bedford soda & liquor

cute ideas and great location. bedford soda & liquor has a promising unique menu with their meatballs mix and match as well as a wide variety of drinks. my friend and i both ordered meatballs on salad and a tea cocktail concoction. the food was good but i had higher expectations as the dishes do sound better on paper. overall 3.5/5 just lacking that wow factor and also portions are a bit on the small side. i would definitely come back though if i was in the mood for meatballs!

taste: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
interior deco: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
customer service: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
recommend: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
amazing customer service! stuffs were super friendly and the food came up pretty fast! actually taste good! first time finishing the whole dish haha.

i was super excited to try bedford soda as i had heard such great things about it, so i caught up with two friends there this week. the ambiance was good, with a lot of hipster type guy waiters. your menu comes with tick boxes and felt tip menus, once selected you pass it to your waiter, child's play! the main choice on the menu is meatballs, beef, chicken, pork, vege or special. next you choose your sauce and then finally your base - spaghetti, risotto, mash and polenta.

for smaller options you have a slider (one ball, plus sauce in a bun), salads or subs.

i tried the special balls with tomato sauce and spaghetti, it was amazing, we also shared a side of fries and salad. in line with my current salted caramel obsession i had the sundae for dessert, delish.

as well as the awesome food they have a great list of cocktails, i tried the vodka daisy and gin daisy, both fantastic drinks.

now i want to go back and try some more of the menu!

one of my favourite places to go for lunch dinner or a fancy cocktail. food is great drinks are awesome! highly recommend for any occassion. love this place - great atmosphere and service is not as consistent as the food and drinks but more often then not thumbs up. love the risotto and the sodas are so yummy!

meat balls were nice. we had the pain killer cocktail and it was massive! expensive but the proportion of it justified the price i guess, wasn't a very nice cocktail as it was super strong but that was our own fault. staff were pretty friendly 😊

went with 4 mates and had dinner last friday evening. food was alright but the service left a lot to be desired! had my bowl of chips served at the time everyone else had their snacks/entrees served, then around 5 minutes later everyone's mains arrived.... except for mine. after a very long day at work i was most disappointed, but after another 20 or so minute wait, i was served my meal (after everyone else had left). the food was good, but i'm not impressed with the service. might give it another chance in a year or two

went for a meal last week and couldn't be happier with the service. our waiter, sam, was knowledgeable and friendly and guided us through ordering drinks and food. we had a meatball platter and the broccoli, which were delicious. the portion size was a bit of a let down for the price however. our cocktails were great and well priced. #samthemvp

salted caramel and malteser milkshake.
beef meatballs with cheese sauce and mash.
order that and watch your life change for the better it's the only place i ever want to go now

quite a new experience of combining your own meatball dish. yes, i am more into food than drink. however, bedford could offer you both, with high standard. 

tucked in ponsonby central back side, this place keeps a space for its own customers. you can either sit by the window watching people rushing somewhere, or, you can pick a quiet spot by the back door and feel quite secured. even though it is full of guests, you won't be disturbed.

really appreciated the nice stuff coming by and suggested how to order your own creative meal without pushing you too much. kind, enthusiastic, smiling and keeping a proper distance. well trained. you need a bit of gift doing this job, isn't it?

chose the special meatball which was fish with herb mix, combining mushroom sauce and salad with avocado, rocket and kumara. quite an interesting test to actually semi-cook your own dish. newly fun. the meatballs came out fresh, crunchy, paring the right sauce. (even though i gave up the special sauce the waiter advised to pair, which is thai style green curry). then a bowl of average shoestring fries then beautifully fried onion rings. as for the drink, i found lots of people try the cocktails and beer. however, i was still happy with my riesling from central otago. btw, they do provide a daily special if you have difficulties selecting drinks.

only two days later happened to find this is metro top 50 bars, worth the name.

now i have been there three times and find out every time is enjoyable. one of the waiters could even speak several mandarin to really brings the service to a new level. good try!

cute and quirky place, expensive for what you get. had to wait over 40 minutes for cocktails. enjoyable once it arrived, and food was quick and tasty.

set in the funky ponsonby central precinct, bedford is the perfect is the perfect place to be seen but also to people watch! i went with some friends and we found a table in the outside area which was a great way to see alfresco diners from other eateries but also to soak up the relaxed vibe.

the only downside was having a smoker on the table next to us - the space within ponsonby central is already tight so i hope they decide to put a rule against smoking in the future.

the menu seemed gimmicky but was an easy way to select a meal. i chose the chicken meatballs with spicy tomato sauce and mash. it was tasty, well seasoned and perfect on a cool evening. i washed it down with a passionfruit soda and was very satisfied with the distinct flavours. bedford appeared to attract patrons of the funky, hipster persuasion and i witnessed many with great looking cocktails. drink envy indeed.

yup, this is fun dining, ponsonby style at its best!

we checked out this ponsonby central eatery a week after it opened.

elements of bedford soda & liquor reminded us of the meat ball house in new york - the menu and ordering process. from the type of meat, sauce, and how you would like it served
the drinks menu was extensive and had an american feel to it - floats and soda's.
dessert was our favourite

for full details on dishes and our recommendations: http://theincredibleediblelifeofstephandmike.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/cloudy-with-chance-of-meatballs-2.html

food and staff were great! there is nice outdoor bench seats which allowed us to really take advantage of the sun. food didn't take long to come out and was really nice.

decided to go to bedford soda to have a drink while waiting for our dinner booking elsewhere. we had heard good things about their cocktails so decided to give them a try. after taking a long time to have our order taken (despite being told they would be right with us) and being told that we would have water brought to the table we waited for 25 minutes for our water and cocktails to arrive only to be told they had forgotten it all together. they were not overly busy being a sunday night so it was quite disappointing but mistakes happen and we understand that. we ordered again and waited for a while longer before deciding that we should at least have some water by now and so went up to the waiter to ask for some to which he said he would bring it over. by this point we had little faith on anything happening quickly so asked if we could just grab it seeing as we were already up at the bar and take it to the table ourselves as everyone was quite thirsty to which he replied we couldn't do that and he had to get it. we ended up running out of time and had to leave to go to our dinner booking. the waiter was apologetic throughout which was good but a bit more effort would have gone a lot further. perhaps just a comedy of errors and can't comment on whether the drinks are good here or not but for the prices they are asking you to pay you definitely expect a bit more service, there are a lot of great places in this complex so will be going elsewhere next time.

we wandered down to try the bedford early evening last saturday night, without a booking, and snaffled the last available table. the place was buzzing, and it had a nice busy vibe without being overly loud or hectic. our waitress who was very pleasant and welcoming explained how the system works, to tick the boxes on the laminated menu card with a marker pen etc, and we ordered in due course. i had the veggie balls with pesto and parmesan, and my husband had the beef balls with spicy tomato and parmesan, plus a side of onion rings washed down with the steaming copper kettle cocktail pitcher. the food came in a timely fashion, the service from our waitress and all the other staff we engaged with was welcoming and very friendly. ok the food might be simple, but it was good. i don't think it was particularly overpriced, it depends on your out look. i like having the option of small meals, and i enjoyed the overall experience and ambience and would most definitely go back again. since when has ponsonby dining been all about quantity anyway? go to valentines or denny's if that's what is most important to you.