Best of Wellington Food

I spent eight delicious years in Wellington, and I miss many tasty elements of that city: $2.50 long blacks from Deluxe, paua ravioli from Logan Brown, crèpes from the Manners Mall crèpist (no wait, that doesn't sound right). The best of capital city food can be found documented on a daily basis at the excellent Gusty Gourmet blog, and you'll find a superb mix of gossip, food and political juice on the highly regarded Roar Prawn. Both are recommended reading, as is the following insiders' list, submitted to Auckland Food Blog by reviewer, thinker and good buddy Alexander Bisley.

My trust in Alex is high, so anyone planning a Wellington citybreak should treat his choices as culinary gospel. He'll be disappointed if you don't want to argue with him just a little bit though, so any comments on this list are welcome and I'll round them up at a later date.

So here it is, Alexander Bisley's Best of Wellington Food:

Best Brunch: Maranui

Best BYO Cheap Eat: Curry Heaven (Newtown)

Best Group BYO Cheap Eat: Ban Man Thai (with reusable entertainment card)

Best Café: Floriditas

Best French: Le Canard, Arbritageur

Best Hutt: La Bella Italia

Best (Wgtn) Suburban: The Larder (Miramar)

Best Italian: Maria Pia’s, Vivo

Best Indian: Great India

Best Malay: Serai

Best Dish: Trade Kitchen’s chicken risotto

Best Duck: Manon

Best Fish Tagine: Casablanca

Best Music: Lido (Jazz, pavement-side, summer Sat or Sun)

Best Pizza: Zibibbo

Best Seafood: Ortega Fish Snack Bar (especially crayfish butter sauce)

Best Steak: 88, Ortega Fish Snack Bar

Best Takeaway: Phoenician Falafel

Best Welcome: Ambeli

Best View: The White House, Scorchorama

Most Overrated: Flying Burrito Brothers