The menu for has been announced for Burger Wellington, New Zealand's biggest sandwich festival. Photo / Supplied, Visa Wellington on a Plate
The menu for has been announced for Burger Wellington, New Zealand's biggest sandwich festival. Photo / Supplied, Visa Wellington on a Plate
Burger Wellington has released its menu of competing sandwiches. And it’s a whopper!
There are 200 burgers on offer, from barbacoa to battered oysters. Anything you can stick between two pieces of bread, really.
August is around the corner and so are second helpings of Wellingtonon a Plate, which is back for more with the winter edition running from August 11-27. The public vote on the capital’s best eateries is back next month, along with Beervana on Friday and Saturday, August 18-19, and New Zealand’s biggest burger competition.
What started as a side dish for the food festival, Burger Wellington is now a main event at the winter food festival.
“Burgers are the ultimate equaliser, allowing restaurants, cafes, and even corner stores to demonstrate their creativity. Every year I am blown away by the imagination, skills, and sense of fun of Wellington’s chefs,” she says.
Cheaper by the half Doz: Burger Wellington offers a range of dishes from freegan sandwiches to this oyster bun from GOP. Photo / Supplied, Visa Wellington on a Plate
Every year around a quarter of a million burgers are consumed as part of the festival, with public voting providing numbers to crunch to find a top bap.
Last year saw Chaat Street’s “Dabeli” burger being named winner of Burger Wellington 2022, a spiced vegetarian potato patty cooked in Fix & Fogg Smoke and Fire peanut butter.
The success has led to a surprising variety of kitchens getting involved. There are both fast food and fine dining options, but all of the 200 entries are undeniably burgers.
Smashed has concocted a “Burger of the Gods”, a buttered double patty burger with a side of parmesan fries, and QT Wellington’s restaurant Hippopotamus has created a fittingly surreal dish called Not Your Grandma’s Pearls: a gold cheese and foie gras monstrosity served in a pastel pink burger box.
Chaat Street is back again with a spiced pulled green jackfruit burger with saunth chutney and carrot pickle.
Competing restaurants are spread as far North as Hey Coastie in Waikanae and as far East as Cafe Medici in Martinborough.
Not Your Grandma's Pearls: QT Wellington's restaurant Hippopotamus has a bun in the Burger Wellington competition. Photo / Visa Wellington on A Plate
Beth Brash, head of programming for Wellington on a Plate, says there are some “boundary-pushing” buns.
“It’s really important to us that the festival is accessible to all, so there’s budget-friendly burgs as well as more decadent options like crayfish, caviar, oysters, and truffle making an appearance.”
Wellington charity Everybody Eats has created a pay-what-you-want burger out of donated food surplus.
Sponsors Garage Project have brewed some limited-edition savoury beers to complement the burgers on offer, including a spiced tomato and sour lime IPA and the festival draught Pickle Beer.
Winning sandwiches will be announced on September 4 along with the Visa Wellington On a Plate August Edition Awards.
