Saturday, January 19, 2013

Floriditas, Wellington (NZ)

We loosen our belts after a morning of wandering the Farmer’s Markets and waddle up to Wellington’s epicenter of “cool”, Cuba Street in search of lunch at Florditas. The Boy and I are joined by two of my work colleagues, Lady Ruth and The Baking Lady.  They seem to cope rather well with me “papping” their food before they can eat it – thanks ladies!


Floriditas is a lovely light and spacious restaurant with a bit of an art-deco vibe going on.  Floriditas menu focuses on seasonal, local and ethical produce (although truth be told everywhere we go in NZ seem to serve free range meat and eggs – it’s wonderful to see such a focus on ethical eating. Australia, TAKE NOTE)!


Lady Ruth is delirious at having left the kids back in Sydney so kicks off her week of freedom with a White Peach Bellini ($13.00). I’m childless, as you all know, and can get tipsy anytime, thus today I stick with a good old Elderflower Cordial.  I love this stuff, so much so that I always have a bottle of the IKEA stuff at home in the fridge (no Allen Key required).


The Baking Lady opts for a light lunch of the daily soup with whole-wheat sourdough bread ($13.00) and Lady Ruth chooses the salad of roast chicken, courgettes, green goddess dressing + coriander leaves ($19.50) - I think she choose this because the word "goddess" in the name of the dish. I snuck a morsel of the chicken salad which was light, yet lovely and creamy with tender free-range chook.


I honestly found it really difficult to order – everything on the menu sounds moutwateringly good.  In the end the fish pie with watercress leaves + lemon got my vote ($21.50) and it was a great dish. The pie was filled with chunky pieces of fresh fish in a creamy sauce studded with zesty capers and topped off with a REAL breadcrumb topping that added a bit of a crunch to things. Really excellent.



As the girls are all ordering lunch The Boy decides to be different and order something from the breakfast menu.  He’s a ham lover from WAY back so goes for the ham off the bone, poached, eggs, toast and hollandaise (NZD$17.50). The ham is sliced lovely and thick and just look at that oozy bright yellow yolk – free range eggs really are THE BEST!


The first thing that greats you when you walk into Floriditas is a counter groaning with cakes and sweet treats. It seems cruel as sweeties are the last thing on our eating agenda but we’re tempted by them right up front. I have the memory of any elephant though and it’s not long before a Lady Ruth and I are back at the  counter picking our poison.


Lady Ruth chooses a very delicate looking cupcake and I cannot resist the Seville Orange Lamington that has just the right amount of orange flavour.  My lamington was like a big, soft fluffy Jaffa. A perfect way to end a lovely lunch.


Floriditas is at 161 Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand.

20 comments:

  1. This looks very cool, I love the bright interior and the food too of course. How good does that lamington look on that pretty plate?

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    1. The lamington was great just, just the tiniest hint of orange. Yum.

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  2. I really loved how light-filled this place is. Amazing scrambled eggs but, sadly, the coffee was a huge let-down. Check those huge hunks of ham on the Benedict!

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    1. I can't even remember if I had the coffee or not - but I'm such an un-conosioeur of coffee that it would have to be pretty terrible before I noticed anything amiss.

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  3. Food looks awesome. A lot of great-looking places on Cuba Street.

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  4. Love the decor of this place Mel and the food looks fantastic. I've been to New Zealand a couple of times and find the quality of the good there brilliant. I laughed when you said you were papping the food before the people ate it, my husband thinks I'm the only one who does this!

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    1. Your husband need to come to one of our blogger dinners - he'd realise you are far from the only one who does the papping!

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  5. That egg toast looks absolutely amazing ><

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  6. Love the art deco vibe and that cupcake - all the food looks delicious, defn one to add to my NZ to do list!

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    1. It's a great cafe...so many great places in Wellywood.

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  7. Oh Yum! It all looks so good! I do like a nice cocktail though so I would have been very quick to start their if the children were absent ;)
    The desserts all looked divine!

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    1. Yes, Lady Ruth wasn't going to miss an opportunity for a proper drink at brunch (just like the do in NYC) - she said it was lovely!

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  8. So glad you loved it! I am going to have to ration my visits when I go over, or I will start looking like Floridita's scrambled eggs!

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    1. I very jealous of your upcoming Wellywood adventure...enjoy!

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  9. Replies
    1. It was excellent - lovely food & such tasty food.

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  10. The interior of the place looks adorable! Loving how bright and fresh all the dishes look! Have been trying to convince the boy that we should go to NZ but he's more keen on more exotic locations at the moment I think...

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  11. NZ does seem to be more ethical in their eating ways.

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  12. Everything looks really good over there. Wish I wasn't over on the other side of the world right now!

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