The only saving grace of this visit was its atmosphere. It is nice for a beer and maybe some hot…read morechips (which I have enjoyed in the past), but that's it. Our food order was nothing complex: a steak salad, eggs Benedict and chicken pancakes. The pancakes ended up being second choice because, 20 minutes after our order was taken, we were told that a first choice wasn't available. Our meals eventually arrived about 40 minutes later. Needless to say it was not worth the wait. The steak salad was on par with what you would expect from a petrol station (if petrol stations sold steak salads) tasteless dressing and day-old meat. I would normally expect eggs Benedict to have about 3/4 to 1 cup of hollandaise sauce, this dish had at least three cups of some sort of oily ersatz hollandaise sauce to swim in. I think I am comfortable to say that the chicken pancakes were unremarkable. Given the above, that's a win for Leuven. I'll be discouraging friends and family from visiting this place for anything other than satisfying their hankering for a Belgian beer.

Found ourselves with a couple of free days in downtown Wellington before meeting up with our tour…read moregroup. This restaurant was only a block from our hotel, so we stopped in for Sunday brunch. The atmosphere is French bistro. The food is lovely to look at, served piping hot and very tasty. They also have a good beer selection on tap. We will be going back tomorrow morning for the breakfast special before we leave town. I highly recommend that you stop in for breakfast or lunch while you are in town. Well, we did stop back for the breakfast special Monday morning. Best eggs EVER. Great food-wonderful service and they even have a great music playlist. What's not to love? Great way to end our visit to Wellington!

Gourmet fish and chips! This fish and chip shop has a…read morewonderful menu. You can choose to have your fish beer battered, panko crumbed, tempura battered, gluten-free battered or grilled and you can have hand cut Agria chips,crinkle cut chips, beer battered chips, kumara chips or curly fries. There are several house salads and sides on offer or you can select something from their burger/sandwich menu. We opted to have grilled tarakihi and trevally, hand cut Agria chips and a coleslaw. It was delicious, beautifully cooked and presented and quite reasonably priced too.

I decided to go here based on the fact that it's the number 1 ranked fish and chips spot in…read moreAuckland on Yelp. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this establishment is a smaller one, and not a fine dining restaurant. Since it's a bit smaller, you can see the food being cooked for you behind the counter. I love the fact they you can choose to have a heavier version of F&C with a grilled fish or seared and baked with veggies. I wish I could give it a 4.5/4.75 starts only because there doesn't seem to be a restroom for customers(would rather my hands not smell like fish) and you have to pay $1-2 for condiments. I fearsomely feel like ketchup or tartar(at least ONE) condiment should be complimentary, but I'm not going to dock a star because I'm a little cheap. Overall, the fish is fresh and delicious, the fries are crunchy and golden. My heart's content.

Arrived in Wellington from Taupo around 3 pm. Checked into the hotel and researched dinner spots…read more Charley Noble came up so we took a short walk. Arrived right at opening. Seated quickly. We ordered a cider and beer. Dinner was delivered. Absolutely delicious. Perfect dinner. Perfect service.

This was my family and I's last meal in Wellington and this restaurant was a great way to end our…read moretrip here. It is beautiful inside and the staff are all very friendly. It is great for a nice dinner to sit down and enjoy a meal. We ordered quite a few appetizers and entrees to share as this was our last night here. We started with some raw oysters, smoke fish croquette ($9.50 each), focaccia bread ($9) with artichoke dip ($12), seafood chowder ($30), and the beef tartare ($28). Our favorites were probably the oysters and the focaccia bread with the spread. The oysters were fresh and we enjoyed trying them all. The focaccia bread went great with the spread as the bread was warm and the spinach dip was a nice cool dip to match. The bread was also perfect to dip in the chowder. For the entrees, we ordered a side of green beans ($14), fettuccine ($27|$37), Lumina Lamb Backstrap ($19 per 100g), and the Japanese wagyu ($85 per 100g). Our favorite out of everything was the wagyu. The lamb was delicious but it's not comparison after you have a bite of the wagyu. The Wagyu was cooked perfectly. The meat was not too thick of a piece to cut. The green beans were a great side to go along with the meal. The almonds added a nice crunch to the green beans. Overall, we enjoyed our meal very much. We felt that this restaurant was a perfect way to end our stay in Wellington!

The food is Devine. Every time i come here i have something different, and i'm not let down…read more This time I had the lamb shoulder, it makes your eyes curl up behind your head, it's so nice

On a recent trip to Wellington, I stayed at the newly renovated Trinity Hotel, which also holds The…read moreArborist. I was thankful to have this place right in my hotel, as the weather was still on the cold side at night. It's located conveniently in downtown Wellington and ended up being a popular spot, especially on weekends. This is two places in one: the rooftop bar has cozy seating both outdoors with great views of the city, and bar area inside kept warm and away from the elements; downstairs is the morning/daytime cafe with a full breakfast and coffee menu, that also turns into a bar and lounge in the evening and at night. The staff both upstairs and downstairs was efficient and friendly; it made me want to keep coming back. For hotel guests: if you don't need your room cleaned each day, you can waive that service and get a NZ$10 voucher to use at The Arborist. I mostly put that toward coffee and breakfast.

Delicious oven fires pizza. Enjoyed the pepperoni pizza and…read moreheirloom, fresh mozzarella, basil salad ( not Caprese) with champagne vinaigrette. The "old fashioned lemonade" was bubbly and not sweet- a perfect complement to the spicy pepperoni. Fast, friendly service. Noisy in a Saturday night during the Arts Festival, so a great place to enjoy the event!

Pizzeria is at the corner of Cuba Street. We grabbed a table, were given water & menus & we shared…read morea pepperoni pizza. The staff was very friendly, one pie was enough for the both of us. We were crunched with time & the wait for the pizza was :25. It was made to order & just came fresh out of the oven. The modern bathroom was very cool!

Excellent food and service. I had two raw oysters and the market blue nose fish that was served on…read moretop of brown butter mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side that was delicious. I tried one of their desserts that was phenomenal warmed frangipane almond tart with preserved apricot and marmalade thyme syrup and burrata ice cream that was phenomenal. I highly recommend this restaurant right on the harbor when in Wellington.

Shed 5 standards remain high after all these years - amazing really. We had a great meal and tried…read morethe oysters followed by local fish - fresh and great flavors. Ambiance and the vibe there is welcoming and good people watching, as ever. Busy on a Sunday night despite all the Wellington woes. Great to visit again

Great ambience. Dark and moody and intimate. Excellent…read morefood. We had squid, salmon two ways, popcorn chicken, and several other dishes, all delicious although a little small. But overall well worth it. Service great. Attentive but not overbearing. Fantastic negroni cocktail to start, but wine portions very small.

Love the food and the drinks. The Shanghai Negroni was delicious. And I am not one that likes my…read moreNegroni tampered with The ginger kiss was like a gingerbread cookie! The pork belly and the duck were both scrumptious. Service A+

A pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to find an authentic German Restaurant in New Zealand, but it…read morewas spot on. From the ambiance to the food, everything reminded me of a prior trip to Germany. Our waiter was great. Nice personality, offered us recommendations, and brought out our food hot and in a timely manner. For a quick bite to break up a day of exploring, this was a great choice. Bonus was they had wifi that actually worked. :) Perfect for travelers planning the rest of our day.

We were meeting up with friends that moved to Wellington. They suggested we walk around the wharf…read moreand pick a spot there for dinner. There's half a dozen restaurants in the area. We checked all of them out and decided on München: Food Hall & Bier Haus. It's right next door to the TSB Bank Arena (Macklemore was playing that night). We dropped in on a Saturday evening (around 6:45pm). The place was pretty lively and the bar was busy all night long. The dinner menu is split into entrees, würst/sausages, specialties, schnitzel, salads, mains and burgers. The drink menu is quite large and there's also snacks, bites and sharing platter options. There's a happy hour on weekdays (5:00pm to 6:00pm). They also have specials from Wednesday ($0.10 wings) to Thursday ($20.00 NZD bier & burger). - Hofbräu, Hefe weizen ($10.00 NZD 400mL) - easy light drinking. You can't come to a German bier haus without getting a beer. - Schweinshaxe ($39.00 NZD) - pork knuckle, homemade knödel dumpling, sauerkraut, potato salad and bier jus. This plate was absolutely massive. Super easy to share. The pork knuckle was tender, moist and full of flavour. The skin had a nice chewy crackle to it. Everything else was delicious including the side of mustard sauce. - Bratwürst ($25.00 NZD) - served with kartoffelpüree, sauerkraut, haus gravy, pickled vege and Bavarian mustard. The two smoked pork sausages were excellent and well seasoned. We asked for this dish to be dairy free; they sadly removed the mashed potatoes from our dish but didn't replace it with anything else. - Debreziner ($25.00 NZD) - beef & pork sausages with rustic spice. Think there was about 6 smaller sausages. We tried one and it was tasty. - Rinder schnitzel ($25.00 NZD) - crumbed tender rump steak & haus gravy. Our other friend's dish. The schnitzel looked good from my end. Haven't had German food in ages and München impressed. A little pricier (to be expected as it's along the wharf) but good food and drinks.