There have been rumours for a while that a Wendy’s was com­ing to Welling­ton, and final­ly I received a report from the Kapi­ti: a Wendy’s had just opened in Para­pa­rau­mu.

Wendy’s Old Fash­ioned Ham­burg­ers — not to be con­fused with the Aus­tralian ice cream par­lour chain Wendy’s Supa Sun­daes — is an Amer­i­can burg­er chain — the world’s third largest. It’s been well estab­lished in Auck­land since the ’90s, but has only just start­ed to branch out south. So, in the name of nomz, I had to inves­ti­gate.

The bright new Wendy’s, where peo­ple with­out an auto­mo­bile may sit and enjoy the foods upon which they have recent­ly pur­chased.
The Para­pa­rau­mu Wendy’s is right on State High­way One, next to the Coast­lands big box shops. It’s very much designed for dri­ve-through traf­fic and trav­ellers. It’s a short but unpleas­ant walk from the train sta­tion, requir­ing a trek across mul­ti­ple car parks, and being deprived of tak­ing a direct route. Well, it was built on the site of a for­mer petrol sta­tion, so the pedes­tri­an unfriend­li­ness is not sur­pris­ing.

Inside it’s as decent as any Auck­land Wendy’s I’ve been to. The seat­ing area is small­er than the Auck­land restau­rants, but I think this is main­ly due to a gen­er­al shift away from in-house seat­ing as more peo­ple get their food to go.

It was bustling when I got there at around 3.30pm, with a live­ly after school crowd and curi­ous shop­pers. The full Wendy’s menu was avail­able, com­plete with their spe­cial­ties like baked pota­toes, chilli, and the taco sal­ad, as well as the stan­dard burg­ers and chips.

The Meaty Mex­i­can Sal­ad avec le Sprite. A good feed, with enough green bits to feel healthy­ish.
I ordered the afore­men­tioned taco sal­ad, the Meaty Mex­i­can Sal­ad, as well as a “small” drink that looked mas­sive, but due to all the ice in the cup, it was secret­ly about the right size. It was good. It was what I need­ed.

Is the Para­pa­rau­mu Wendy’s worth a spe­cial trip out from Welling­ton? If you’re han­ker­ing for some Wendy’s, yeah, oth­er­wise save it for a time when you’re up the coast any­way. Let’s hope that Wendy’s will see fit to open a store clos­er to the cap­i­tal. There are some times when only a Wendy’s chilli will do.