April 26, 2012
I was disappointed in this place. Only one own beer on tap and it was pretty average. Other beers available were standard fare. Food was standard pub food but all the vegetarian food was unavailable when we visited. Convenient location in city but a lot of traffic noise on the terrace. Only average.

January 10, 2012
Nice cosey place, friendly staff. Only had 1 own beer on tap, rest was Monteighs. Big nice brew kettle behind the bar for an average english ale? Seems a bit of a waste. Didn’t try their food.

January 4, 2010 [ Updated January 12, 2010 ]
I only had time to try the two strongest beers, but they were sensational! The other beers looked good too, and the bar had a nice terrace.

March 24, 2009
An English style pub with a number of house brews available. The beers are only OK, there were seven on draught when I visited.

March 20, 2008 [ Updated May 20, 2008 ]
Good location, and what could potentially be a great building. But I find Shakespeare a bit dark and dingy inside, especially downstairs. Get a table outside if you can. The beers a real let down for me, just a couple that offer something different from the standard NZ draught beers. The food is simple, but good - the same can be said of the service. If I was writing a report card, I’d day something like could do better.

June 24, 2005
Nice big pub on two levels in the downtown area of Auckland. Was a welcome spot after spending five days drinking pale Fijian lager. Nice tap list at the time of 10 brews. The barkeep was kind enough to throw an extra two samples onto my sampler tray for no charge. The samples are very generous, maybe 8 oz per style, so keep that in mind if you’re making a crawl of it. All of the beers are well done, in the UK style. Some nice session style beers, as well as a nice old ale and what they call a Belgian Grand Cru style beer, although to me it tasted like a UK-style barleywine. Food was okay, pretty standard pub fare. This place is definitely worth dropping into if you find yourself in Auckland.