CITY OF FLAVOUR
From the experimental kitchen of Hillside to the extravagant goodness of a dedicated peanut butter shop, Wellington’s booming food scene is guaranteed to please.
It would be safe to say that anyone with an appetite will be incredibly satisfied after a weekender in Wellington. Craft breweries? Tick. Hidden laneways with obscure menus? Tick. Seasonally driven kitchens based on local providores, food miles and foraging? Hard to miss.
With a distinctly meatless, plant-based menu, Hillside is quite literally sitting upon a gentle hill in the suburb of Thorndon – an easy 10-minute drive or gentle walk from the CBD if you’re working up an appetite on the way. Tucked away from the main part of town, the shoeboxsized restaurant site has a well-deserved reputation for fine food, led by owner and chef Asher Boote.
Since their opening in 2015, it’s been all hands on deck with Asher and the team pitching in to create the fit-out,
resulting in a welcoming space that’s as real and unpretentious as the food – he even built his own timber. This is perhaps, New Zealand on a plate, with Boote sourcing ingredients from his veggie patch out the back, while everything else comes – where possible – from growers within a 150-kilometre radius or is foraged nearby.
Last year saw Boote remove meat from the menu – both, he says, as an ethical statement and also to continue to grow and further innovate the style of food Hillside is known for. With seasonally driven creations like marinated heirloom tomatoes in kawakawa oil (native to New Zealand) and local olives, or an asparagus tart made with sunflower and asparagus emulsion, pine oil and a touch of chilli, the origin of the ingredients is paramount to the kitchen, generating
tūrangawaewae (a place to stand) which Māori culture acknowledges as feeling and connecting to our earth mother, Papatūānuku, and to ngā tāngata
katoa (people).
Boote also regularly hosts wine nights at the venue, with dedicated pairings from Cult Wine, which supports New Zealand artisan winegrowers and producers of natural and lo-fi wine. hillsidekitchen.co.nz
FIX & FOGG
Even if you’re not a peanut butter fan, you will be after popping into Fix & Fogg for a fix. This entrepreneurial couple have built a business around innovative flavours, collaborations and a unique destination – who’d have thought? Don’t miss the dark chocolate variety or the ‘Smoke and Fire’ for something a bit more dangerous. fixandfogg.co.nz
HIAKAI
A long-awaited first ever Māori fine-dining experience, led by the innovative and experimental Monique Fiso. In 2016, she kickstarted a series of hāngi-inspired popups which created a culinary halo. Inspired by ‘the land, sea and people of Aotearoa’, Hiakai is an absolute must on any Wellington visit, but book ahead. hiakai.co.nz
GARAGE PROJECT
Stop by the Garage Project Taproom in Aro Street for a taste of locally brewed beers from their brewery opposite and their enviable experimental wine produced under the Garage Project Crushed label – a collaborative foray into the world of wild wines, using fruit they’ve brought in from Martinborough and Nelson to ferment in the heart of Wellington. garageproject.co.nz