Cities are a natural hub for different cultures, offering opportunity and community sometimes lacking elsewhere, while the sheer scale of people can fuel thriving economies; especially hospitality, with cafes, restaurants, food courts and specialty stores traditionally flourishing in urban centres.
Though Tāmaki Makaurau can claim the most ethnically diverse city
In the real world, a dynamic mix of cultures is visible in every aspect of a city, from its inhabitants and their lifestyles to the restaurants and food shops that spring up to feed them. And a melting pot is always more interesting than a monoculture, particularly when it comes to the rich, evolving landscape of cuisine that is the belly of a city.
Has Wellington gained more flavour, zest and spice in recent years? I’d been watching new openings (and old favourites) with interest over the six years since my last visit, and so it’s to the nation’s capital I go, to see if this diplomatic hub is really the melting pot of cuisines that we’ve heard it’s become. It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, focused on fresh additions, classic culinary spots and the annual event of Wellington on a Plate, and I’m determined to visit as many places as possible by walking — for both the geographic parameters this creates for a story, and the digestion it helps.
Due to central Wellington’s density and layout, its multiculturalism feels easier to navigate; if you feel so inclined, and your stomach and wallet allow, you could travel the world on foot in central Wellington. I did just that.
And though this is by no means an objective or completely comprehensive list, nor does it capture the vast array of cultures in the city, it’s a good start if you want to really get a taste of the capital now.
One of the new guard of eateries in town, the first iteration of Damascus was as a pop-up inside the characterful Vogelmorn Bowling Club. Since then, owners Hasan Alwarhani and Flora Quintana have shifted to Te Aro — they’re now next to Mystic Kitchen and Bizarre Bazaar on Tory St — where there’s more foot traffic, and regular hours.
This move is no doubt down to the quality of their food. Hasan, who is also head chef, is from Syria, and it’s through the restaurant that he shares the flavours and cultural heritage from his homeland with New Zealanders, hoping to show other sides of the Middle Eastern country to their community in Wellington.
Hasan’s food is resolutely authentic. He and his kitchen team turn out Syrian classics like kafta and shish tawook, and whether you know your muhamarah from your babaganoush and want to indulge in everything, or you’re new to Syrian cuisine and don’t know where to start, then the special sharing platter they’ve created for Wellington on a Plate (available until May 21) is not to be missed.
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Advertise with NZME.Ours was the first table to order one, Hasan revealed, and talked us through the spread. Available with meat or without — it traverses grill, salad, dip, fry, etc — and the house-made sujuk sausage was sensational, as was the hummus kawarma and beetroot chamandar. Syrian food is a balance of flavour, with sour pomegranate, silky eggplant and the starch of chickpeas balancing the rich meats. Eat it with flatbread, and your hands (all food is better that way).
Down the road from Damascus is another new addition to the capitol’s culinary landscape: Mabel’s. I wrote about this restaurant for Viva Magazine when it first opened, and booked a table for a trip in 2021 that ended up cancelled, so finally making it through the green door in early May felt deeply satisfying.
Though many restaurants have a woman’s name, sometimes there’s a story behind it. Wellington eatery Mabel’s is named after co-founder Marlar Boon’s phwa phwa (grandmother). She is the inspiration behind the “Burmese eat and drink shop,” as its owners — Marlar, husband Ian Boon and friend Dan Felsing — prosaically describe it.
“We wanted to create a new and unique dining experience and for diners here to have more engagement with minority cuisines,” said Marlar.
It’s one of the few Burmese restaurants in Aotearoa, and Mabel’s aims to share the food of Myanmar with New Zealanders, while interpreting it in their own way.
“I think it is nice for people to come in with no expectations and to just embrace the idea that this is something new. Some of the feedback we hear from guests is that it’s like nothing they have tried before or some flavours are familiar but in quite a new and unique way to how they have experienced it before.”
Educating diners about culture and food is an added layer of work for restaurant operators, not without friction or biases, and it’s something to bear in mind when trying a cuisine that’s unfamiliar to you.
Non-European food shouldn’t automatically be equated with “cheap” nor reserved for takeaways only — many dishes contain generations of knowledge, specialised ingredients, and hours (if not days) of preparation, so deserve to be costed and respected accordingly.
Can you put a price on the generosity of sharing culture?
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Advertise with NZME.For many restaurant operators, and indeed anyone from an immigrant background, sharing their cuisine with fellow New Zealanders provides a means to challenge perceptions, connect with their heritage, and retain knowledge and the tastes of their family, background and culture.
Same goes for anyone really. And for multicultural centres like Wellington, and Auckland for that matter, the food gives you a taste of the city.
Mabel’s ethos spans both its menu and interior. The materiality of the space is beautifully considered, subtle odes to Burmese culture and the vernacular design of South Asian — rattan lights, flower garlands, bamboo screens, and a large curtain, created with textile designer Marta Buda, is made from longyis that belonged to Marlar’s late uncle Michael, who was one of Mabel’s four children. “The textiles in the space are of great significance,” Marlar said. “The patchworked fabrics also remind me of walking around the streets of Yangon and seeing all the colourful longyis pass you by.
“There is a real essence and connection to my childhood memories and my experiences back home.”
A dividing wall made from wood with frosted glass slats is particularly inspired — both practical and conjuring a tropical feeling in a clever way (after all, where else do you find these beautiful, ventilation-friendly window fixtures put to use than in climates that don’t call for double glazing). Bentwood chairs provide a continental touch, while the brick exterior with green windows and doors is classically Wellington.
What to eat and where to start? I’m there for dinner (the restaurant does lunch service too, and takeaways) and this was my first time trying Burmese food, so I let Marlar — who’s working the floor that night, and wearing an outfit that’s a thematic match for the space, with a lustrous chartreuse silk skirt with a loose cotton shirt in a brown check — guide me through the menu.
A country’s signature meal is always good to be acquainted with when navigating a cuisine. Mohinga (below, bottom right) is Myanmar’s national dish. A variety of kauk swe (noodle bowl) it’s a fragrant, fishy delight that’s perfect for a cold evening — though easy to imagine in warmer climes too. The thin rice noodles are nestled in a brothy emulsion of fish, stock and chilli oil, topped with a generous cluster of fried fish (let this sit for a bit, give it time to soak up some of that broth).
La phet thoke (tea leaf salad) is another specialty of Myanmar, and a must at Mabel’s. Burmese salads are definitively and famously textural, Marlar explains, and theirs is a cacophony of texture; crunch, all kinds, from the tea leaves and cabbage, sesame seeds, crispy dhal and fried alliums; there’s acidic tang from the dressing and tiny tomatoes, and a distinctive umami bitterness that’s truly new (and delicious) to my tastebuds.
The dessert menu is short, with only three items, and quite irresistible. I have the palata neh kulfi, decadently deep-fried roti served with vanilla ice cream, and its simple, familiar flavours are taken to a whole other place with the texture of the two coming together, and the granulation of coconut sugar on top (a texture I love). It also pairs very well with the la phet yay, Burmese tea, as Marla’s recommends — lush and velvety, thanks to the condensed and evaporated milk used to make it.
All the drinks are great actually, including those sans-alcohol; “Bougena” tastes like, as its name suggests, a bougie Ribena. And it’s tongue-in-cheek inclusions like this that give many of the city’s newer eateries a distinctive flavour all their own.
Vaibhav Vishen’s Te Aro restaurant Chaat Street (on the corner of Willis and Dixon since March, prior to which it was on Victoria) serves up “tapas-style Indian street fare”, bringing small-plate, sharing-style servings and elevated approach to classic dishes.
India’s food culture is a heady mix of regional varieties, complex history and cultural exchange, and Vaibhav draws from across the subcontinent, with Delhi-style gol gappe (stuffed shells served with tamarind sauce), spicy North Indian chole-bhature chickpea curry, the sensationally starchy Mumbai classic vada pav (fried potato in a soft white bun), momos (Himalayan dumplings), and pan-Indian favourite bhel puri (a crunchy salad with puffed rice, chickpeas, chutney and more).
Notably, Kashmiri was his focus for May, with Chaat Street serving a Wazwan wedding feast during Wellington on a Plate (the special menu is available until May 19) and inviting chef and fellow Kashmiri Prateek Sadhu for a six-course ticketed dinner event on May 20 and 21.
Vaibhav’s restaurant is worth visiting year-round, and has recently expanded from its original Wellington spot, with a Chaat Street now open in Parnell.
Not only the purview of resident restaurateurs, Te Whanganui-a-Tara entices visitors too. This year’s Visa Wellington On A Plate saw Hong Kong-based Matt Abergel (Yardbird, Ronin) and third-generation Sydney chef Morgan McGlone (Sundays, Bar Copains) join Cinderella Bistro’s James Pask for an izakaya dining series, which saw a sizzling grill take up residence in Cinderella’s courtyard; a space that melds bistro style and bentwood chairs with the ease of an antipodean garden bar, it’s well suited for this mash-up of flavours and chefs.
So many cooks in the kitchen, as that saying goes, wasn’t cause for chaos, far from it. They turned out a concise menu, including that all-important izakaya, with the yakitori (served roulette style), lush meatballs with a revelatory raw-egg-based dipping sauce, and a rather naughty, oozy egg sando. Not everything was cooked or grilled, with raw kingfish and some briny yuzu clams, while a coconut ice cream and sake “spider” was a treat to finish.
For izakaya of the more permanent kind, head to Kazu Yakitori & Sake Bar on Courtney Pl.
Another visitor for Wellington on a Plate was chef Lucho Martinez, from innovative Mexico City restaurant Em, who was slinging his seasonally focused, expert fare as part of the festival’s Miramar Taco’ver, including some very fabulous fish tostadas.
Though his stay was brief, Wellington’s relationship with Mexico is longstanding and enduring (the Embassy of Mexico is marking 50 decades of international relations with Aotearoa this year) and the capital’s offering is impressive — with surely, or at least what feels like, more Mexican food purveyors per capita than anywhere else in the country.
Viva Mexico, founded in 2010 by Antonio Gonzalez and David de Orta Jimenez — friends since their childhood in Iztapalapa, Mexico City — proudly serves authentic Mexican cuisine at its three eateries, including the likes of sopa de tortilla (a traditional tortilla soup) an assortment of enchiladas, tacos and quesadillas, and special tres leches cake and Mexican-style coffee.
It also has the honour of being the first Mexican-owned and operated restaurant in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Gonzalez told me, and with the banana-yellow paint jobs of their now-multiple eateries and commitment to tradition, Viva Mexico is a bright and special outpost in a food landscape brimming with taco and burrito spots.
Family-run and owner-operated restaurants are a common thing in the capital, particularly when multicultural fare is on the menu — food knowledge is a precious thing, and establishing an eatery provides a medium for it to be preserved, reinterpreted and shared with the community.
Ethiopian restaurant Mother of Coffee has become a bright, busy hub in the back corner of the characterful Left Bank arcade, just off Cuba St. It replaced a Vietnamese restaurant (which was also good) and owner Joel Teka tells me his family took over the space three years ago, and their food and energy proved so popular that they eventually expanded next door too.
I stop by in the lull between lunch and dinner services, ordering a meal and a fragrant Ethiopian coffee (similar in style to Turkish, its brewed in a clay pot) and its just me and two older gentlemen at that hour — though when I walk by later that night, a Saturday, the restaurant is heaving with people, from large groups to intimate duos, everyone mopping up the likes of flavoursome misir wot (lentils) and beef and lamb tibs with the injera in their hands.
If you time your visit right, you can catch the nearby Pegasus Books before they close, then take your time over dinner at Joel’s restaurant.
Culinarily crossing the north of Africa and the Mediterranean Sea, the flavours of Greece can be found in Miramar, where Oikos Hellenic Cuisine is doing some quite sensational things with this famous food — including rigging up a very inventive motorised kebab grill with a bike chain, some elbow grease and handy friends, which owner and chef Theo Papouis is keeping a watchful eye on when I visit.
His restaurant sits in a quiet, nondescript block of suburban shops in Miramar, across the road from the Greek Orthodox Church, and would make a very good first stop on the way from the airport. The comprehensive menu spans salads and vegetarian options, “bits and pieces” like tzatziki and tarama, a mullet roe dip, seafood, souvlaki sliders, and of course slow-cooked meat and traditional desserts.
There’s an impressive array of authentic Greek businesses in the capital, visibly more than Auckland at least, and one worth stopping by if you’re in Kilburnie is Taste of Greece. Part specialty food store, part café, it’s a cosy little shop and a real treasure to chance upon. Brimming with imported goods (like the very good Evripos tea) and cabinet food; sweet baked goods like melomakarona (a walnut and honey dipped cookie), red wine koulouria (another biscuit, delicious), icing-sugar dusted kourabethes shortbread, and assorted pastries and savoury fare — think kotopita (Greek chicken pie) beef kefthes and, of course, spanakopita. Stay for a coffee — there are a couple of tables, inside and out, and enjoy the bustle.
The Sakoufakis family bought historic eatery in The Green Parrot in 1970 — Wellington’s oldest restaurant, it opened its doors in 1926 — and the establishment serves up food culture of a different kind.
Kosta, who’s in the kitchen when I visit — I can hear him pounding the schnitzel — and his brother Angelo took over in 1987, and he regales me with tales from its storied history; a favoured spot for politicians and celebrities (including the Lord of the Rings cast) its theatrical décor provides a suitable backdrop for wheeling and dealing. They operate four nights a week now, and have scaled back to dinner service, and it’s an atmospheric location for a meal or coffee if you find yourself in Te Aro, though worth a pilgrimage too.
The walls are painted a glossy bright red, complemented by the flamboyant baroque carpet, while the high-stud ceiling is a mushroomy aubergine, complete with classic oscillating fans. The chairs are chrome, so are some of the picture frames (which you don’t see much of anymore) that encase the myriad newspaper clippings and celebrity photos.
On each table, salt pepper, a concise wine list, and vinegar. Plus a menu that deviates only slightly from its 1930s forebearer, with the aforementioned schnitzel, lamb’s fry, groper and pork chops, plus souvlaki and Greek salad. And in a lovely touch, you can also get a plate of sliced white sandwich bread.
It’s out of time, exactly what I need right now. Loud and simple. I’m hit by a wave of nostalgia and emotion, thinking about the time and love poured into places like this from family hands — and all the places I visited.
Food forms a community, and vice versa, providing precious cultural exchange in cities shaped by migration; our capital’s is something special.
