WOAP 17: Concrete, Glasshouse, Hillside

How are we all going with Welling­ton on a Plate then? As we tweet­ed today, there’s no less than three alter­na­tives to the offi­cial site in order to help you nav­i­gate your way to a burg­er (One, two, three). Maybe they’ll be incor­po­rat­ed next year?

In the mean­time, here’s what I’ve been eat­ing

• Lock Stock burg­er at Con­crete
• Every­thing on the menu at the Glasshouse in the Thorn­don Hotel
• The Smokeac­ci­no at Hill­side Kitchen

The Lock Stock Burger at Concrete

“Smoked cheese and Rock­et Fuel-stuffed Angus beef burg­er with cof­fee rub, can­died bacon and tangy ranch slaw in a Pan­doro bun, with fries”

Every­one I saw at Con­crete on Mon­day lunchtime was eat­ing this burg­er, but I don’t think any­one else’s was as burnt as mine, alas. It’s a shame about the bun’s char­coal, cos the pat­ty had a great flavour, and the slaw was good for break­ing up the rich­ness. This was­n’t the eas­i­est burg­er to lift and bite into, (it was def­i­nite­ly an extra servi­ette burg­er with juices) but it was sat­is­fy­ing to eat. I would have liked maybe a bit more of the cheese. But impor­tant­ly: those were the best fries I have had in a long long time. You know how when you order chips some­times there’ll be a cou­ple of extra crispy ones that you might end up fight­ing over? All of these chips were those chips.

Con­crete has com­fy tables & chairs along with its high tables, and the wait­ress­es were love­ly. It’s a shame I did­n’t see any news­pa­pers or mag­a­zines for solo din­ers though. Oh, and the toi­lets are real­ly weird though, like you’re pee­ing on a yacht. And just so you know and don’t spend ages look­ing for the tap, you’ll need to push the wood­en lever in the man­tle to get the water to run to wash your hands after­wards. You’re wel­come.

Glasshouse Bar & Grill at the Thorndon Hotel

Steph and I were invit­ed along by the love­ly new mar­ket­ing man­ag­er at the Thorn­don Hotel by the Rydges to come and try out their Welling­ton on a Plate menu, so of course we did. They’re a DB bar, which means no Garage Project to match with burg­ers. Instead, they’ve been real­ly work­ing on their Tuatara offer­ings, and will sug­gest a beer to match every­thing you eat.

I’ve eat­en at the Glasshouse before, both at their invi­ta­tion and also on my own dime because it’s in a real­ly handy loca­tion for me, and what I real­ly like about it is it’s very friend­ly, qui­et (usu­al­ly), and there’s room to spread out your news­pa­per. They pri­mar­i­ly serve a hotel guest audi­ence, some of whom will stay 2–3 nights a week, so they serve com­fort food, but with a focus on local ingre­di­ents (brands are name-checked on the menu). I think the chef real­ly likes the oppor­tu­ni­ty that Welling­ton on a Plate brings to do some­thing dif­fer­ent. So this is what we ate:

Fes­ti­val dish: Smoked pork and pūhā cro­quette on hāngī-style kūmara purée, pāua meat­balls, black pud­ding and white wine cream

Burg­er: That Chick­’s a Real Jerk — Char­grilled jerk chick­en thigh with bacon, pineap­ple sal­sa and Bax­ter’s Orig­i­nal chipo­tle may­on­naise in a Pan­doro milk bun, with shoe­string fries and stuffed jalapeño

Dessert: Sausage Roll — Choux pas­try filled with Gelis­si­mo Whit­tak­er’s Peanut Slab gela­to with cher­ry sauce

The Dine Menu also gives you the option of a Beef Welling­ton, which I have eat­en and enjoyed before, but it’s kind of cheat­ing, because they have that on their menu nor­mal­ly.

The chef sent out Steph’s han­gi dish with the pāua on the side, cos I’m mild­ly aller­gic to shell­fish, so hap­pi­ly I got to try it. There was incred­i­ble flavour in the smoked pork cro­quette. I must admit I have nev­er actu­al­ly had a boil-up, so I don’t know how it com­pares, but I did love this, and the puree too. Steph says she’s not a huge fan of the flavour of pāua in gen­er­al, but thought the frit­ters were well-made. Mean­while, back on my side of the table, the chick­en was super juicy, and there was so much of it in the burg­er. I might have liked it a lit­tle spici­er, but I accept that they do need to play safe in the Thorn­don land of pub­lic ser­vants. The sal­sa gave it fresh­ness to bal­ance out the bacon. The bun sad­ly nev­er stood a chance against the juici­ness of the chick­en though, and as it fell apart the flat board it was pre­sent­ed on (com­bined with my lack of skills, no doubt) meant this was a mul­ti­ple nap­kin event (oh yes nap­kins, because they’re cloth). Shoe­strings are nev­er my favourite fry, but that char­grilled chick­en though, that was the busi­ness. I hope it comes back in the near future, maybe on rice?

Mean­while, speak­ing of pub­lic ser­vants, the sausage roll dessert! Excel­lent! I think this was a log­i­cal fol­lowup to their peanut but­ter & jel­ly sand­wich dessert they had last year, and it was fun. The pis­ta­chios scat­tered across the plate gave a good con­trast to the Peanut Slab gela­to, which was very very tasty.  I real­ly enjoyed eat­ing this, but thought maybe there was a bit too much lemon curd and cher­ry sauce for my less sweet palate — Steph cleaned hers up for con­trast.

The Smokaccino at Hillside Kitchen

Smokac­ci­no burg­er: Smoked Ital­ian sausage with brisket, bacon, red-eye may­on­naise and pick­les, in a din­ner roll (NF). Matched w Garage Project Hazel­nut Bru­in

This burg­er. Oh sweet Lorde. Oh my stars. This burg­er. Hooooooooly. The brisket was so thin­ly sliced it seemed to melt in your mouth, while the sausage was real­ly sat­is­fy­ing­ly chewy. Hav­ing the pick­les on the side was ide­al for being able to con­trol your own lev­el of bit­ter­ness, and the bun was absolute­ly per­fect. This burg­er was ide­al to pick up and was the per­fect lev­el of moist to eat with­out mak­ing a mess. But that red­eye may­on­aise, that was tru­ly the crown­ing glo­ry. I’ve just looked it up cos I did­n’t know what it was, and it’s mayo made with cof­fee and sriracha. I want a huge vat of it to swim in please. I want to spread it on every­thing. The burg­er went incred­i­bly well with the deli­cious Garage Project Hazel­nut bru­in too. My only com­plaint is now my burg­er is but a mem­o­ry. I might have to go back. I think this is going to be very hard to beat. Don’t for­get Hill­side is pret­ty tiny, so remem­ber to book. Hur­ry up, do it now.