Let's be honest: nights out at the pub have gotten a little stale. After a few rounds of beating the same dead horse, someone inevitably ends up scrolling Instagram reels and suddenly the night feels less like a fun social outing and more like an obligation to live the “Scarfie lifestyle” while you’re still young.
Luckily, Dunedin – while still losing to Auckland in this one very specific category – has a few places where you can do more than sit around, eat hot chips, drink pints, and slowly become invested in a random French football game that for some reason is on every sports bar TV. We’ve ranked some of these lovely little bars with activities from cheapest to dearest, because your bank account deserves a little mindfulness.
Whether you're competitive, strategic, or just looking to spice up life outside the bedroom, Dunedin has plenty of choices beyond the old “meet at the pub?” plan. Grab your mates, an axe, microphone, or cue, and get ready for the night of your life.
Poolhouse Cafe and Bar $
If you're looking for something casual that won't destroy your bank account, Poolhouse is a great choice. Buy a drink, grab a cue, and prepare to stand in a corner, menacingly chalking the tip and pretending like you know exactly what's going on. It's the perfect activity for challenging your mates, proving your stick handling prowess, and convincing everyone that missing the easiest shot of your life was actually part of the long-term strategy. For just $12 per hour per table (or $14 if it’s Friday or Saturday), it’s a super affordable option for a fun night out.
Poolhouse has that laid-back, slightly moody bar atmosphere that is equally as aesthetic on your Instagram story as it is in real life. It also has an incredible ability to inflate egos. Everyone either claims they “used to play heaps with their Dad”, or they suddenly start giving unsolicited coaching advice despite being on the verge of scratching every second shot. Plus, Poolhouse is beneath a backpackers, meaning that you’re sure to make friends with some international visitors. Perhaps you could convince them that your shooting fuck ups are just the way the game is played over here in little Aoteraroa.
Quiz Nights $
For those who like their nights out with a side of intellectual circle jerking, pub quizzes are the perfect excuse to discover which of your friends are secretly geniuses, and which are just loud and wrong.
Quiz culture is strong in Dunedin, so you can literally head to a quiz nearly every night of the week if you wanted to. On Mondays, head to The Bog. Tuesdays are for Mornington Taphouse or Baaa Bar. Skip the Pint Night line on Wednesday – quizzing it up at Kensington or Cableways is a much better activity than unpeeling your feet from the U-Bar floor. On Thursday, hit the Rope & Twine, Moon’s Bar, No. 8 Distillery or ADJO. Take the opportunity to put your BA to use during the current affairs round – God knows when else it’ll come in handy.
Once you have sorted where you’re headed, the next biggest challenge is picking a team name that will make the host regret reading it aloud. Madeleine McCan’t is always a classic, but the true art is creating something just inappropriate enough to make everyone laugh without getting your team removed before round one even starts.
Just remember that most teams will eventually experience the classic ‘pub quiz’ emotional rollercoaster: confidence, confusion, blaming the questions or the host, and of course “we would’ve won if the music round wasn't all from the 70s, and if James hadn't gone off for a vape halfway through”. Once you get over that though, pub quizzes are the best week night fun you'll ever have!
Vivace Karaoke Bar $$
Everyone has a main character moment waiting to happen, and karaoke is sure to bring it out. You will look so cool when your true self is reflected in a power ballad performed through a shitty karaoke mic. At least that's what Theatre students think. In any event, karaoke is one of the few activities where confidence matters more than talent. Embarrassing yourself is kind of the point: nobody remembers the person who sat quietly in the corner. Instead, they remember the person who gave the performance of a lifetime.
Pronounced vuh-vah-chee, Vivace Karaoke Bar is kind of shit in the best way possible. The downstairs part is a bar area where you can purchase a drink to get a song token. This is great, because you basically are required to get drunker to be able to sing, which in turn makes the singing easier. You then use that song token to join the queue to sing onstage.
The crowd in the downstairs bar can be a little dead, so going to Vivace works best when you bring your own group. If you’re a little shy, you can also book a private room for you and your friends to enjoy for $10 per person per hour. They’re open from 9pm-3am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so it’s the perfect activity to round off a late night. Just watch out for the stairs when you leave – they’ll be your enemy after a bottle of soju.
Bowl Line $$
Who doesn't love knocking back a raspberry vodka lemonade, putting on someone else's shoes and throwing a ball down a freshly waxed lane? Literally no one. Bowling is also one of the easiest group activities to organise. You don't need to know the rules, you need very few skills, and after one game everyone will be convinced they can do better next round. Just keep in mind the classic fallacy of bowling: one round isn't enough, but two is somehow too much.
Bowl Line has an onsite bar, and they don’t bother putting the bumpers up once you’ve had a few. It’s a high trust model that just works. The place is stuffy, has way too many kids running around and the bowling screens have those wack-ass animations that make you wonder if you’re hallucinating. It’s pretty much the best place on Earth.
XYZ $$
Ever wonder what it would be like to live out your cowboy, cowgirl, or cowperson dreams? Probably not. However, for just an additional $5 on top of any drink purchase or $10 for a wristband, you can enter the rodeo.
The mechanical bull is one of those activities that seems like a great idea until you’re actually on the beast. It’s unique, hilarious, and guaranteed to give your flatmates enough content for an embarrassing 21st speech. It doesn't matter how coordinated you think you are – after a couple of drinks, everyone eventually discovers that gravity is inescapable. Watching your mates confidently climb aboard before immediately being thrown sideways never gets old.
If public humiliation and sore thighs isn't your thing, XYZ’s private karaoke rooms offer a slightly less dangerous alternative for $75 per hour. If you somehow manage to survive both the bull and karaoke in the same night, congratulations – you’ve completed the Dunedin nightlife equivalent of a duathlon.
Megazone $$$
Megazone is the ultimate “why choose” experience. With laser tag, mini golf, axe throwing and a bar all available under one roof, it's basically impossible to be bored. It's perfect for birthdays, flat bonding, or when your friend group has spent three weeks trying to organise a get together with nobody actually making a plan. Act out your viking movie fantasies while axe throwing, or get the WWIII prep in early with laser tag.
Megazone is practically neighbours with Emersons, which makes it even awesomer. Why not grab a tasting tray either before or after whipping your mate in mini golf? Alternatively, whichever team loses laser tag shouting the winning team a jug doesn’t sound too bad either.
A night spent at Megazone is a little more expensive, but you're getting a full night of entertainment rather than just a few hours sitting at a table pretending like you aren't checking the time. Megazone has heaps of packages you can get that include drink tokens too. For example, for $50 per person, you can get one laser tag game, one round of mini golf, half an hour of arcade play and two drink tokens.
