’s, Subway, Starbucks, BK and Carl’s Jr..) If you’ve tried some of these, let us know. We’d love to know if they work here in NZ! http://hackthemenu.com

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

We need your help.

Our challenge: Find the best burger in Auckland.

Burgers are the food of the gods, as far as I’m concerned.  In fact, it wasn’t long after Johnny started eating solids that Ricky made him his first burger (see below).

We’d be remiss as a date night food blog not to dedicate some time, energy and calories to finding the best burger in Auckland.

I’ve done my research.  I know what Metro, Stuff, Viva, Urban list and more deem to be the best.

So let’s give it a hoon.

Please do shout if there is anyone blindingly obvious missing from the list of primo burger joints below:

Burger Burger BurgerFuel Tiger Burger Bearded Clam Ralph’s Al’s Deli Better Burger

And we’ll do our best to work our way through them.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Last minute date ideas

New Flavour Dumplings in Balmoral – it’s cheap, cheerful and BYO! Pane Vino – great pizza in Ponsonby. Don’t miss their Tiramasu. Also BYO Pakuranga night markets – Pakuranga Night Markets held in the underground car park beneath the Warehouse every Saturday Night from 5.30. Street food, music and entertainment.   Mexico – Takapuna/Ponsonby/Britomart – sign up for their emails and each receive free starters every time you go. Spend the extra $ on fancy drinks, and don’t forget the friend chicken!  Dessert date at Frasers in Mount Eden (it’s reopened, and your number one cheesecake destination!) Uptown Bounce trampoline park  Coco's Cantina on K’Rd. You can’t make reservations, so lack of preparation works in your favour here! Happy hour from 5-6pm = $13 Pasta Pomodoro and $7 drink specials.  Please, please order the polenta chips.  Orleans - live jazz from 7.30 Saturdays  Ralph’s in Mount Eden for a burger and curly fries (caution, you won’t want to do much after this, but it’s bloody worth it)   Takeaways and beers somewhere pretty (beach, domain) SPQR Again, no reservation, no problem! Can’t go wrong with one of their platters or pizza and some people watching, plus Nathan really is the host with the most, you’re always welcomed in as a friend (even though I’m sure he doesn’t remember us).  Caretaker jazz bar Britomart 

Day date/Family friendly

Swashbucklers, chips and beer on a sunny day at Swashies. You can see the stingrays in the bay if you look. Can’t beat it.  Museum – Making Music in Aotearoa (free) “hands and ears on” exhibition Auckland Art gallery interactive exhibition (free)  Brothers Beer, Mount Eden – beer tasting and pizzas in a lounge setting with playground!  Puhoi pub, 45 min out of AK  Hallertau Brewery Riverhead. Beer, delicious fodder, super kid friendly.  Bush/waterfall walk  Zoo picnic

Make it fun

Why not act like strangers in a bar? Try your smoothest lines. It has to be done! Blastacars drift racing Put an envelope full of date ideas in the glove box of the car, for impromptu date decisions!

Photos: 

AKL Art Gallery AKL Zoo Blastacars

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Using Airpoints to pay for your date

If you’re like me and have Airpoints but hardly ever fly, you’re likely to have accrued a nominal amount of Airpoints – certainly not enough for a flight – now or any time in the future.

At the Airpoints store you can spend your points almost dollar for dollar on gift cards for the Nourish Group – redeemable at Euro, Jervois Steak House, Coley & Punch cocktail bar and more.  That’s a fairly swanky date night if you ask me. 

Finally, a way to put Airpoints to good use!

NB Fly Buys also offer gift cards in their store, but the redemption cost is much higher.  

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

4 reasons why you should try ‘Date Night’

You know how you love it when your partner puts in a bit of effort to impress you? Yeah. It works both ways. Making time even once a month to dote on your partner creates a nice buzz for them which can help brighten the doldrums or challenges of the daily grind. You can even take turns to organize dates so that you both get to be on the receiving end of the warm fuzzies.

Parenting is a juggling act and it seems pretty common for relationships to become a bit ‘transactional’ as you both go through the daily motions of keeping your family, well - alive. Taking a momentary break from it all is pretty refreshing. Planning your date in advance allows you to make the most of the sliver of time that you have away from home.

If you’re not a parent it’s easier to go out, which can also make it easy to ‘go with the flow’ and not put much effort into organising dates. This is where I reinforce my original point, that it’s worth taking time to show your partner that you’re pretty into them.  And vice versa. Give it a try, I reckon! They’ll appreciate it, plus - it’s fun!

You don’t need to spend a lot. A cheap date can be a brilliant date if you put a bit of thought into what would delight your partner (see: Burger Geek takeaways with beers in the band rotunda at Albert Park. That was a bonza date!)

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Burger Geek Date

Note: You do have to start early because the exhibition is only on until 5.30.

Stop 1: Owen Dippie portrait Art Week exhibition until 5.30pm FREE  - OD Gallery, 545 Karangahape Road 

Stop 2: Burger Geek (175 Symonds St) As an ex-vegetarian I have a strong appreciation for any fast food joint that does decent veggo sides. Burger Geek on Symonds St has triple cheese mac and cheese balls, vege nuggets and onion strings (not to mention deliciously un-vegetarian bacon and cheese croquettes).They don’t have have much seating so why not grab a cheeky sixer from the bottle store up the road, and headed to the Albert Park rotunda for a little picnic. Burger Geek - also a great idea for date night at home. That way you could have even more sides and just carb coma afterwards. Because romance.

Stop 3: Diwali (Aotea Square) FREE Check out the dancing and festivities, on til 9pm

Stop 4: Gelato at Giapo - the fanciest ice cream in town!

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

A cocktail lounge for the people.

69 Krd was highly recommended by a waiter who had looked after us on a previous date night as a great stop for a drink, so we were pretty excited to try it out. (Hospo recommendations generally pan out well!)

When we walked in to the tunes of Frank Sinatra, I thought, ‘this is the place we’ve been waiting for.’ It’s an interesting take on the classic lounge bar - with an urban, unashamedly K’Rd twist. The vibe is relaxed and comfortable – I would feel just as at home dressed casually there as I would dressed to the nines, which lends itself to being a great stop to pop into spontaneously.

Ricky was most taken by the deck with views of the motorway and pink bike track. We had dinner and cocktails outside watching the bike track and city light up as the sun went down. It’s fun to people watch all those taking selfies on the pink bike track. (There are a LOT!).  The deck also has heating ducts on the floor, so I wasn’t only cosy, but my dress billowed like Marilyn. Can I say, a bit romantic?

The menu consists of a pretty serious selection of hot dogs, deep fried gnocci served with kiwi dip (don’t knock it, just try it!), and various other hearty delights. Perfect for a fancy cocktail, or a late night meal (they’re open 3pm-3am).  

I’ve since learned that the music theme changes daily, with the only rule “only vinyl”. If it were lounge music always, you wouldn’t be able to keep us away. But I suppose that plays true to the place’s intentional mixed vibe.

A unique and fun addition to K’rd, and somewhere that I’m confident that we’ll be visiting again. Would recommend to a friend.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Restaurant month at Odettes plus a blast from the past

Three reasons why you should get to Odettes before restaurant month ends on wednesday:

5 courses for $40. Outlandish value!

The steamed beef bun isn’t on the regular menu and is worth going out of your way for. Their sauce portions are insane! It’s like someone briefed them that two sauceophiles would be visiting so they just gave us three portions worth at the beginning to save themselves the time.

Value. Delish. Sauce. Done.

Check out the Restaurant Month menus here: https://www.heartofthecity.co.nz/dining

We headed to brothers beer for a tipple afterwards, and then to Whammy bar to catch up with old friends. Whammy has had a makeover! You can actually see the stairs in now (lighting), the toilets have been fixed! There are legit snacks! I think most exciting though was the novelty factor of visiting an old haunt with our old mates. For old times sakes.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Prison Break date

Last night we were locked in a high security prison with one hour to solve a series of riddles, in order to escape. “Escape the Room” is a phenomenon that I had not heard of until recently - there are several locations in Auckland, but we chose “Great Escape” on Lorne St: http://www.greatescapethegame.co.nz

We chose the “prison” setting because we were already dressed as The Joker and Harley Quinn for a friends’ birthday party later that night, so a prison break challenge seemed fitting.

The possibility of not solving the riddles in time and having to be released made us a little nervous.  We read a few tips for “escaping the room” and made sure that we spread out, inspected everything, and told each other everything strange that we found.  It was tricky but we managed to get out with ten minutes to spare. It was hard but fun and definitely got the adrenaline going!

From there we headed out for a well earned celebratory beer. Would definitely recommend giving "Great Escape” a go with a group of friends, for something to give the old brain muscle a work out.

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Dinner in a strip club

Lucky Lucky Dumplings, a pop-up restaurant inside the old Las Vegas Showgirls on Krd. It’s largely unmarked outside, entrance is through a side door in the alley way. I am big on atmosphere and this place was super cute (I’ve borrowed photos from the Lucky Lucky website below because my camera doesn’t do low lighting!). Kitsch and playful, but a little brisk (which I’m sure is hard to avoid given the season), so wear a coat. I also think it should be mentioned that it actually seemed safe to be eating the food there (and I have been there before it was a restaurant!) The menu was fast and tasty, and a highlight was the popcorn cauliflower with aoli (vegetarians, take note..) Also, they have cabaret from 11 on Saturdays, apparently. We run on parent time however, so we didn’t see this! I reckon it’s worth the trip to check it out for the novelty value, not to mention, the food is delicious!

Miann for dessert. Surprisingly fancy food for Fort St! For dessert fiends, this is pretty cool. The desserts are works of art, coming complete with liquid smoke and all sorts of fancy things. The surroundings didn’t quite match the food however, it was more of a cafe vibe, with 5 star desserts. 

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Bicycle-taxi racing double date

Ricky taking Morgie out Coco’s Cantina, Tuk Tuk bikes, iMax arcade, Giapo

Birthday date! We ganged up with couple pals Dan and Steve to stuff our faces at Coco’s Cantina (our favourite special occasion destination). Leaving Coco’s and trying to do anything is a challenge as we always leave with a food coma.

But not tonight! We had 2 tuk tuk bicycle taxis waiting to pick the four of us up, and race us down the new pink city bike track. It’s like being in a car but colder, with the excitement of a race and a slight concern for the health of your driver!  The new bike track at night is pretty too, if you’re not having to cycle it!  We headed to Aotea Square, where they have the ice skating rink. Super cute all round. 

We battled it out in the arcade (Dan and Steve are honestly not even worth trying to compete against), and then topped the night off with fancy ice creams at Giapo. 

Super fun! The bike idea especially was such a cool way to make an event of getting from a to b. 

A video posted by @r1ckylee on Jun 20, 2016 at 6:23pm PDT

[aucklanddatenight-blog]

Jetts, New Flavour and Stardome

Morgie taking Ricky out Gift: Beard wash and oil from Bearded Budget: $110

When the only time we can work out together is if someone else is babysitting, why not start the evening feeling virtuous, with a gym date!

Discovered New Flavour on Dominion Rd, where we shared 3 big, super tasty dishes for $40 - and they are BYO! The pork and pickled cabbage dumplings were comforting and delicious, and the cucumber and shredded tofu salad was fresh and moreish. Immediately followed by a carb coma. Had a wander around Dominion Road and realised that there are loads of great looking restaurants and entertainment ideas for date nights (rock climbing, karaoke, Capitol cinema to name a few).

Stardome was really cute. The highlight for us was definitely the store, which had freeze dried ice cream and all the fun science experiment toys we got kicks out of as kids. The show itself was well narrated (by a live and hilarious host, Tobias) and quite beautiful, too.  I still don’t think I could pick out any star constellations myself, but it was fun to learn about.

Verdict: There will be more Balmoral dates and dumplings in our future. Definitely!