• Sights
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Travel Tips
• Features

Restaurants Overview

If the national sport of New Zealand is rugby, then the national hobbies surely must be eating and drinking. In Wellington, restaurants, cafés, and sports bars have been springing up overnight like mushrooms. Food and wine magazines are flying off the shelves and the local newspapers and TV stations are focusing more attention on all matters of the palate. This fresh interest translates into a growing number of dining options.

Although there will always be a place for a classic meal of steak, French fries, and cold ale and the humble meat pie is still an iconic Kiwi mouthful, Wellington restaurants are branching out into more adventurous fare. Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, Mexican, and Italian cuisine are all increasingly common on the menus, and wine lists are actually being studied (though perhaps not yet with the same intensity as the racing journals and sports pages). Indigenous food, too, is appearing in restaurants around the city -- native plants might be paired with traditional seafood or made into sauces to accompany meat or sweet-potato dishes.

In rural areas outside Wellington, the wine industry has revolutionized local tables, with excellent dining and wine-tasting spots proving more than a match for the old-fashioned greasy spoons. In the Wairarapa, restaurants equaling anything in the big cities are winning a well-justified reputation for creative cuisine.

Local dining habits have expanded along with the cuisine. It's not unusual to see sidewalk tables in the capital or the suburbs occupied on a fine morning by 10 AM, while late-night spots stay open until the wee hours. Generally, lunch runs from noon until 2, and most restaurants then close for a few hours before opening for dinner around 6. On Monday, many restaurants are shuttered. Dress codes are still very relaxed; jeans would be frowned on only in the top restaurants.