Wellington Food Blogger Lunch - Duke Carvell's

I got an exciting email a couple of weeks ago - a group of Wellington food bloggers were planning to meet up for lunch. Exciting because not only do I get to spend time with people who are as obsessed with food as I am, but I (hopefully) won't get judged for whipping out my camera at the table!

The venue of choice was Duke Carvell's, which has fantastic decor (fantastic chandeliers, portraits everywhere - overall a very comforting feeling venue). The company was wonderful - there were nine of us, all up - who knew Wellington was so awash with food bloggers? - and we ended up taking almost three hours over lunch. It was great hearing about people's motivations to start blogging, and also how amazingly varied our 'real lives' are.

My lunch was the very alluring picorino and spring onion potato cake with poached eggs, chorizo and cherry tomatoes. My photography sadly still leaves a lot to be desired but the look of this dish was nothing compared to the aroma it had anyway, and I definitely don't have the magic to convey that through the intertubes! The chorizo was rich and full of flavour, without being oily. The potato cake was soft and nicely flavoured and perfectly complemented by the tomato mixture. I could have lived without the eggs - they were fine but I'm just not such a fan of eggs - but they did still fit well with the other components of the dish.

We all demolished our lunch (all the other dishes looked pretty good, too, and I'm guessing we might hear about some from the other bloggers present soon) and kept chatting away. Though we waved away the dessert menu we did order some drinks to keep us going - and I chose a hot chocolate. It was amazing - check this out:

It was so thick and chocolatey, and topped with actual cream - oh, the gluttony! Everyone exclaimed over the decadence and I believe I was the envy of the table for a short term I also liked the cute spoon - I didn't take a close-up but it's a Wanaka souvineer spoon.

Our waitress was very helpful and attentive and I'll definitely be back to Duke Carvell's - it was a great spot for a leisurely weekend lunch. I also hope there will be many more gatherings of the members of the Wellington blogosphere - I thoroughly enjoyed the company.

Links to the works of my fellow diners, for your delectation:
Hungry & Frozen
Lovely Wee Days
Treehouse Kitchen
Gusty Gourmet
@ Down Under
Something Else to Eat
Domestic Scene




Duke Carvell's is located at 6 Swan Lane (off Cuba Street), Wellington, ph 04 385 2240, http://dukecarvells.co.nz/