Wellington on a Plate opened on Friday. How’s it been for you so far? We’ve been trying to share people’s microreviews on Twitter, and of course @wellyonaplate will be even more informative, but I thought I’d do some proper writeups for you about what I’ve been eating. So, in chronological order: Dine menu at The […]
Can you feel the excitement in the air? Hear the squeak of glasses being polished,Threadless packages being opened, plaid shirts being ironed and beards being fluffed? Next week, Wellington plays host to the greatest most awesome conference in the world. Fact! We’ve already made some recommendations of things for Webstock attendees to do in Wellington, […]
I spent two weeks living on the 28th floor of a hotel in Tokyo when I was ten, and ever since then, I have been obsessed with hotels. As you probably know, here at the Wellingtonista, we’re also very fond of free food and drink, so when the Travelodge invited us to for Cocktails & Canapes, of course we responded enthusiastically.
The Travelodge is off Glimer Terrace, going up and down the Plimmer Steps. It used to be the Copthorne, but for the past year it’s been part of the (Australian) Toga Hospitality. The rooms have all been done up, and then their function areas, and finally Steps Restaurant, so they threw themselves a shindig to celebrate.
When we arrived, navigating a maze of escalators and lifts up from Lambton Quay, I was momentarily all atwitter with "Wine is NOT a cocktail, dammit!" but then I realised that we were drinking bubbly with strawberry liqueur in it, and that does indeed count, so I retract my tweet. The canapes, meanwhile, were delicious. Vegetable tempura was hot and amazingly crisp, lamb meatballs super flavoursome, the prawns looked good if you like that sort of thing, crostini were plentiful and the pork belly with apple sauce was a nice idea although it could have been a bit more crackled. And then after speeches, out came dessert canapes – fruit tarts, mini pavlovas and truly excellent brownies. It was a great range of food, and there was mountains of it, ferried around by lovely staff. Based on that, I would have no hesitation in recommending Steps Restaurant for a function if you are looking for a hotel environment.