Burger Wellington
3 - 23 August
taste your way around the hutt
Big flavours, good people and plenty worth booking a table for.
Burger Wellington is the perfect excuse to finally try that spot you’ve been meaning to visit, or head back to a local favourite for something a little different. Across the Hutt, chefs are serving up creative burgers, limited-edition specials and a few combinations you probably won’t stop thinking about afterwards.
From stacked comfort-food classics to clever twists packed with local flavour, there’s plenty to work your way through this season.
LOCAL TIP: Don’t just stick to one suburb. Plan a mini burger trail across the Hutt and make a night of it. Oh and wear stretchy pants!
Twenty Eight
A LITTLE BIT CHEEKY
Smashed beef patty, slow-cooked beef cheek, with smoked provolone, umami potato crispies, butterhead lettuce, pickled red onion, and preserved Yuzu salsa verde in a Brezelmania sesame brioche bun, with fries.
Vegetarian alternative: slow-cooked beef cheek replaced with slow-cooked mushrooms.
GF, V, DF possible. Nut Free
Bellbird Eatery
LAMB - DA RASSA PAO
Lamb smash patty and pulled lamb shoulder, with cheddar, pickled onion, Zany Zeus mint yoghurt chakka, lettuce, LOUDER peanut chilli thecha, and thecha mayonnaise in a Clareville Bakery sorghum milk pav bun, with spice fries.
Vegetarian alternative: lamb replaced with Zany Zeus halloumi.
V possible. Halaal
O’Malley’s Bar & Kitchen
THE SAINT PATTIE
Hardy Street Quality Meats lorne sausage and Jameson whiskey braised pulled pork, with cheddar, pickles, and relish in an Arobake potato bun, with colcannon croquettes and Guinness gravy.
DF possible. Nut Free
Rizzo's Pizzeria & Kitchen
BLT ITALIANO
Chicken thigh, with bacon, cos lettuce, sundried tomato pesto, and ricotta red pepper mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun.
lITTLE mANILLA
CLUCK AND TELL
Sesame-glazed chicken thigh, with oakleaf lettuce, rainbow coleslaw, acharra pickles, Manila mayo, and sticky sesame sauce in a Breadcraft buttermilk bun, with fries.
the speight’s ale house
CORNERED SEAMUS
Taylor Preston corned silverside, with smoked cheddar, colcannon hash, and mustard sauce in a Brumby’s stout potato bun, with salt and vinegar fries.
Seashore Cabaret Cafe
COASTAL CRACKLE
Pork belly, with mango salsa, coleslaw, pork crackling, pineapple, Apostle Hot Sauce, and sriracha honey mayonnaise in a brioche bun, with steak fries.
Tūtaki Cafe
TANG65
Chicken 65 patty, with tamarind leather, potato rosti, chilli-pickled onion, iceberg lettuce, coriander chutney, and Kāpiti blue cheese yoghurt in a Shelly Bay Baker brioche bun, with podi-spiced chips and garlic confit aioli.
Nut Free
The Angus Restaurant and Bar
PB & J BRISKETT
Beef brisket patty, with peanut butter bacon jam and a pineapple-citrus jam in a Breadcraft brioche bun.
GF, V DF, Nut Free possible. Halaal
Grazie Lower Hutt
BLUE SMOKE
Angus beef patty, with Stef the Māori horopito spice, mānuka-smoked bacon, and blue carbonara fondue in a Shelly Bay Baker parmesan-crusted ciabatta, with handcut chips.
Nut Free
Abandoned Taproom Petone
LOCAL JERK
Fried jerk chicken thigh, with pickled red cabbage, American cheese, mango-habanero-rum BBQ sauce, and thyme aioli in a Brezelmania brioche bun, with Creole spiced fries and a jerk bacon skewer.
Gorilla Burger Petone
SPEAK NO EVIL
Chicken thigh, with Kāpiti blue cheese, Nashville seasoning, bánh mì coleslaw, and mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery sesame seed milk bun.
GF possible
crooked elm
LOUD MOUTH
Fried chicken, with papadom, spinach, onions and reduced butter chicken sauce, dukkah raita and kasundi in an Arobake potato bun with roasted masala spuds.
GF, V, DF possible. Nut Free and Halaal
Gear Street Union
MOUTH FULL OF FLAVOUR. GF Available
Beef patty and beef brisket, with Kāpiti cheese sauce, pickles, Montreal seasoning, and burger sauce in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun, with loaded curly fries and cheese sauce.
GF possible.
The Empire
T H CHICKEN
Buttermilk fried chicken, with guacamole, pineapple, Prana Greens coriander, pickled cucumber, ranch coleslaw, and kewpie mayonnaise in a brioche bun, with fries.
BAYLAND BREWERIES
HEART-A-STACK
Double fried chicken, with a Belgium waffle, bacon, bourbon bacon jam, cheddar, sweet and spicy pickles, and picklenaise in a Cottage Lane seeded brioche bun, with hash sticks.
the victora tavern
BISQUE ANYONE?
Coconut soubise braised snapper, with prawn gribiche, Kingsmeade pecorino, red onion, tomato, butter crunch lettuce, chilli jam, and crayfish bisque in a Brumby’s squid ink bun, with taro crisps.
Brew'd Boulcott
JERK GONE BERSERK
Beef patty, with charred pineapple, onion rings, bacon, Kāpiti cheese, pickled cucumber, shredded lettuce, jerk BBQ sauce, and sriracha mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun, with jerk seasoned fries.
GF possible
tHE HARDWARE BAR AND RESTAURANT
STOKES VALLEY BEAST
Beef patty, with bacon, blue cheese, aged cheddar, hash brown, onion jam, tomato, cos lettuce, onion rings, Prana Greens coriander, and smoked BBQ sauce and aioli in a brioche bun.
dirty buger petone
NO GLOVE, NO LOVE
Smashed Wagyu beef patty, with pork belly, American cheese, pickles, and maple cream cheese in a Dirty Donuts BBQ donut glazed brioche bun.
GF possible. Nut Free
puku pies & kai (petone)
TU MEKE
Two cheese sauce stuffed beef patties, with pickles, red onion, burger sauce and ketchup in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun and pie pastry.
plot your burger spots
Your guide to Burger Wellington burgers across the Hutt, mapped out and easy to find.
LOCAL TIP: Start hungry and don’t over-plan it. Pick a few spots close together, park once and turn it into your own burger crawl.
Find out the inspiration about the burger
A good burger doesn't just happen.
Behind every Burger Wellington creation is an idea, a local story or an ingredient someone couldn't stop thinking about.
From playful takes on classic favourites to burgers inspired by the Hutt itself, local chefs have been busy testing, tasting and fine-tuning their creations for this year's challenge.
Get to know the stories behind the burgers before you take your first bite.
aBANDANDONED tAPROOM
Our first thought when we got the theme for burger welly was what kind of meat can we stab into the top of this burger so it looks real cool? And then how do we write some explanation that totally makes sense with the theme afterward? After we decided on bacon the next question was how to elevate it? What if bacon was spiced up with loads of spices in the brine? Only thing left now was to annoy the other chefs with how time consuming it is. Ooo lets make it ourselves. 10 days of brining, plus tonnes of annoying other stuff we have to do? great. Then we whacked it on a stick. Everyone knows food tastes better when it's on a stick.
We did our own little take on Jerk Chicken - deep frying it allowed us to pack more flavour into the coating and add a crispy texture. neat. Home-made marinade added more bold flavours, and tenderized the chicken thigh.
Next up some pickled cabbage - super bright purple colour, crunchy texture, and a bright acidity that cuts through the fried chicken. also neat.
Inspired by making preserves at home we did a take on a sauce/chutney/relish/thing, rum, mango, and habanero sauce to add further sweetness and heat. Wrapped up in a really soft and pillowy Brezelmania bun, and some herby thyme aioli slopped inside, its done.
O’Malley’s
The Saint Pattie was born off the back of O’Malleys’ first St Patrick’s celebrations — a week of being packed, flowing pints, and proper community spirit. We wanted to capture that same energy in a burger people would keep talking about. Built around a traditional Lorne sausage from Hardy Street Quality Meats and Jameson-braised pulled pork, it’s a nod to heritage with a Kiwi pub twist, finished with Colcannon Croquettes and rich Guinness gravy. Designed to be enjoyed with a proper pint and shared among mates, it’s the kind of burger that gets recommended before the last bite a true word of mouth experience.
Rizzo’s pizzeria & kitchen
A fresh take on an Italian classic, inspired by the simplicity of a BLT but reimagined through an Italian lens. Think familiar flavours elevated with a touch of Italian flair, the kind of combination that feels instantly recognisable yet just different enough to get people talking. A burger that tastes like it should be shared, then recommended to everyone you know. Molto bene!
THE CROOKED elm
This burger is rooted in a personal story. Growing up with a dad who’s a chef, butter chicken was never just a dish, it was something that evolved through instinct, experience, and the kind of “secret sauce” recipes that were never really written down. Of course, like most great food stories, it didn’t stay a secret for long.
“Loud Mouth” is our way of sharing that, we're taking a nostalgic, familiar flavour and turning it into something bold, playful, and a little over the top. The reduced butter chicken glaze is paired with kasundi raita and complete with layers of crunch from the fried chicken and papadom.
At its core, it’s about creating something people talk about. The kind of burger we’d love to overhear being mentioned somewhere down the line, someone saying they had this spicy, messy, crunchy burger at a cool pub in Lower Hutt… “man, it even had a whole papadom in it, and it was awesome.”
Because the best dishes don’t just get eaten, they get remembered, shared, and passed on through word-of-mouth.
seashore cabaret
Our burger draws inspiration from the vibrant flavours and coastal lifestyle of Fiji, where one of our chefs grew up. Drawing on memories of family gatherings, beachside meals, and fresh tropical ingredients, the burger combines classic comfort food with a taste of the South Pacific. At the heart of the dish is a mango salsa based on a cherished family recipe that has been passed down through generations. The sweet, tangy mango pairs beautifully with the rich, savoury pork and crunchy crackling, creating a balance of flavours that reflects Fiji’s love of fresh produce and bold tastes.
The burger also reflects our own coastal location, bringing together the relaxed atmosphere of the seaside with ingredients that celebrate kiwi coastal hospitality, and shared meals. The result is a dish that honours our chef’s heritage while creating something unique for our guests—a burger that tells a story of family, culture, and seaside life.
bellbird eatery
Lamb smash patty and pulled lamb shoulder, with cheddar, pickled onion, Zany Zeus mint yoghurt chakka, lettuce, LOUDER peanut chilli thecha, and thecha mayonnaise in a Clareville Bakery sorghum milk pav bun, with spice fries.
Vegetarian alternative: lamb replaced with Zany Zeus halloumi. Rooted in the chef's home state of Karnataka and hometown of Belgaum, on the border of Goa and Maharashtra. The centrepiece is lamb Tamda Rassa — lamb cooked in red gravy — a dish from Kolhapur famous for its food and its gossip. The bun uses sorghum flour, as found in bhakri (traditional Indian flatbread), made in collaboration with Clareville Bakery using milk from the same farm that supplies Zany Zeus.
twenty eight
For this year’s entry, we created a burger designed to showcase and promote several exceptional local suppliers. We incorporated NZ yuzu grown in Kapiti, Waikawa buttercrunch lettuce, and Brezel Mania burger buns. Our goal was to highlight unique ingredients produced within the Wellington region that people might not yet know about. We sourced other components from longstanding Wellington institutions known for their excellence, such as smoked provolone from Mediterranean Foods and high-quality beef from the team at Harringtons. All other elements of the burger are made in-house here in the Twenty Eight kitchen
gear street union
True to its name, this is a full-on flavour hit. Big, bold, and unapologetically loaded, A Mouthful of Flavour is the kind of burger that lives up to the hype and gives people plenty to talk about
brew’d boulcott
Pineapple in a burger... controversial by design. Love it or debate it, this is the kind of flavour combination that fuels heated conversation time and time again
gorilla burger
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. No evil in this burger, just good, delicious flavour. A c’est cheese blue monkey sauce brings a bold hit of flavour, blending Nashville heat with Gorilla Burger’s signature style
