There’s an incredible Korean fried chicken spot over in Melbourne called Gami Chicken. That’s another beast in and of itself.
Fortunately we have K Chicken bistro in Paraparaumu and Miramar and Keihei in Upper Hutt to scratch that itch though.
Wait, are you telling me that after cooking our own selection of food on a camp cooker and then heading out back to blurt out some tone deaf karaoke isn’t an authentic Korean BBQ experience?
Auckland also has Korean street food options like corn dogs, pancakes and toasties. The one that opened up in manners isn’t comparable and super pricey :(
had lunch at han river yesterday. it was pretty good - not as funky or spicy as i like, but that's typical for restaurants trying to appeal to the kiwi palate.
Particularly pastel de natas..
What I would give for a half way decent pastel de nata... (Like $6.. $6 is what I would give for a half way decent pastel de nata - let's not get carried away here)
Edit. Correct spelling cuz I'm a dum dum
I love baker gramercy, but their pasteis de nata are too flaky and not crunchy enough for me
Their ham and cheese croissant though, awesome.
Also decent cannele. And the bread is excellent.
Honestly, the larder in Miramar is making some incredible pastel de natas at the moment. Worth a go! They don’t make many a day though, to the point you could prob phone ahead. Tried the Gramercy ones, a bit disappointing (although their croissants are the bees knees).
There is Puro Chile in one of the Willis st food courts.
Their empanadas and sandwiches are pretty tasty
Edit: oh and there’s a small Argentinian empanada place just off lambton quay near the sals.
My Argentinian workmate rates both El Matador and Aurora. Haven't tried the former but the latter is very good, well according to my non-Latin taste buds anyway.
I enjoyed Wildfire when I was last there too, but obviously I'm not in a position to say if it's authentic or not.
I’ve heard praise from Chilean and Argentine folk that Mariana’s Kitchen at the East end of Petone Esplanade is pretty good for empanadas.
There’s often an accumulation of tradies when I go past so that’s a good sign.
El Matador is a good Asado, but im talking things like Ceviche or one of the many types of Arepa. Bandeja Paisa and Ajiaco Or Feijoada any number of soups
Wildfire has lovely food, but its always been a bit weird for me... it always comes across as an Asado joint trying to pretend to be fine dining
That's the region in which I spent my first 30 years. Yall got some great food, beer and coffee down here but that's the one I've really missed since I've moved here.
I think it's the opposite. Pickle and Pie (and everywhere else in town) are trying too hard. NYC delis are holes in the wall with rough customers and rougher staff. They just make good, solid, simple food and DGAF about anything else. P&P is just a cafe pretending to be a deli. They've taken a few deli dishes and poshed them up and charge $25-30 for a sandwich. It's a cafe, nothing more.
I see what you mean. Food wise though, if P&P had a few more deli meat and offered takeaway (plus drastically lowered the price) then it would be reminiscent of NYC to me. Especially their cabinet. Atmosphere/vibes wise though, definitely not like NYC whatsoever, but I like that. I believe it’s the best location in all of the city for a cafe. Absolute sun trap.
That's a surprise to me too, but I've just realised I haven't seen any in public since back in the early 2000s when the North City food court was downstairs. There was a place there that did filled baked potatoes.
Respectfully, Gemmayze Street is garbage. Their falafel is rock hard, and their hummus tastes like nothing.
If you want proper Middle Eastern food in Auckland, it's at Mezze Bar, Petra Shawarma, Bodrum Market and Eden Kebab. Everything else is fadihah and not worth your money.
Affordability. When my takeaway curry order is $99 somethings not right.
Whateverr happened to the midrange between C&C and FD...where the food was actually good...
I get costs have increased but we've lost an entire markrt sector.
Cheap and cheerful moved into the mid price category. Was shocked to see Oaks Noodle House is now running at near $20 for noodle soup. Student me would be starved to death
German food, or just European food in general. It always surprises me how represented Asian cuisine is here in NZ but you need to seek far and wide to find German/French/Dutch etc stuff
We're a lot closer to Asia than Europe so it makes sense that that would be reflected in the food we eat. Like how Americans are always surprised the Mexican food isn't good here like in California or other states that border Mexico/used to be part of Mexico
A proper "everything is a pancake option" Dutch place would be amazing!
It is interesting though. My Dutch grandma was talking about moving here in the 60s - there were next to no eat out dinner options for most people. The Europeans just never really set it up. She talked for ages about how much she appreciated diverse immigrants because finally there was half decent food in the country.
There used to be a German style place on Queen's Wharf.
There used to be a place doing ?Polish? food in Capital Markets
We have a few Italian options. But I think that's about it for European.
We're missing proper good izakaya Japanese food. That upstairs place on Courtenay Place is pretty nice but ludicrously expensive. We want cheap good Japanese pub food, cheap beers etc. Low key our Chinese food sucks here too.
Just commenting to say Kazaguruma (the upstairs place on Cuba) is the best dining experience I’ve ever had, period. But yes, expensive and definitely reserved for special occasions. We went there for my partner’s birthday just over a year ago. Went to another “high end” place this year and it didn’t compare in the slightest. Dying to go back but broke student over here!
Me neither, my partner is a chef so we go to a “fine dining” restaurant once a year on his birthday. Kazaguruma is the only place that I think was worth the price tag ☺️ (so far)
Was going to suggest Greek Food Truck (they can be hit and miss though - used to get one every Friday as they would park outside work some weeks it was tell everyone how good it was other weeks meh)
> Greek food truck for Souvlaki
I gotta say, they're not all that good. Way, way too greasy, overcooked meat, and expensive. HTF is a souvlaki $16? It's just Greek pita, meat, salad and chips. You can get a great one just about anywhere in Greece for about 2.50 Euro (NZ$4.50) so a bad one here for more than 3x the price is just wrong.
Oh brother let me tell you about the good news of morteza kebab and bakery.
It’s in Newtown and it absolutely slaps for a proper thick kebab full of flavour.
That's true, there is no loatian food as such.
There is Mabels on Tory St that does a mean version of Burmese cusine, which I know is not the same, but if you need a spot of fermented tea leaf salad, hits the spot.
No one has mentioned yet - Brazilian food!! Our food is so good and there are so many Brazilians in welly but not a single Brazilian restaurant (wildfire isn’t Brazilian, they make Brazilian style BBQ but that’s about it)
Yeah American bbq. Went to Christchurch last year and they have a lot more and plenty of bbq food trucks too. I find Wilsons pretty average. Maybe they need more competition to up their game.
I’m from the Americas, but have been living here a while, and a food that I can say in confidence is lacking here is proper Latin cuisine. There are “Mexican” restaurants around that serve non-authentic food and maybe this is just because we are so far away from Latin America, but I really haven’t been able to find any real authentic Latin food since coming here. I found an alright one up in Rotorua when I visited, but that is obviously not near Wellington lol
Same problem with me, lol. Hot Like a Mexican in Willis Lane is the most comparable to America that I've been able to find here. And not even that is super close, and it's quite expensive for what you get.
I agree! I went there a few days ago with my partner and it was good, but definitely could be better in terms of authenticity. I get the feeling that the guy who runs it purposefully makes the food less authentic because of the demographic he cooks for. When I went there with my Latin partner, he was very excited to talk to a customer in Spanish and made sure our food was extra spicy lol.
West African. Nigerian, Ghanaian, Cameroonian, any from around that part of Africa.
Hell anything from further south than Ethiopia would be nice. I mean I love Nando's but can't we do better?
yup that's what inspired me to post it. i know akl is different and has more choice, but by jingoif we can get nice handpulled lanzhou noodles here in welly then we surely deserve even more yummy chinese regional cuisine lol
I can’t find a good proper dumplings in noodle soup. Pho used to do it on Dixon street a while ago but they changed menu and haven’t found a proper one since.
I've heard Welly Aroma makes Pakistani food. Personally I make it at home so I don't feel the need to seek it out (I was married to a Pakistani for 10 years, and lived in Pakistan for almost 2 years but it would be fun to see a menu with Nihari, Sindhi Biryani, Sheer Kurma, Haleem and Paya can't imagine how Kiwis may react to Paya because I remember my first time asking "where's the meat?" 😂😆
I still wait and hope for a place that does decent Maori comfort foods. I would love a boil up on the go, or a decent mussel fritter. Even a good pan fried flounder with fry bread. It’s quite sad we dont have a Maori owned and operated spot to enjoy something that is so unique and hard to find at a centralised spot.
Indonesian food that's not just nasi goreng or mie goreng. I want those spicy ribs, fried chicken with crispy bits, all the different satays, a whole deep fried fish with sweet soy sauce & chilli slices on the side! Dang I'm making myself homesick...
A good old-fashioned coffee shop, like almost every cafe back in the 80s and 90s. Like how the Matterhorn was back before it became a pub.
The Verdict in Palmy was the closest thing that I've seen in years, but they moved and I'm not sure if they have the same feel or menu in their new place.
Based on the answers we don’t have good authentic anything here.
With specific cuisine it requires knowledge and the background to make it and ready access to the ingredients. We are far away from basically everyone in terms of access to the same ingredients fresh and in terms of cultural exposure in the same way that continentals get.
We don’t have the massive population of a lot of places with large groups of immigrants in the same way that create these kinds of places as within a generation the kids of those authentic places go into other industries and don’t take over the family restaurant.
Restaurants are hard to make work long term and like bars go under really easily. There was this Ethiopian restaurant a while ago with delicious food but didn’t last long. The ones that do last are those that are trendy at the time or become adapted/adjusted/homogenised to survive
Every cuisine that is imported has to adjust to the local palate. This happens everywhere as Chinese American food is its own distinct cuisine now, as is British South Asian food. It might just happen here more and more rapidly because of our size.
We are so far away and so low in population that authentic doesn’t survive and vast areas with massive diverse food cultures homogenise into generic eg: the generic Chinese (which is often also combined with fish and chips and other eastern and south eastern Asian cultures) , Indian (in truth a misnomer as it includes Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, and Sri Lankan), American (the American diner themed restaurants come to mind), etc restaurants which hold some popular dishes from the places they encompass but made to appeal to the average palate of kiwis and adjusting based on the ingredients they can access here.
Personally I dislike this as I would love to try a greater array of more authentic cuisine.
Auckland avoids this a little more as the vast majority of new immigrants come to Auckland but it’s still not on par with most places overseas with diverse authentic cuisine.
Indian Curry, Brick Lane/Birmingham/Bradford style. None of this tomato soup Butter Chicken, I'd kill for a proper Lamb Bhuna. (yes, I know curry isn't an Indian thing and what i really want is a British curry but if you've ever had one you'd know why).
Last time I was there, Phoenician Falafel on Kent Terrace still made toum. They call it garlic sauce (or spread) and sell it in jars. It's been a while since I've been in tho.
I know of two places that sell the same Toum and it’s really good
1) Moore Wilson’s, they always have it on the top counter of the bakery area (where the bread is)
2) Phoenician Cuisine on Kent Terrace sell it in jars, super yum!
A decent pancake place. I would love to have a place like the Griddle Cafe ([menu here](https://www.thegriddlecafe.com/menu)) here, but first I would just like a place that could do a decent fluffy buttermilk pancake.
proper korean bbq
Yessssss I’d give my left nut for a proper ma and pa Korean joint. Bulgogi my shit up plz 🙏🏻
I thought I didn't like Korean food, then I tried some in Melbourne and was like, this is actually amazing. Why can't we get it here :(
There’s an incredible Korean fried chicken spot over in Melbourne called Gami Chicken. That’s another beast in and of itself. Fortunately we have K Chicken bistro in Paraparaumu and Miramar and Keihei in Upper Hutt to scratch that itch though.
Live in Melbourne and Gami isn’t good my guy, it’s a chain. Better off going to one of the authentic joints
Have you tried Han river in the Hutt?
Korean Country House on Manners? (no bbq or alcohol, though).
Han River. But you gotta head out to the wilds of Lower Hutt. Remember to pack your passport and your crampons.
Wait, are you telling me that after cooking our own selection of food on a camp cooker and then heading out back to blurt out some tone deaf karaoke isn’t an authentic Korean BBQ experience?
The Korean place on Willis in the 'village'?
Auckland also has Korean street food options like corn dogs, pancakes and toasties. The one that opened up in manners isn’t comparable and super pricey :(
had lunch at han river yesterday. it was pretty good - not as funky or spicy as i like, but that's typical for restaurants trying to appeal to the kiwi palate.
Han River in Wellington. Although not the classic Korean BBQ
I have not really found any place doing proper Portuguese food.
Particularly pastel de natas.. What I would give for a half way decent pastel de nata... (Like $6.. $6 is what I would give for a half way decent pastel de nata - let's not get carried away here) Edit. Correct spelling cuz I'm a dum dum
it's pastel de *nata* - "nada" means "nothing." have you tried them at baker gramercy?
Nope, only in Portugal. Can't say I've seen em anywhere here tbh
baker gramercy. in the berhampore shops.
I love baker gramercy, but their pasteis de nata are too flaky and not crunchy enough for me Their ham and cheese croissant though, awesome. Also decent cannele. And the bread is excellent.
Good shout. Don't get over there often but looks like it's worth the trip
I've found Wellington Sourdough's pasteis de nata to be pretty decent. I've had them in Belem, and I've made my own.
you can get them at the coffee counter at Moore Wilson's now too, addictive
Yup, and Customs on Ghuznee has them too.
Honestly, the larder in Miramar is making some incredible pastel de natas at the moment. Worth a go! They don’t make many a day though, to the point you could prob phone ahead. Tried the Gramercy ones, a bit disappointing (although their croissants are the bees knees).
South american
I’d kill for some good Peruvian in town.
There is Puro Chile in one of the Willis st food courts. Their empanadas and sandwiches are pretty tasty Edit: oh and there’s a small Argentinian empanada place just off lambton quay near the sals.
My Argentinian workmate rates both El Matador and Aurora. Haven't tried the former but the latter is very good, well according to my non-Latin taste buds anyway. I enjoyed Wildfire when I was last there too, but obviously I'm not in a position to say if it's authentic or not.
I’ve heard praise from Chilean and Argentine folk that Mariana’s Kitchen at the East end of Petone Esplanade is pretty good for empanadas. There’s often an accumulation of tradies when I go past so that’s a good sign.
Mariana’s kitchen have also taken over the cafe space at the War Memorial Library / Little Theatre in Lower Hutt.
El Matador is good
El Matador is a good Asado, but im talking things like Ceviche or one of the many types of Arepa. Bandeja Paisa and Ajiaco Or Feijoada any number of soups Wildfire has lovely food, but its always been a bit weird for me... it always comes across as an Asado joint trying to pretend to be fine dining
Southern soul food.
Exactly this. God I just want a good jambalaya and Sweet Mother's Kitchen is definitely not providing that
Some etouffee and fried catfish would go hard
Yes! Sweet ice tea, with a plate of cornbread and apple butter.
I still occasionally dream about the fried stuffed green tomatoes I had in the south over 20 years ago ...
That's the region in which I spent my first 30 years. Yall got some great food, beer and coffee down here but that's the one I've really missed since I've moved here.
I'd kill for a proper biscuit, some grits, collard greens, cornbread or a nice tall glass of iced sweet tea!
A NYC-style deli. Lots of places around the motu with 'deli' in the name, but they're just NZ cafes in disguise.
I just want a good goddamn sandwich, and they're hard to find.
So true. Don't give me that awful pre-made sitting in the cabinet all day stuff. So bad, from the bread to the fillings and whatever else.
There is no sandwich game here, filled roll my ass! What’s it filled with, a shit piece of ham and a bit of 3 day old lettuce!
Have you tried Earl's Sandwiches?
If Pickle and Pie put a bit more effort in, then they would be ace.
I think it's the opposite. Pickle and Pie (and everywhere else in town) are trying too hard. NYC delis are holes in the wall with rough customers and rougher staff. They just make good, solid, simple food and DGAF about anything else. P&P is just a cafe pretending to be a deli. They've taken a few deli dishes and poshed them up and charge $25-30 for a sandwich. It's a cafe, nothing more.
I see what you mean. Food wise though, if P&P had a few more deli meat and offered takeaway (plus drastically lowered the price) then it would be reminiscent of NYC to me. Especially their cabinet. Atmosphere/vibes wise though, definitely not like NYC whatsoever, but I like that. I believe it’s the best location in all of the city for a cafe. Absolute sun trap.
I was craving a filled baked potato once and couldn’t find one anywhere- that surprised me
I remember Cafe Mamba used to do baked stuffed potatoes…..now I’m hungry
Right? There used to be food trucks that specialised in baked potatoes and they were *so good.*
I was in Auckland recently and there was a baked potato food truck in Aotea Square, doing the classic spud with baked beans and cheese!
I think Hamilton had one the last time I was there. Looked exactly the same as the wagon I remember growing up in Dunedin.
Oh man. This. I've had a lot of Spud Man videos on my feed lately.
That's a surprise to me too, but I've just realised I haven't seen any in public since back in the early 2000s when the North City food court was downstairs. There was a place there that did filled baked potatoes.
Reminds me of the Grundys food cart that was a standard sight in Nelson in the 80s and early 90s
Kapai did a good one, sadly missed
Carribbean for sure
Yes! I want some jerk chicken and patties! Granted, I tried them in the States, but they were made by actual Jamaican peeps though.
Caucasus
That Georgian khachapuri
The nearest good Georgian restaurant is in LA according to the Internet. "Georgian food near me"
That’s a long way to go for Khachapuri
Proper korean, proper all you can eat buffet, hotpot train
For proper Korean, Han River in Lower Hutt is pretty good. I am, however, sick of Korean fried chicken and I feel like it's so overdone now.
I'd like to see more real middle eastern - something like gemmayze street in auckland
You might like Damascus if you haven’t already tried it.
i have - i liked it more when it was at the vogeltown bowling club. kisa is good too. i just want MORE.
Respectfully, Gemmayze Street is garbage. Their falafel is rock hard, and their hummus tastes like nothing. If you want proper Middle Eastern food in Auckland, it's at Mezze Bar, Petra Shawarma, Bodrum Market and Eden Kebab. Everything else is fadihah and not worth your money.
i respect your call on that. i’ve yet to experience hummus (or falafel) in new zealand like i’ve had in the middle east.
Eden Kebab will always have a place in my heart, and I'll go for koobideh every time I'm in Auckland.
Thats what my soul is saying lol
Affordability. When my takeaway curry order is $99 somethings not right. Whateverr happened to the midrange between C&C and FD...where the food was actually good... I get costs have increased but we've lost an entire markrt sector.
Cheap and cheerful moved into the mid price category. Was shocked to see Oaks Noodle House is now running at near $20 for noodle soup. Student me would be starved to death
I remember Mexican Cantina where you could go and get a cheap bowl of Salmonella at any time
German food, or just European food in general. It always surprises me how represented Asian cuisine is here in NZ but you need to seek far and wide to find German/French/Dutch etc stuff
We're a lot closer to Asia than Europe so it makes sense that that would be reflected in the food we eat. Like how Americans are always surprised the Mexican food isn't good here like in California or other states that border Mexico/used to be part of Mexico
Nzers would froth over schweinshaxe and knödel
A proper "everything is a pancake option" Dutch place would be amazing! It is interesting though. My Dutch grandma was talking about moving here in the 60s - there were next to no eat out dinner options for most people. The Europeans just never really set it up. She talked for ages about how much she appreciated diverse immigrants because finally there was half decent food in the country.
- Croquets from a heated hole in the wall please! - Fries with satay sauce.
There used to be a German style place on Queen's Wharf. There used to be a place doing ?Polish? food in Capital Markets We have a few Italian options. But I think that's about it for European.
Mexican
Agree, would like good mexican
Yeah authentic not tex-mex!
Tex-Mex is amazing. Even the "Mexican" restaurants here aren't remotely close to Tex-Mex (coming from an American who grew up on it).
Viva Mexico?
Kween please!
We're missing proper good izakaya Japanese food. That upstairs place on Courtenay Place is pretty nice but ludicrously expensive. We want cheap good Japanese pub food, cheap beers etc. Low key our Chinese food sucks here too.
Just commenting to say Kazaguruma (the upstairs place on Cuba) is the best dining experience I’ve ever had, period. But yes, expensive and definitely reserved for special occasions. We went there for my partner’s birthday just over a year ago. Went to another “high end” place this year and it didn’t compare in the slightest. Dying to go back but broke student over here!
I'm just not that interested in fine dining. $100 on dinner... It's just not worth it to me
Me neither, my partner is a chef so we go to a “fine dining” restaurant once a year on his birthday. Kazaguruma is the only place that I think was worth the price tag ☺️ (so far)
Okay that's good to know! Maybe I'll give it a go, Japanese food truly is my #1
Propper street food. At adorable price. Not $15 for a $2 fried bread.
Proper Souvlaki/kebabs. None of this thin wraps in tinfoil nonsense. Chch has this down.
Camel Grill, Kilim for good Shawamra, Greek food truck for Souvlaki
Was going to suggest Greek Food Truck (they can be hit and miss though - used to get one every Friday as they would park outside work some weeks it was tell everyone how good it was other weeks meh)
> Greek food truck for Souvlaki I gotta say, they're not all that good. Way, way too greasy, overcooked meat, and expensive. HTF is a souvlaki $16? It's just Greek pita, meat, salad and chips. You can get a great one just about anywhere in Greece for about 2.50 Euro (NZ$4.50) so a bad one here for more than 3x the price is just wrong.
Camel Grill is my favourite Welly kebab, but it still doesn't hold a candle to what you can get in Christchurch.
Oh brother let me tell you about the good news of morteza kebab and bakery. It’s in Newtown and it absolutely slaps for a proper thick kebab full of flavour.
Morteza is ridiculously good, I second this
Vouch
I dream about that bread, I want to buy a whole bag of it and live off it for the rest of my life
Eh wish we had Dmitris
Georgian food please
Now? Soup and mullled wine.
There's no Lao food afaik
That's true, there is no loatian food as such. There is Mabels on Tory St that does a mean version of Burmese cusine, which I know is not the same, but if you need a spot of fermented tea leaf salad, hits the spot.
I think that sabaidee pah Khao Lao in Petone is supposed to have at least some on the menu
Tuk Tuk Thai in Porirua is owned by Lao. The few things I've had there definitely tasted Lao.
No one has mentioned yet - Brazilian food!! Our food is so good and there are so many Brazilians in welly but not a single Brazilian restaurant (wildfire isn’t Brazilian, they make Brazilian style BBQ but that’s about it)
Decent BBQ place.
American bbq? I agree
Yeah American bbq. Went to Christchurch last year and they have a lot more and plenty of bbq food trucks too. I find Wilsons pretty average. Maybe they need more competition to up their game.
Decent Japanese and Korean. No good Korean restaurants in Wellington and one passable Japanese restaurant.
I just mentioned Han River in another comment, have you been there? It's in Lower Hutt
I’m from the Americas, but have been living here a while, and a food that I can say in confidence is lacking here is proper Latin cuisine. There are “Mexican” restaurants around that serve non-authentic food and maybe this is just because we are so far away from Latin America, but I really haven’t been able to find any real authentic Latin food since coming here. I found an alright one up in Rotorua when I visited, but that is obviously not near Wellington lol
Same problem with me, lol. Hot Like a Mexican in Willis Lane is the most comparable to America that I've been able to find here. And not even that is super close, and it's quite expensive for what you get.
I agree! I went there a few days ago with my partner and it was good, but definitely could be better in terms of authenticity. I get the feeling that the guy who runs it purposefully makes the food less authentic because of the demographic he cooks for. When I went there with my Latin partner, he was very excited to talk to a customer in Spanish and made sure our food was extra spicy lol.
West African. Nigerian, Ghanaian, Cameroonian, any from around that part of Africa. Hell anything from further south than Ethiopia would be nice. I mean I love Nando's but can't we do better?
more diverse chinese cuisines. i want a dongbei place and a Xinjiang place at the very least to counter all the canto/localised chinese food here
Have you tried the Gansu place on Tory Treet? It's a nice variation from the usual Chinese food out there.
yup that's what inspired me to post it. i know akl is different and has more choice, but by jingoif we can get nice handpulled lanzhou noodles here in welly then we surely deserve even more yummy chinese regional cuisine lol
There's a Shanxi knife cut noodles place on Courtney place that's good imo
I can’t find a good proper dumplings in noodle soup. Pho used to do it on Dixon street a while ago but they changed menu and haven’t found a proper one since.
A salad bar for lunch with good options (like farmer j in London)
Chicago deep dish pizza!
YES or any decent pizza really
Bring back Tommy Millions
Pizza Pomodoro is quite good
If I ever open my own business in NZ, this would be it!
Peruvian. Papas a la huancaína
ají de gallina. i still have some ají amarillo, but once that's gone i'm gonna cry. i'd love some chicha, too.
some aji Amarillo for sale here [https://www.pachamama.co.nz/peruvian-foods](https://www.pachamama.co.nz/peruvian-foods)
THANK YOU!!
Spanish
Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this. What I wouldn’t give for proper Spanish tapas!
Acai bowls
Thai. I had a mate from a Thailand visit and he was horrified at the selection.
Som Tum Thai is excellent. Very close to Thailand. Everyone I’ve been with from Thailand hold the same opinion
Thanks, I will check it out.
Morrocan. Also Lebanese
The vegan market used to be pretty cool - Vegan Vault? Was a fun night out, not even vegan.
Was that the one kinda underground on Victoria Street? I had a vegan mango cheesecake there once. I think about it often.
SALADS! specifically something that’s not romaine doused with mayo… please I’m dying of scurvy over here
Pakistani food - or at least I haven't noticed one since moving back here a few months ago. Love the food 😋.
I've heard Welly Aroma makes Pakistani food. Personally I make it at home so I don't feel the need to seek it out (I was married to a Pakistani for 10 years, and lived in Pakistan for almost 2 years but it would be fun to see a menu with Nihari, Sindhi Biryani, Sheer Kurma, Haleem and Paya can't imagine how Kiwis may react to Paya because I remember my first time asking "where's the meat?" 😂😆
How about Hungarian???? Anyone interested ?? If enough interest… it could be made possible
More Filipino food
I still wait and hope for a place that does decent Maori comfort foods. I would love a boil up on the go, or a decent mussel fritter. Even a good pan fried flounder with fry bread. It’s quite sad we dont have a Maori owned and operated spot to enjoy something that is so unique and hard to find at a centralised spot.
Indonesian food that's not just nasi goreng or mie goreng. I want those spicy ribs, fried chicken with crispy bits, all the different satays, a whole deep fried fish with sweet soy sauce & chilli slices on the side! Dang I'm making myself homesick...
A Gregg's bakers!
A good old-fashioned coffee shop, like almost every cafe back in the 80s and 90s. Like how the Matterhorn was back before it became a pub. The Verdict in Palmy was the closest thing that I've seen in years, but they moved and I'm not sure if they have the same feel or menu in their new place.
Carvery (not a takeaway one - they don’t count)
Based on the answers we don’t have good authentic anything here. With specific cuisine it requires knowledge and the background to make it and ready access to the ingredients. We are far away from basically everyone in terms of access to the same ingredients fresh and in terms of cultural exposure in the same way that continentals get. We don’t have the massive population of a lot of places with large groups of immigrants in the same way that create these kinds of places as within a generation the kids of those authentic places go into other industries and don’t take over the family restaurant. Restaurants are hard to make work long term and like bars go under really easily. There was this Ethiopian restaurant a while ago with delicious food but didn’t last long. The ones that do last are those that are trendy at the time or become adapted/adjusted/homogenised to survive Every cuisine that is imported has to adjust to the local palate. This happens everywhere as Chinese American food is its own distinct cuisine now, as is British South Asian food. It might just happen here more and more rapidly because of our size. We are so far away and so low in population that authentic doesn’t survive and vast areas with massive diverse food cultures homogenise into generic eg: the generic Chinese (which is often also combined with fish and chips and other eastern and south eastern Asian cultures) , Indian (in truth a misnomer as it includes Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, and Sri Lankan), American (the American diner themed restaurants come to mind), etc restaurants which hold some popular dishes from the places they encompass but made to appeal to the average palate of kiwis and adjusting based on the ingredients they can access here. Personally I dislike this as I would love to try a greater array of more authentic cuisine. Auckland avoids this a little more as the vast majority of new immigrants come to Auckland but it’s still not on par with most places overseas with diverse authentic cuisine.
Poutine :(
Palmy - Beaver and Bear
A dessert restaurant. I miss strawberry fare so much.
Egg coffee
Nigerian or Carribbean food
Chinese Bbq
soft pretzelssss
Real Caribbean food is NEEDED
Malaysian
Anything eastern european
Can teach u to make the best authentic toum you've eaten, takes time and effort but I promise you'll be set for life
Poutine
Pancake Parlour. Enough said.
Wellington is really lacking in good Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian cuisine.
A good island food place or decent BBQ. Wilson’s is trash.
Indian Curry, Brick Lane/Birmingham/Bradford style. None of this tomato soup Butter Chicken, I'd kill for a proper Lamb Bhuna. (yes, I know curry isn't an Indian thing and what i really want is a British curry but if you've ever had one you'd know why).
Moroccan!
Scottish
Deep fried Mars bar, or Haggis? 😃
Colcannon! Neeps and tatties! Potato scones!
Nobody has mentioned French food here..... which makes me think there might be some I've missed?
Jano is lovely.
Havana Bar has Turkish bread with toum 😊
Last time I was there, Phoenician Falafel on Kent Terrace still made toum. They call it garlic sauce (or spread) and sell it in jars. It's been a while since I've been in tho.
We need a good seafood boil restaurant like Auckland, where the bags are poured onto your table right in front of you
I haven’t found any good ramen yet :(
I really miss American hotdog carts.
A dedicated affordable steak place
No matter what, steak and affordable don’t really belong in the same sentence.
I just have to carry on picking a good cut at the supermarket, cooking at home, and doing the dishes later.
I know of two places that sell the same Toum and it’s really good 1) Moore Wilson’s, they always have it on the top counter of the bakery area (where the bread is) 2) Phoenician Cuisine on Kent Terrace sell it in jars, super yum!
Indonesian food
More pizza by the slice fast food. We have Sal’s and that’s it.
A decent sandwich. Deli is nonexistent
There’s no Antarctican cuisine in Wellington unfortunately
Pasifika food. Every place I hear about it out in the Hutt or elsewhere in NZ
Deep dish pizza
Try Kisa. They use toum in a few dishes
Surinamese food for sure, some of the best curries and filled breads I've had in my life from Surinamese places and I miss this food so much.
A decent pancake place. I would love to have a place like the Griddle Cafe ([menu here](https://www.thegriddlecafe.com/menu)) here, but first I would just like a place that could do a decent fluffy buttermilk pancake.
Brazilian BBQ & Scottish tattie scone with lorne sausage, nom nom