Monterey, Wellington

Monterey occupies the space that was host to a string of terrible generic Asian restaurants it’s a neat quirky typically new Zealand space- with an old fashioned gramophone by the cash register and a host of old jazz records- which you can see in the picture.

Run by Joe Kreutzberg, no stranger to the Wellington scene, it has a quirky interior, with an amazing blue mural, no windows, and the original 70s carpet that adorned the restaurant in a previous incarnation as a bad Asian restaurant, combines with friendly service, a great range of drinks and homely, delicious food to make a winning combo. As well as the good food and great drinks, which include a great freshly squeezed lemonade, and special sardines on toast. (I don’t know if they’re Monterey Sardines as per the logo).

The atmosphere is warm and inviting, with board games, jazz records on vinyl, and paper and pencils on all the tables for you to draw and write with (the results of which are sometimes photographed and posted on montereypapertrail.blogspot.com  source of the pictures for the site).