Rosella is a neighbourhood restaurant and wine bar set inside a two-storey 1886 house on Mount Victoria's Majoribanks Street. Co-owners Johnon MacDonald and Kat Strand have shaped it as a relaxed but carefully designed place, with a downstairs dining room and an upstairs area that accommodates walk-ins, cocktails and private functions. The food is made for sharing, while bookings and a choice of nine-dish menus allow diners to hand the ordering over to the kitchen when they want a longer, more structured meal.
The smaller plates carry Rosella's Mediterranean, North African and Middle Eastern influences in concentrated form. Natural or thyme-butter oysters can begin the table, followed by smoked tomato toast with white-bean purée and green olive, or wagyu tartare sharpened by anchovy, cured egg and harissa vinaigrette. A smoked-butter crumpet supports venison pastrami and taramasalata, while mushroom parfait comes with pickled enoki and focaccia. Each dish layers smoke, acidity, spice and richness rather than leaning on size alone.
Seafood is a recurring strength. Kingfish crudo is paired with preserved lemon and Chardonnay sauce vierge, pickled mussels with wasabi aioli and black-bean dressing, and roasted king prawns with ginger, garlic and Aleppo chilli. Grilled butterfish brings black-lime beurre blanc and smoked capers, while wood-roasted kingfish wings take a more robust route. Portuguese chicken with zhoug yoghurt, spiced beef cheek and wagyu sirloin ensure the larger plates are not confined to the coast.
Vegetables receive similarly complete treatment: roasted cauliflower with almond cream, cabbage with tahini and harissa, and carrot with hummus can anchor a vegetarian spread rather than merely fill gaps. Dessert moves from olive-oil torta with kiwi and cream-cheese parfait to espresso-mascarpone chocolate cake, tiramisu and grapefruit-Campari sorbet. Rosella's adventurous wine list and floral, herbaceous cocktails fit naturally around those flavours, making the restaurant well suited to a date, a group catch-up or a leisurely weekend lunch.
Address: 18 Majoribanks Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
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