The Larder has been feeding Miramar since 2009 from a prominent turn of the century house on Darlington Road, and the building sets the tone before the menu even arrives. A huge wooden half circle window frames the entrance, an ornate fireplace anchors the dining room, and there is seating for around 30 inside with a few tables out front. The café sits on a quiet corner of the neighbourhood just down the street from Wētā Workshop and the Wētā Cave, so regulars from the surrounding streets share the room with Wētā staff and with visitors stopping in before or after a tour. Reviewers single out the friendly staff, and the mix of homely charm and attentive service works as well for a lazy weekend brunch as for a weekday business meeting.
Its kitchen aims to be all things to all people, pairing hearty café cooking with lunches that borrow from fine dining, and every egg and piece of meat it uses is free range. Breakfast is served all day. Buttermilk crepes come with apple yoghurt, macerated blueberries, coconut syrup and toasted coconut, poached eggs sit on potato rosti with sautéed spinach, bacon and hollandaise, and scrambled eggs arrive with manuka smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes and dill on toasted ciabatta. There is a croque madame layered with Swiss gruyere, Dijon and smoked ham, a breakfast burger stacking fried egg, bacon and rosti in a milk bun, and portobello mushrooms with shaved parmesan, wild rocket and balsamic for vegetarians.
On the lunch side, a cauliflower soup is finished with grilled prawns, curry leaves and harissa, and a twice cooked soufflé of goats’ cheese and gruyere is scented with white truffle oil. Grilled chicken livers come with bacon, pickled shallots, sherry vinegar and watercress on toasted ciabatta, while pappardelle with lamb meatballs, roasted tomato sauce and mint sits beside orecchiette with broccoli, chilli, wild rocket and lemon. A fried chicken burger made with buttermilk chicken, jalapeño cheese and sriracha mayonnaise and a grilled sirloin with red wine jus round out the savoury choices, and dessert brings crème brûlée perfumed with vanilla, or affogato with almond tuiles. Weekend chef’s specials have included beef cheek hash and buttermilk waffles with fried chicken, and the dishes carry codes showing whether it suits vegetarians or vegans and whether a version without gluten, dairy or nuts is possible.
Coffee Supreme supplies the beans, and for anyone skipping the espresso there are chai, turmeric chai and matcha lattes, iced strawberry or raspberry matcha, and T Leaf teas such as kawakawa fire and Turkish apple. A blood orange kombucha brewed in house, Benjer apple and feijoa juice and Hardie Boys ginger beer cover the cold options. For a longer lunch, the short wine list leans on New Zealand regions, from Astrolabe sauvignon blanc and Wet Jacket pinot gris to Putangi pinot noir, with a cellar list that reaches Rioja, the Médoc and Champagne. Beers come from Garage Project and Parrotdog, alongside Cassels milk stout and Hallertau cider, and lighter drinkers can choose Sawmill’s Nimble pale ale from Matakana or a Parrotdog IPA with almost no alcohol.
Address: 133 Darlington Road, Miramar, Wellington 6022
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