IN BRIEF
Contemporary fine dining in a casualised setting.
WHY CHOOSE THIS RESTAURANT?
Twenty-five years ago, Hummingbird truly was humming and shaking all over. Founding owner John Coleman acted as DJ, presiding over a playlist that got louder and raunchier as the night progressed. An enduring image is of a tattooed server wearing Doc Marten boots and a biro down her cleavage. But that was then. Emerging from a four-year post-Covid hiatus, Hummingbird’s fully earthquake-strengthened interior has now been fully embourgeoised to current taste by co-owner Gina Mills. Neo-modernist dining chairs are well-padded to ensure maximum comfort for leisurely fine dining. The bespoke wallpaper, by fashion designer Annah Stretton, sees a fantail motif morphed into the hummingbirds now fluttering around the blooms. Adding to this graceful panorama are bright floral banquettes and an intricately tiled bar. For the cognoscenti, maitre d’ Patrick Ferrier slides back the grand wall panelling to reveal a secret back lounge with no name, where all small plates from the menu can be eaten to the gentle tinkling of a baby grand. This ambience, along with closing off the Blair Street entrance to Hummingbird, is deliberately designed to ensure this back lounge does not degenerate into the rowdy, problematic quasi-nightclub that was Betty’s. (Patrolling police constables never did click that the annoyingly persistent smell of cannabis along Blair Street was wafting from a tiny footpath-level grille in Betty’s basement!).
ABOUT THE FOOD
Like most contemporary chefs of note, chef Gareth Bolesworth takes bits and pieces from here and there and puts them back together his way. “I love having the freedom here at Hummingbird to do just that,” he says, thanks to the loosening of budgetary reins by Nick and Gina Mills. Canoes of witloof leaf are criss-crossed into a wreath, each bearing a cargo of ambrosia, with a superb reduced and lightly sweetened orange dressing. While ‘raw fish, kelp cream, green olive’ may sound simple, it is anything but: the ‘cream’ is a heavily reduced Japanese-style dashi made from kelp and the dried fish trimmings and skin. Green olives are dehydrated into tiny balls for the garnish.
ABOUT THE CHEF
After training as a chef in his native Lancashire, Gareth went on, at the age of just 23, to become the chef de cuisine of the Coach House Brasserie in his home town of Chorley. Moving to Wellington in 2009, he spent a year as head chef at Matterhorn, once crowned this magazine’s New Zealand Restaurant of the Year. Having twice returned to England, Gareth has twice been lured back to Wellington, most recently by Dockside executive chef Marie Penny.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Manager Patrick Ferrier doubles as the highly personable maitre d’, who can’t walk down the street without some local saying hello. The reason: over the past 20 years he has worked at Arbitrageur, Cinderella, Salty Pidgin, WBC and Capitol.
OF NOTE
Having lived in the capital long enough to experience Wellington Harbour on a good day, Gareth Bolesworth sees the relaunching of Hummingbird as one small step towards getting ‘it’ back again.
ADDRESS: 22 Courtenay Place, Te Aro, Wellington
Check website for opening hours
SHARING PLATES: $16 – $85
CONTACT: 04 801 6336
WEBSITE: hummingbirdwellington.co.nz
