Last year, for the second time in a row, Team Wel­ling­tonista won the Web­stock Pub Quiz (we intend to win it this year too, by the way). Our prize was a $300 tab for Lager­field at 21 Blair Street. Hav­ing been there late at night when it was full of mun­ters, I was not over­whelmed with enthu­si­asm, but as it turns out, it was a lovely exper­i­ence. 

On a hor­ribly rainy night, perch­ing at a high ban­quette table under a heat­er was a good place to be, espe­cially as the lovely staff told us to let them know if it got too hot. The cir­cu­lar booths that were a key fea­ture of The Last Sup­per Club may be gone, but the wavey ceil­ing remains to make the space more inter­est­ing, with dark wood adding to the warmth. It’s a shame that there were TVs on, fea­tur­ing polo, and the music was from the ’80s, but not unbear­ably so, espe­cially after a little wine.

We star­ted on a bottle of Akarua Rose ($40), and an OldRoar­ing Meg Pinot Noir ($55), we hap­pily dis­covered an St. Hal­let’s Game­keep­er­’s Shiraz which at $35 was one of the cheapest on the list, but was fully fla­voured and yum, and so we got through quite a few bottles after that. It made for very happy mouth­fuls when paired with the blue cheese and crispy pros­cuitto entree ($12). Fries and gravy wer­en’t amaz­ing, but the Drink­ers’ Plat­ter of dump­lings, prawns, spring rolls, sam­o­sas, bread and four dips at $15 was excep­tion­al value. The cheese gratin was a sol­id hot­pot in which to dip crusty bread, and I’m told that the chick­en liv­er par­fait was very tasty too.

Through­out our couple of hours, we were plied with water, clean glasses and were atten­ded to very well – the ser­vice was so good that we even tipped. They seemed to have changed their menu in the last week since we vis­ited, but I’m con­fid­ent that the food will con­tin­ue to be of a good stand­ard. If you’re not fond of Fri­day night crowds on Cour­tenay Place, you may want to vis­it earli­er in the day and week, but we have no hes­it­a­tions in recom­mend­ing Lager­field as a place to drink after work.