Each year Wellington's close-knit hospitality community hosts Aotearoa’s largest food festival: Visa Wellington On a Plate.
This month-long festival sees the Greater Wellington region transform into a foodie's paradise; from the Kāpiti Coast to Porirua, across to the Wairarapa through the Hutt Valley, into the Wellington suburbs, and the CBD - there's hundred of options on offer.
There are three ways restaurants can participate in Visa Wellington On a Plate:
Ticketed Events
Non-Ticketed Events (AKA pop-ups or pay-on-consumption events)
Burger Wellington
Festival Events
Plan your Festival by choosing from hundreds of events, with everything from hands-on masterclasses to multi-course degustations, and everything in between.
Ticketed Events - these culinary experiences are set to feed, educate, and challenge your senses. Tickets for 2026 will be available through the Visa Pre-sale mid-June and General Sale late June (official dates to be confirmed). Be sure to plan ahead as events often have limited numbers, and tickets sell quickly.
Non-Ticketed Events - These events do not require a ticket to attend, are free entry, and pay on consumption. You can try themed menus, creative delicacies or unique restaurant experiences. Just show up and have a good time!
Note: for some non-ticketed events reservations are available, contact the venue directly to confirm.
Wellington On a Good Night - Ticketed Event at Sky Stadium 2025
Burger Wellington
Burger Wellington is set to heat up your winter when it returns from 3 - 23 August. Prepare yourself as the region’s chefs get down to business creating the ultimate burger, exploring everything weird and wonderful that fits between two buns.
You’ll get to taste and rate all the burger goods across three delicious weeks. The only question that remains: who will be crowned with burger glory?
2025 Burger Wellington Winner: Te Papa Café - Āhuru Kai Kōhua Poaka
FESTIVAL THEME
Every year Visa Wellington On a Plate serves up a new festival theme to inspire participating venues and event organisers to create one-off menus, burgers, and Festival Events. The theme marks a moment in time and inspires an exciting and unique programme each year.
2026 Festival Theme - Word of Mouth
Nothing is more powerful than a personal recommendation. We see it with all the chatter around Burger Wellington and festival goers who will always go to the event of their favourite restaurant. Word of Mouth is:
A friend taking their first bite, leaning in and saying, “Oh! You have to try this!”
A tip from a foodie friend on the downlow.
A solid suggestion from an epicurean family member.
A rave review that keeps popping up in your feed.
It might even be silence around the table - then you know it's REALLY good.
But as with every year the theme is always up for interpretation, so it could also draw on the literary, poetic and musical. It could be recipes and dishes handed down over generations, borders or continents - those dishes that don't have a recipe you just know when it's right.
It's off menu dishes, it's staff meals and secret menu items.
It's culture - in the fermentation sense - sourdoughs shared between friends or that have been kept alive for decades. It's natural fermentation and the terroir - a true taste of place. It's also culture in the literal sense, dishes evolving as they crossed oceans and they no longer had flour so they used corn, or they no longer had yam so they used sweet potato. It's influence on cuisine due to migration and colonisation - think Bánh mì and al pastor.
It's drinking songs, or wedding speeches, toasts and blessings. Poems, songs, movies and books about food, or food inspired by poems, songs, movies and books.
The Festival is brought to you by the Wellington Culinary Events Trust, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting our local hospitality industry.
