• We went to Char­lotte, the new steak­house at 201 Cuba Street that is in the house with the checkered past. The ser­vice was very friendly, and the steaks were cooked beau­ti­fully. They are busy because they had a stu­pidly cheap Groupon deal, but it is worth mak­ing a reser­va­tion for, if you are of a car­ni­vor­ous nature. The rooms are a little sou­less, but the tables and chairs are very com­fort­able, and soul takes time.
    picture of steaksRib eye with gar­lic but­ter & some kind of sauce, and fil­let with cafe de par­is
  • The good people at Urb­an Har­vest are doing Xmas hampers right now to make your shop­ping life easy. They were launched with a din­ner at Ti Kouka, which was amaz­ingly deli­cious and so ridicu­lously fresh.
  • Speak­ing of Ti Kouka: 1. They have $5 drinks on Thursdays and Fri­days from 4.30pm to 7.30pm. With food that good, that is crazy. 2. We went there for Wine­seeker­’s Itali­an degust­a­tion din­ner with matched Itali­an wine, and recom­mend you get on Wine­seeker­’s mail­ing list ASAP so you don’t miss out on tick­ets to the planned Por­tuguese din­ner.  We won’t write up all the dishes (although we note that the incred­ible chocol­ate, cherry and cran­berry mousse is on their Xmas menu now, yay), but here’s some Ins­tagrams to make you sad you wer­en’t there.Scallop risotto Scal­lop risotto with asparagus

    instagram food Lamb shoulder w buck­wheat, mush­rooms & pomegranate served with Barolo.

    ravioli Pump­kin ravi­oli with artichoke crisp

  • Finally, today we had a cof­fee at the Coron­a­tion Cafe, which is a popup space with­in the Museum of Wel­ling­ton City and Sea. The cof­fee is L’af­fare and good and strong, and while there are only a couple of sweet treats on offer, and no savoury food, there are many many stacks of books about the Queen for you to browse, a play area for kids, and it’s a gor­geous light and spa­cious interi­or. It would be a good place to have a meet­ing away from the office. Or, even bet­ter, head along to High Tea and High Fash­ion this Sat­urday. Plus, when’s the last time you checked out the museum?  We’ve pinched this image of the cafe being set up from their Face­book site.
    coronation cafe