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In Wellington, restaurants, cafés, and sports bars spring up overnight like mushrooms. Although you'll never be without the classic meal of steak, fries, and ale, city eateries have also embraced more adventurous fare. Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, Mexican, and Italian cuisines are increasingly common. Indigenous food, too, is appearing in restaurants around the city—native plants might be paired with traditional seafood or made into sauces to accompany meat or sweet-potato dishes.
In rural areas outside Wellington, the wine industry has revolutionized local tables, with excellent dining and wine-tasting spots. In the Wairarapa, restaurants are winning a reputation for creative cuisine.
Generally, lunch runs from noon until 2, and most restaurants close for a few hours before opening for dinner around 6. On Monday, many restaurants are shuttered. Dress codes are still really relaxed; jeans would be frowned on only in the top restaurants.
Salty, spicy, sour, and sweet tastes are equally celebrated on Koji's menu, no matter which delicious combination of Asian-influenced sharing plates you pick. The ultimate mixture of all four flavors comes together in the must-try curry beef doughnut and the restaurant's signature "strange flavor sauce," served with chicken and prawn dumplings. Koji is nestled underneath Wellington's famous Embassy Theatre, making it perfect for a dinner-and-a-movie evening.
