DocksideThis par­tic­u­lar Welling­ton­ista was lucky enough to be invit­ed to an asso­ci­ate’s Christ­mas lunch at the Dock­side. It’d been a while since we’d been there, and last time it was a win­try evening & we hud­dled some­where upstairs.

Yes­ter­day how­ev­er, was as trop­i­cal as it comes & we were delight­ed to dis­cov­er that our table was out­side on the cov­ered deck, look­ing over the water towards the Loaded Hog & Shed 5. It was very nice indeed.

We had­n’t realised, but we were to be treat­ed to the spe­cial Christ­mas menu. In fact, until that moment, we did­n’t realise there was a Christ­mas menu.

A very nice (and quite hot) wait­per­son asked us if we’d like water & a bot­tle of wine to start. I said “make it 2 bot­tles of wine” and that set the tone for the after­noon. We set­tled on the Grove Mill Chardon­nay & Lake Chal­ice Sauvi­gnon Blanc.

Fresh bread rolls, with olive oil & bal­sam­ic dip were sup­plied.

After a few min­utes of perus­ing the menu, and mak­ing smalltalk, we ordered.

I had the Prawn Lak­sa to start, which was much hot­ter than any lak­sa I’d make myself, but it was yum­my, and giv­en that I am suf­fer­ing from a bit of a cold at the moment, it cleared my sinus­es nice­ly for the next few hours. Most of the par­ty chose either the lak­sa or the Salmon Gravad­lax, which also looked very nice.

After entrees, we ordered more wine & explored the world of Secret San­ta. I got a Fridge Rac­er, which is quite neat.

The mains were size­able & every­one agreed, fan­tas­tic. I chose the Angus Beef, which was cooked to per­fec­tion, sev­er­al oth­ers had the Grop­er, and one hearty soul had the pork loin. She only just restrained her­self from pick­ing up the bone & gnaw­ing at it. If it had been me I would­n’t have been so polite.

After order­ing more wine, our desserts were deliv­ered. I’m not usu­al­ly a dessert per­son, and while the dish­es were all very gen­er­ous, no-one felt com­plete­ly stuffed, so every­one indulged. I can report the Christ­mas Pud pass­es muster, and the Fresh Berries looked suc­cu­lent.

Replete, we set­tled back to peo­ple & wait­per­son (who I should add, are peo­ple too, not just sex objects!) watch, and fin­ish the wine. That sort­ed, we ordered a round of Straw­ber­ry Daiquiries, fol­lowed by a bot­tle of Deutz.

By now, the light was fad­ing & they were clear­ly gear­ing up for the din­ner crowd. The out­door heaters were being lit, we watched less for­tu­nate peo­ple walk­ing home from work along the water­front.

We sloped home, too full for din­ner, and wait­ed anoth­er few hours before we deemed it a decent break from drink­ing more wine.

I don’t know if you have to book, or how they’re placed over the next week or so. But the Welling­ton­ista rec­om­mends the Dock­side Christ­mas menu.

Dock­side Restau­rant and Bar Welling­ton Water­front New Zealand