I can now say that of all the meals I’ve ever eaten in my entire life, in all the various cities I’ve been to, there are now officially three ‘meals’ that I will never forget. These meals (or in the case of one, a drink that was like a meal) have had the effect that when I had finished them, I genuinely felt a little sad; meals that I can still remember and taste when I think of them.

And these three meals are all in Wellington. 

The first was a mushroom risotto at Capitol. It had been around a year or so after it opened when I decided to treat myself to a not-so-student-loan-friendly lunch for one. It was worth the extra spend. That mushroom risotto was a thing of beauty and I have never found another to match it in terms of creaminess and mushroomy flavour.

Next was a Randy Savage cocktail at The Library bar. It was like a gingerbready, apple crumbly dessert all in one delicious cocktail glass.

And the most recent addition to this list would have to be the beetroot risotto at Fratelli’s. Funnily enough, another risotto. The beetroot was wonderfully sweet, the dish was an amazing colour, creamy-as and so, so damn tasty. Its official description: “Wairarapa beetroot gorgonzola risotto with toasted pinenuts, baby peas, balsamic reduction and grana padano”. 

Sadly, this risotto is only on the menu as part of the Wellington on a Plate festival. I asked the waitress if I could make a special request for it if I booked but she seemed uncertain.

Much of my evening at Fratelli’s was a bit of a blur due to having drunk two glasses of red prior to dinner and then being served matching wines throughout each of the three courses. I won’t however, be forgetting that beetroot risotto in a hurry. It was the entree, but I could’ve easily had it as a main.