Tag: hotels

I’d like to lodge a compliment, please

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.