If you are looking for a spot to grab a bite or a drink, Cuba Street is the place to go in Wellington. The street is packed for blocks and blocks with a whole range of interesting looking spots. There are restaurants serving food from every country you can think of, including India, Malaysia, Turkey and Mexico. You have the local restaurants serving fusion dishes including one restaurant, Logan Brown, which is considered one of the best restaurants in New Zealand. You have, of course, a pretty large choice of spots to have coffee too, since New Zealand does seem to be the coffee lovers capital of the world oddly enough. So the other morning when we were looking for a spot to grab a quick breakfast we had plenty of choices. Olive jumped out at us and welcomed us in.
I really liked Olive. First it has a fantastic name, isn’t that just a great name for a coffee, breakfast, lunch, restaurant and overall just really fun place to be? I think so! Inside the place is bright and airy with wooden tables and interesting art pieces on the wall. My favorite part though was the terrace outside at the back which feels like an overgrown jungle with great colorful tables and chairs scattered throughout.
I ordered a hot chocolate and a breakfast bagel and was pretty happy with both. My hot chocolate came in a tall glass which seems to be the norm in New Zealand. Pretty much all my hot chocolates came in glasses and were all too hot to hold until pretty much the point when the hot chocolate had turned lukewarm. It looked really nice and didn’t taste bad. It tasted like sweet warm milk which made me happy this particular morning. For a country that is so into their coffees I wish they put a little bit more effort into their hot chocolates, but I did enjoy this one.
We were in a bit of a rush this morning as there was a 2.5 hour walking tour that leaves from the tourism office at 10am that we wanted to take. We got there just on time, and were really impressed with it (Walk Wellington). After the walking tour finished, we continued on our own, walking along the harbor, up the hill to the Botanical Gardens and paid a visit at the end of the day to the “Te papa” museum which you will like even if you don’t like museums.
Verdict: I wish I had an Olive close to my house so it could be my hang out spot. I would pick one of the chairs in the outside jungle and just set up there…indefinitely. Olive, 170 Cuba St, Wellington, New Zealand
