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