• Festival Awards

Festival Awards

The festival awards recognise excellence in Visa Wellington On a Plate participants.

Festival Awards

Did your food and drink look good and taste incredible? Did you receive great service? Was what you tasted interesting, new, or challenging? As you eat and drink your way through the Festival, we want to find those spots that deliver the ultimate Visa Wellington On a Plate experience!

Every year, we ask festival goers to rate their Burger Wellington experiences out of ten. We use these crowd-sourced scores to narrow down the top contenders and find the five finalists. The finalists are then critiqued by an independent judging panel who decides the ultimate winner.

We also award the best use of theme and most innovative for each festival category, including events.

For 2024 both the Dine and Cocktail Wellington platforms were put on hold, there will be no Dine or Cocktail category winners this year.

2023 Pravda Café Cocktail - "Blue Gold"

2023 Neo Café Dine - "Would You Could You Wasabi Pie?"

2023 One80 Burger - "Goan Chicken Ros Pao"

Past Festival Award Winners

2023

Burger

  • Elixir, The Phial Of Eären-Dill - A pickleback which used “fat washing” to imbue the taste of wagyu beef and sous-vide gruyere, pickled shallots and rested brioche into bourbon. Served with a sidecar of decarbonated Garage Project Pickle Beer, along with an American mustard-infused spray.

Dine

  • Hippopotamus Restaurant, Queer Eye For The Fungi - Taking the theme quite literally, Hippopotamus gave fungi a glow-up! Shining light on the depths of the damp and dark, this three-course set menu heroed fungi in its many wonderful forms.

Cocktail

  • Pravda Café & Grill, Blue Gold- Another literal take on the theme 'breaking the mould' in the form of blue cheese, botrytis wine and Lighthouse Gin.

Event

  • Capitol & KC Cafe, Orien-table - An incredible evening celebrating two Wellington stalwarts and blending their personal and beloved cooking styles. KC Cafe and Capitol came together to break the perceptions of what each venue can offer in a true reflection of Wellington's finest.

2019

Burger

  • Rogue & Vagabond

Dine

  • Hippotamus

Cocktail

  • Mr Go's

Event

  • Havana Bar, Big Foodie Quiz of the Year

2023

Burger

  • Myrtle, Belly and Jelly - Pork belly and prawn patty, with hand-dived Worser Bay jellyfish and pickled vegetables in a Myrtle milk bun, with seaweed salted fries and sriracha mayonnaise.

Dine

  • Zelati Dessert Cafe, Absolutely Avo-licious - Avocado toast like you’ve never had before! Zelati broke the mould this housemade real avocado gelato encased in a 72% dark chocolate ‘avocado skin’.

Cocktail

  • Oak & Vine Restaurant, La Nouvelle Façon - A four-course cocktail degustation menu inspired by the theme 'breaking the mould' which offered a platter of cocktails in four different flavours and forms all made with different techniques.

Event

  • Graze x Teresa, Abstraction - Andrea Marseglia from Teresa, Hawke's Bay teamed up with Max Gordy and the good people of Graze Wine Bar to deliver an ambitious cocktail matched degustation. They drew on inspiration from the abstract artists that broke the mould of traditional art and of what we know as dinner.

2019

Burger

  • Karaka Cafe

Dine

  • Hillside Kitchen & Cellar

Cocktail

  • Coco At The Roxy

Event

  • Hillside Kitchen & Cellar - Bandersnack

2023: One80, Goan Chicken Ros Pao - an Indian-inspired burger combined spicy chicken curry with a ros omelette – similar to a gravy and made out of chickpeas – on a bun that is heavily influenced by poee bread, a type of bread similar to pita that is traditionally served alongside curry and ros omelette.

2022: Chaat Street, Dabeli - crispy dabeli spiced potato patty with Fix & Fogg Smoke and Fire peanut butter, coriander, onions, crispy chickpea noodles and tamarind chutney in a masala butter brioche bun.

2021: Egmont St Eatery

2019: Cafe Medici

2018: Wilson Barbecue

2017: Mr Go's

2016: Apache

2015: Egmont St. Eatery

2014: Charley Noble

2013: Ti Kouka 

2012: Boulcott Street Bistro

2011: Café Polo

2010: Lembas Café

2023 One80  Burger Wellington - "Goan Chicken Ros Pao"

2023 One80 Burger - "Goan Chicken Ros Pao"

2023: Pravda, Blue Gold - saffron and apricot infused Lighthouse gin, botrytis viognier, dry sherry, burnt pōhutukawa honey and clarified lemon garnished with apricot dust.

2022: Boulcott Street Bistro, The Martinborough Martini - brown butter washed Reid & Reid Rev. Dawson’s gin with housemade Palliser chardonnay vermouth and fresh dill. Accompanied by a crayfish éclair.

2021: C.G.R Merchant & Co.

2019: Pravda

2018: C.G.R Merchant & Co.

2017: CoCo at The Roxy

2016: CoCo at The Roxy

2015: CoCo at The Roxy

2023 Pravda Café Cocktail - "Blue Gold"

2023 Pravda Café Cocktail - "Blue Gold"

2023: Neo Café, Would You Could You Wasabi Pie? - Gelissimo yuzu sorbet and wasabi gelato, burnt cinnamon and lemon marshmallow on Jaconde sponge with lemon shortbread crumbs, makrut lime curd and micro basil.

2022: Neo Café, Flat White Project - Whittaker's Flat White Chocolate mousse with Garage Project Cereal Milk Stout torte, chocolate almond dacquoise, chocolate shell, hazelnut praline and a Coffee Supreme blend espresso pour-over.

2021: Boulcott Street Bistro

2019: Grace Patisserie

2018: Field & Green

2017: Ortega Fish Shack & Bar

2016: Jano Bistro 

2015: Logan Brown

2014: The White House

2023 Neo Café Dine Dish - "Would You, Could You, Wasabi Pie?"

2023 Neo Café Dine Dish - "Would You, Could You, Wasabi Pie?"

Rate & Win

After you’ve checked out the Festival’s burgers, you can head back to the listing page and rate each of them out of ten. Not only will you help determine the Festival Awards finalists, every rating you make will put you in the draw to win!

We’ve sent food lovers to Copenhagen, Melbourne and Singapore, dished out some epic Wellington producer goodie bags and sent winners on exclusive brewery tours. Check out our Rate & Win page for more info!

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