Wellington

It's no secret we love a new opening and if you're reading this, chances are you do, too. As luck would have it, Wellington is packed with tantalizing eats with new eateries. 

There’s a reason why Wellington is Aotearoa’s coolest capital. Among the most (and best) flat whites per corner, beach-side brunch spots and breathtaking walks along the windy hills, Te-Whanganui-a-Tara truly has some of the best restaurants in Aotearoa.

Arts and culture capital of Aotearoa, Te Whanganui-a-Tara is packed with an epic lineup of things to do.

Whatever your tipple of choice—we’ve got you. Here are the best bars in Wellington.

Craving a taste of Italy without the plane ticket? Look no further than Wellington's vibrant Italian food scene.

To help you tick off your Christmas shopping list and leave you with money in the bank, we’ve put together a Christmas gift guide with a bunch of options for a fiddy dollar note, or less. 

We've found the best restaurants open on Christmas Day in Wellington for 2024, so you can sit back, relax, and scrap the tradition of stressful cooking.

Whether you’re out for a veggie deal, are craving some homemade treats, or just want to support local grassroots creatives, Wellington’s market scene has got you.

Wellington prides itself on its cafe culture and we’ll be the first to say it’s justified.

You’ve inevitably stumbled into this friendly neighbourhood cafe at some stage of your life, where the aroma of freshly brewed coffee greets you like an old friend, and each bite of the pastries feels like grandma baked it.

There’s certainly no shortage of mouth-watering restaurants outside of Auckland, and this poses a delicious problem: where do you eat when you’re surrounded by choices?

It’s that time of year again when every man and his dog take the solemn oath to give their bodies and brains a break.

The hot competition where chefs up and down the country cook up their tastiest take on the classic toastie, The Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover, has crowned this year's winner.

After taking Auckland and then Christchurch by storm, entertainment masters Funlab has announced that its biggest (and best) Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq AND Holey Moley will be opening right in the heart of Wellington.

New Zealand's cool capital is known for it’s huge food scene. We may be a teeeeny bit biased, but we reckon it's got some of the best spots in the country.  

With more eateries than you can shake a stick at, we've rounded up some of the best eateries in New Zealand for you to book a table at, pronto. 

Whether you’re a die-hard pickle fan, on the fence or just pickle-curious this week will hit in all the right places.

If you consider yourself a foodie, chances are you’ve heard of Logan Brown. The Cuba Street institution is one of Wellington’s OG fine dining spots and has been impressing diners for the last couple of decades.

Get dreaming up those cheese boards and melty, cheese-laiden winter dishes—here are the best cheese delivery services in New Zealand. 

Drinks delivered to your doorstep. What a wonderful concept. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's become a bit of a necessity in recent times, but we're here to tell you if your bar cart is running dry New Zealand has plenty of options to top you up. 

Take your tastebuds on tour, Wellington’s got a new restaurant serving epic Turkish and Middle-Eastern-inspired eats.

In the time of Visa Wellington On a Plate, nothing is too outlandish. From immersive themed dinners to sensory experiments to adults-only menus, there are heaps of options out there that'll have your mind blown and your tastebuds cheering. We've got the scoop on the hottest events coming up this year and if our intel is anything to go by, you'll want to get in quick.

Hot tip, autumn is the best time to eat your way around New Zealand. 

Summer is here which means one thing…ice cream, and lots of it. While plenty of the sweet stuff can be found in the Capital’s concrete jungle—we’ve done the hard yards and nailed down a list of the very best. And we take our job very seriously indeed. Here are the best ice cream stores to be found in the windy city.

With the city’s most beloved bakers now offering contactless delivery, you can keep supporting local from the comfort of your own home and stock your kitchen with boxes of doughnuts. Here’s the list of those making level 3 a little sweeter.

The hospitality industry is struggling, but not because of the reasons you probably think. While many venues are enjoying an unprecedented boom in popularity (and rightly so), these same places are struggling to find staff to meet the demand. 

Realising this gap between food waste and food insecurity, Nick Loosley founded Everybody Eats - a locally-based, not-for-profit with a mission to reduce food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand. With Everybody Eats scaling across NZ, we caught up with Nick to find out more about their origins, their mission, and hear about their new Goodie Box initiative. 

Ah, winter. That delightful season when jammies and slippers become a fashion statement, social outings become rarer than a blood supermoon, and Netflix and chill takes on a whole new meaning. To help combat the winter blues and lure you out of hibernation, St John’s Bar and Restaurant are bringing back their ultra 'Gram-worthy pop-up igloos for a limited time.

Whether it’s the location, the ambience, the comfort of the bed, the 5-star rating or the cleanliness that attracts you to a hotel, we’re here to spoil you for choice and highlight some of Wellington’s top hotels. 

Eat, Drink, Play will be dishing up more than 100 delectable events and there’s something for everyone on the menu. Solve a murder mystery during dinner, play bingo with a drag queen, fire up your tastebuds with a hot wings challenge, or learn to mix cocktails like a pro. Special hotel packages are also up for grabs, so you can stay right amongst the action. 

After taking some time out in 2020, the luxurious, two-hatted Hippopotamus Restaurant and Cocktail Bar is back in full swing and ready to treat you to a fabulously chic culinary experience.

Ben & Jerry's have launched what's potentially the world's largest-ever Easter egg hunt—with 10,000 scoops of free ice cream thrown into the mix, no less—and you're invited. Now if you're wondering what the heck a virtual Easter egg hunt is or more importantly, how you can get involved—here's the scoop.

Ready your spoons and don your stretchy pants because an adults-only ice cream truck is going on tour—and it could be stopping at your doorstep. 

The Urban Wine Walk is going down in Wellington on Saturday 28 November and will see the capital's best bars and restaurants turn into urban cellar doors for your self-guided walking tour.

Our windy capital makes for the perfect weekend getaway. Wellington is rich with interesting sights, delicious food and coffee strong enough to make any caffeine junky weep. So, why not get blown away this weekend with what our capital has to offer. 

Drinks delivered to your doorstep. What a wonderful concept. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's become a bit of a necessity in recent times, but we're here to tell you if your bar cart is running dry New Zealand has plenty of options to top you up. 

Something delicious has been brewing between Whittaker's and Garage Project and yip, you guessed it—it's choccy-flavoured beer.

It’s not often that Wellingtonians go crazy over something out of Hamilton, but when it comes to Duck Island, locals are screaming for it. 

While the first two weeks have been all about incredible culinary experiences, what we’re really here for are the final two weeks.

We’ve put together a great tour of the best sustainable spots Welly has to offer and even better, we’ve got the perfect mode of transport to do so. Mevo is a Wellington-based car-share company that lets you rent luxurious Audi A-3s and Volkswagen Polos (#cargoals) for as long as you may need them through their app, similar to Lime.

As Wellington enjoys its first day back at Alert Level 1 we’ve stumbled across some news that will really put the cherry on top of the good vibes. The OG purveyors of damn good ice cream—Ben & Jerry’s—are setting up a permanent home in the windy city. 

While Duck Island has been available at various supermarkets and Moore Wilson’s in Wellington, we’re beyond excited to announce that they’re opening one of their fabled ice cream stores in the heart of the Windy City.

Although times are tough right now, our local cafes and restaurants are working hard to make sure we can get our fill of their goods, making our lives easy by offering new delivery and takeaway services.

We’re salivating at the thought of having BurgerFuel's drool-worthy food delivered right to our doorstep within 30 minutes, doofer and all. 

We are currently in Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand and that means, no restaurants, no going out for coffee and no takeaways. But this doesn't mean an end to healthy hearty food and now is the perfect time to learn to cook great food with local ingredients. 

It’s thirsty work this lockdown business, isn’t it? Fortunately for Wellingtonians, there’s a fabulous handful of local boozy businesses delivering their goods to your door during level-4 lockdown. 

There are very few iconic New Zealand products that we rave about that truly live up to the hype. But it’s been over five years since ‘Choco-Gate’ aka ‘AARGH’ (After Auckland's Rioting Choco-Gate Hell), arrived on our shores and the Lewis Road Creamery still reigns supreme. And this Valentine's Day they've just come up with a new flavour to obsess over.

Gone are the days of shopping mall food courts that have the acoustics of an indoor swimming pool. We’re into the era of stylish eating and Wellington is home to one of the nicest food halls around. Press Hall on Willis Street is a food court setting you’ll actually want to spend your lunch break in.

GoodFor has finally opened a store in the capital and we couldn’t be more excited.

It's all getting very festive in Wellington. There are so many wonderfully celebratory events happening in the run up to Christmas, you won’t want to miss out. Eat your weight in festive treats, have a laugh at a panto or maybe treat yourself to a festive Christmas Drag show! It won’t be hard to have a very merry Christmas in the capital so here are our top picks for Christmassy things to see and do in Wellington this December.

Forget your keep cup (yes, trust us), cause there’s a new sustainable cup in town, and it’s ridiculously delicious.  

After becoming local celebrities and winning the latest season of The Block NZ, what else is left for Lisa Ridout-Gordon and Chris Gordon? Fulfilling a long term dream and opening up The Ribz Shak, of course. 

Folk are flocking to New Zealand’s first dedicated mac (of mac 'n' cheese fame) eatery in Petone, and for good reason.

When we heard Basque was closing, tears were shed. It was a staple in the rooftop bar scene and home to some of the best sangria in Wellington. It may be the end of an era, but luckily for us, they’ve renovated and reopened as Mockingbird; a vegetarian and vegan plant-based food eatery and bar that still serves up banging sangria, has an impressive craft beer and cider range, and will make your vegan heart (and stomach) very, very full. 

Get those sleighbells ringing, a festive high tea is coming to Wellington.

We are stoked that snazzy new wine-bar Puffin has opened in Wellington’s Cuba Precinct.

La Belle Waffle is the new kid on the block, a bright yellow hole in the wall and a little ray of sunshine in the middle of the city. You’ll find the Belgian style waffles being served up in Dukes Arcade by owner Nicholas, who is Belgian himself so he knows the real deal. Take the fact that they have sold out several times since opening as positive proof of his waff skills.

Those of you who have been waiting for somewhere to drink really great wine on the north side of Wellington will be thrilled about the opening of Atlas.

Cheese High Tea. High Cheeses. Whatever you want to call them—dedicated cheese-themed afternoon teas are a thing, and they’re swapping out the traditional scones, jam and cream for, well, all things cheese. And we’re digging them!

Round up the crew to celebrate life and loved ones at this year’s annual Day of the Dead Street Fiesta.

Alright food lovers, it is that time of the week again where we bring you everything you need to know about the latest foodie products, openings and menus hitting the Kiwi scene.

We love a market, and lucky for us, Wellington is pretty damn good at them. From street food, to produce, to handmade goods, we’re spoilt for choice.

Caffeine overloading, rooftop drinking and market feasting… New Zealand’s capital city is a total foodie’s paradise. And, if you needed another reason to visit Wellington, Jardin Grill is that exact reason.