Wallburger

On Sunday I completed another Zealandia By Day tour at 1000. The lucky punters on this particular trip got the bonus tour, and I didn’t finish until 1245.  Overrunning on a tour is fine so long as you check with your group beforehand that they’re not under any time pressure, and are happy to go longer…unlike the cruise ship tours I was doing last summer, where the golden rule is to be back at the Visitor Centre in time for their bus.

As it was, we’d had a great tour with lots of good sightings, but I was hungry! I checked the Burger Wellington app for venues in the CBD to get my burger fix, and decided on Coco’s Bar & Grill. Open for lunch and dinner, it said, so I parked up, and headed to Willeston Street, to find out that it is open for lunch and dinner, except Sundays. “Bah! No matter, I’ll go to Concrete instead” I said to myself. I got to their door (they’re up Cable Car Lane, and upstairs) and it didn’t look particularly open, but I pushed against the door and it opened, so I went upstairs. The next door was locked, however, and I’ve a feeling the one downstairs should have been too, as I had to search around and find the door release to let myself out. Two down, I checked the app again, and looked up Rosie’s Red-Hot Cantina & Taco Joint. This was in Queen’s Wharf, on the dockside, so I figured there was a pretty good chance of them being open. And lo and behold, they were!

If you’ve not heard of Rosie’s, and you live in Wellington, this is probably because they’ve only just opened – on the site previously occupied by Munchen, and before that Chicago Sports Bar. They’re so new, in fact, that when I scanned the QR code for the Covid tracer app, the name still came up as Munchen. 

Their Burger Wellington offering is the Wallburger, and it’s described like this: Smoked and smashed brisket patty with pepper jack cheese, dill pickles, chipotle mayo and curtido cabbage relish in a Brezelmanina potato bun with chilli con queso fries and birria dip. The Garage Project beer match was once again Garagista, so I again had that.

It looks like this: 

That is a substantial burger! The fries were smothered in aioli and chilli, so were more suitable for eating with a fork, but the burger was pick-up-able. Unfortunately the bun wasn’t of the most robust construction, and as I was eating it, it stared to drift apart like a plate tectonic. This wasn’t helped by the burger – I don’t think the brisket had been cooked long enough to get to that fall-apart consistency which is usually the aim, and it was still a bit chewy. The cheese, relish and pickles, however, were good. I feel that this burger was let down in the delivery, and the cooking of the brisket – the elements were all here to make this a great burger. The fries in themselves would probably make a good meal – I couldn’t finish them. I’m scoring it a disappointing 6/10.