BYO restau­rants to us are places where you can hold a large gath­er­ing, you can eat some tasty food, and if you don’t count the cost of your bot­tle, you can get total­ly stuffed for around $25. There are a mil­lion and one place with BYO licens­es in Welling­ton, but these are the ones that we think are the very best.

Namastey

This piece of real estate on Dixon Street seems cursed, churn­ing through ten­ants every few months, but we hope Namastey is going to stick around for a long time because it’s def­i­nite­ly our favourite Indi­an restau­rant. Try the siz­zling Tan­dori lamb chops or the paneer in chili and you’ll prob­a­bly agree with us. The restau­rant is large and spa­cious (and sad­ly, often emp­ty) so there’s plen­ty of room for a crowd, and you’ll find that your cur­ries will actu­al­ly taste dif­fer­ent, instead of just being the same goop in a dif­fer­ent colour that too many oth­er places offer.

Namastey: The Oaks, Dixon St

Longxiang

Orange beef at LongxiangWe’re the first to admit that often we have very West­ern tastes when it comes to Chi­nese food, and so Longx­i­ang on Dixon Street hits the spot very nice­ly for that. Their orange beef is par­tic­u­lar­ly amaz­ing, as is the shred­ded duck with veg­eta­bles and the Sin­ga­pore-style ver­mi­cel­li is also high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. Yvonne is a love­ly host, and loves her reg­u­lars. Plus she doesn’t judge us when we order far more food than we real­ly should.

Longx­i­ang: 98 Dixon St

Miyabi

It may not be quite as cheap as it used to be, but it’s still worth ven­tur­ing into the weird ’70s world of Willis St Vil­lage for Miyabi. It man­ages to excel at both the hearty carb-laden aspect and the super-fresh raw fish side of Japan­ese cui­sine: as exem­plars of each we would rec­om­mend the stom­ach-lin­ing eggy good­ness of Oyakodon and the sump­tu­ous extrav­a­gan­za that is their sashi­mi boat.

Miyabi Sushi: 142 Willis St

Roxy Cafe

Roxy is known for its great break­fasts, but now that it’s BYO every day, it should also be known as a place for a great din­ner. Sure, the mains are a lit­tle more expen­sive than the rest of the nom­i­na­tions, but when you can get pork wrapped in bacon, who’s com­plain­ing? It’s a great alter­na­tive for those bored of eth­nic food, and the staff are very accom­mo­dat­ing.

Roxy Café: 203 Cuba St

Phu Thai Esarn

Phu Thai Esarn
Din­ner at Phu Thai Esarn

Phu Thai, in con­trast to Namastey, is not at all spa­cious; because it’s so pop­u­lar there are too many tables, and they’re all con­stant­ly occu­pied. That’s okay, though, the food makes it total­ly worth the squish. You’d do well to order sticky rice, and maybe the duck larb, to go with your deli­cious North­ern Thai mains (the house spe­cial­ty). Or of course there are the usu­al range of cur­ries and stir fries, made bet­ter with the gen­er­ous use of fresh herbs, and beau­ti­ful­ly pre­sent­ed. Ser­vice is impec­ca­ble, and just writ­ing this is mak­ing us hun­gry.

Phu Thai Esarn: 35 Cam­bridge Ter­race