• 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