Eating Some Food in Wellington, a review: Dockside

In Part Five, I go to Dockside and am distinctly underwhelmed.

Get your suits here!

On Sunday I went with Shannon and his father Ross and stepmother Angela for lunch at Dockside. Dockside would never be my first choice for a place to eat, but given that Angela didn't enjoy herself very much at all at the last place we ate (Sweet Mother's Kitchen), it was definitely their turn to nominate a place to meet.

So. About Dockside. The last time I went to Dockside was about four years ago, and again, against my better judgement. It used to be referred as the Dry Cleaner, because “everyone went home with a suit” ie boozing after work on a Friday night at Dockside would lead you to score at the business end of town.

Sunday brunch at Dockside is somewhat more salubrious. The place really is in a wonderful position overlooking the harbour and the weather was absolutely stunning, so sitting in the conservatory was very pleasant indeed. There was a man playing inoffensive music on an acoustic guitar, so inoffensive and forgettable indeed that I can't even name one of the songs that he played. So: good company, lovely views, and live muzak.

The staff were very pleasant too, even when we turned up over an hour early because Shannon had got the time wrong (and now I am letting this go). The front of house staff were attentive without being overly so, refilling our water glasses frequently enough to keep us happy but not so much that one felt one was being chided for lack of hydration. Our food and drinks arrived very punctually. We drank a rather delicious Brookfield's Rose (Hawkes Bay) which made me think about summer in a very wistful manner.

The food was another matter entirely. The first glance at the menu reveals absolutely insane overpricing of brunch food. We're talking $20 bacon and eggs, $30 fish and chips, $19.50 for four pieces of squid and a salad. Those kind of prices are all very well and good if the food is crazy delicious, the ingredients sourced fresh locally and are organic etc etc. However, the food was average beyond belief, by which I mean that it was not very good at all. While the actual squid in my overpriced salt and pepper squid salad was itself very tender, it was encased in a very floury batter with not a lot of salt and pepper going on. The salad was a sad little puddle of mesculun leaves and contained FAR too much red onion (and not a lot else). I had some of Shannon's fish and chips and thought that the fish was overcooked (mushy) and the crumbing on the fish was too too dry. Gross. His chips were good but were the kind of frozen shoestring fries that you can buy for about $10 for umpteen kilos at Moore Wilsons and the tomato sauce was definitely Watties. Dudes, the best thing about the whole meal was the deep fry! A sad state of affairs.

In conclusion: a lovely place to catch up with Ross and Angela with gorgeous views of the harbour and inoffensive live muzak. However the prices and the quality of the food leave a hell of a lot to be desired. For a place that purports to specialise in seafood, their actual abilities to cook it were derisive. Don't do it!

Epilogue: on the way home we saw a seal and the worlds tiniest little tug boat thing. That was cool.