The Kings Arms Tavern

Home of pub quizzes and a great band venue. A small blackboard menu for dinner options, fish & chips or the steak meal are the staff recommendations. Meals come with the usual salad greens and bottled sauces on the side. The cheeseburger looked like the best choice.

Nice venue for a tuesday night pub quiz. Limited menu of average quality, but great service. A nice little local for catching up with friends.

I have only ever had good nights at The Kings Arms. And I’ve been here for a number of different things. Whether it is an industry function, a sweaty gig, or a mellow musician, The Kings Arms has always provided the perfect venue.
The stage is very well equipped for musicians of all levels of skill which is great for private or public nights. The bar is well stocked with great beers on tap and all the spirits you could ask for. Staff are friendly, but can be pretty short with you if it’s busy, understandably.
The best part of the KA is the garden. It’s pretty big for an inner city bar and has plenty of room. With lots of tables, fairy lights, grass and a deck, it’s great for pre-​gig drinking, daytime chilling or just to take a break from the sweatiness inside.
There is many a good night to be had here. If you see an artist playing here, be sure to get amongst.

King’s Arms has been the home to many a kick-​arse gig; it’s totally set up for hosting music and mostly does it well. It’s a long narrow-​ish space which means that you can get a good view from most places inside. It’s also pretty special to be able to sit outside in the beer garden in the middle of the city. However, I do have a little bit of a bugbear in that many gig promoters include the capacity of the garden when they’re working out how many tickets they can sell; this often leads to it being uncomfortably overcrowded because of course if you’ve paid $ 50 to see a band, you want to be in the same room as them, not outside in the garden. However, these situations are the exception, not the norm, and on most nights you could rock up to the KA and see some music; they also are pretty up for up and coming bands playing so sometimes you might see some future stars, whilst other times the garden is a welcome respite!
It’s also now well set up for bands too with a gear room/​backstage area to the side of stage.
Don’t forget about the «old man» pub attached; you can escape there for a quiet one if you need.

In my opinion you simply can’t beat a place that has live bands playing. The atmosphere is just so different, so exciting, that you can’t help getting pins and needles when the rush of loud music flows through your internal organs. The King’s Arms delivers on this feeling, as they often have loud rock bands cranking on the stage. Not the best place if you’re keen for a few quite beers and a chat with a friend because inside the pub you won’t hear shit. There is the large outdoor area for that anyway, but this place is all about the music. I’ve watched a number of my friends perform here, so this pub holds a special place in my heart.

This unlikely little bar has been the venue for some legendary gigs. A really intimate size, there is nothing quite like experiencing a great band in the King’s Arms. There is a really great garden bar, many a pre-​gig drinking session have taken place here. Always good fun to witness a poor student attempting to jump over the fence, which is not a easy feat, they have to actually scale a steep 20m bank and then negotiate a formidable barb wire fence only to save like $ 20 — such great fun to enjoy a beer watch these guys try to sneak in. The King’s Arms not only caters to local musos but they book some amazing international acts — some of the best shows I have ever seen have been at the King’s Arms

The Kings Arms is a sweet venue for gigs (I’ve been to a few here), though slightly bigger ones are better to fill up the space. The stage is a good height so you can still get a view view of the band from amongst the masses. Good crowd = good atmosphere. I helped organise a gig here once and they have a handy side room for gear so that makes life easier for bands.
It has its own car park which is sweet if you have a sober driver (or need some room to fit a drum kit into your car, tetris-​style) or not an inconvenient place for that taxi called to loiter while you stumble your way out of the bar.
There’s an outside area as well if you need to escape for a bit.

The KA is an establishment in Auckland’s live music scene — for a band to have played here is something of a rite of passage. Over the years I’ve seen many local bands here that have since gone on the greatness, along with a host of overseas acts. I’ve even played on the stage myself, which is a source of personal pride.
The venue is definitely focussed on the music, with the whole place arranged around the stage. Beers come in plastic glasses to avoid people moshing their way through shards, and they sell ear plugs behind the bar. The place can get very packed and rowdy if the right band is playing, but the staff does well to cope with the busy crowds. You might have to shout to make your order heard though — when it’s loud, it’s loud. Luckily they’ll know what you mean if you try miming ‘beer’. If it all gets too much there’s a nice garden out the back where it’s not quite so deafening.