Lido Cinema — Attraction in Albert-Eden

2012 - The Lido is hands down Auckland's most beautiful, well appointed, well run cinema. It's owner manager knows and understands the people he serves, he buys films they want to see and shows them in the most elegant of surroundings. The fireplace and sitting area on the ground floor is just magical and his disabled access means no stairs to and from the most accessible rows for those with mobility issues. For the best films in the best surroundings, the Lido is a great choice. I used to be a competitor and even then, I was heard to say the Lido was Auckland's best cinema. 2021 - So past the worst of the pandemic (we hope) it seems logical that my first paid cinema visit was The Lido that I declared Auckland's best cinema in this review in 2012. The Lido originally opened in the 1920's and I think opened as The Regent. Richard Dalton and business partners refurbished it and reopened after a long closure in 2001. They then added a second boutique screen in 2004 and then, with tragic bad luck, started a third refub in 2019 delivering a stunning new boutique screen and reseated main cinema with an improved sight line through new stadium seating in mid 2020, just after New Zealand's first and longest COVID19 lockdown. Richie and his team remain the operators of the best cinema in Auckland that is even better than the new standards it set back in 2001. 20 years, well done people! By the way, they do great coffees and you can happily enjoy one in their lovely lounge area whether or not you're...

TLDR: Overall a cute theatre but room for some simple but effective improvements. The Staff were lovely.

This is a really cute cinema. The staff were lovely, and the inside looked nice. I had three "problems" with the theatre (though admittedly one of them was not something that the cinema can control)

There was no freshly popped popcorn. This feels like a slightly dumb thing to comment on but being that popcorn is such a staple of the movie-going experience, it would be nice to have some that was freshly popped available for purchase rather than just grabbing a bag that was bought at the local countdown then sold at a higher price for profit.

During our movie, we could hear children playing in the lobby outside our theatre which told me the sound proofing wasn't there. It didn't seem like the kids were doing anything extremely outside the realm of what kids do but we could here it all above and beyond the movie that we had playing (which was a very serious drama).

Since the third issue had nothing to do with the theatre despite impacting my experience (there were several rude and disruptive members of the audience in our theatre) I haven't really used that when...

We live three minutes away from Lido but normally go to the Event Cinemas in New Market. Anyways, I decided to check out this establishment last Saturday to watch Barbie with my daughter and it was amazing 🥰. Customer service was awesome, snack choices are much better than Event Cinemas (there’s coffee, a variety of ice creams, etc), the ambience was warm and friendly and the actual cinema was nice and clean with really comfortable chairs. My family and I usually go to the cinemas once or twice every two weeks and this will be our go to cinema now. Highly...