Few pubs anywhere can match the backstory of The Welsh Dragon Bar. Its home on the road median at the northern end of Cambridge and Kent Terraces was built in 1928 and 1929 as a public toilet, designed by the City Engineer’s office and nicknamed the Taj Mahal for the domes at either end. The toilets shut in 1964, reopened after public protest, then closed for good in 1966. Downstage Theatre later used the building for storage and workshops, and over the following decades it housed an art gallery and a string of restaurants and bars, a Welsh restaurant among them. Now on the Heritage New Zealand List, the little domed landmark has been a Welsh pub since 2004.
New Welsh owners took over in 2018 and set out to blend a warm Welsh welcome with Kiwi hospitality under the banner of the people’s pub. Greetings of croeso and haere mai set the tone, Welsh history and memorabilia cover the walls, and the sunny beer garden fills whenever the weather allows, with dogs every bit as welcome as their owners. It is believed to be the only bar of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and with the Basin Reserve in view at the far end of Cambridge Terrace it makes a natural stop for a post match debrief. Rugby features heavily on the screens, with All Blacks tests and the big international series shown, and function rooms inside the heritage building can be hired for private events.
The menu celebrates Welsh and British pub food made with high quality local ingredients, and its headings appear in Welsh as well as English. Under prif brydau, the main meals, sit a vegetarian shepherd’s pie built on a savoury fungi mince with a cheesy mashed potato top, which can be made vegan, scotch fillet steak and chips with peppercorn sauce and compound butter, a simple smash cheeseburger, a halloumi burger with beetroot relish and hummus, and a lamb donner kebab wrapped in homemade flatbread with mint yoghurt. The Sunday roast, or cinio rhost, is the jewel in the crown: slow roasted beef topside from a local butcher with Yorkshire pudding, gravy, roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables, alongside vegetarian and vegan roasts built around a nut and vegetable cutlet.
Behind the bar, the team scours the hills and valleys of Wales for beers, ciders and spirits to pour beside British, New Zealand and international favourites, so a pint of traditional Welsh ale is never far away. Music and conversation are woven through the week. A Celtic music night invites players to join a traditional session or simply listen over a pint, the Pōneke Shanty Club gathers for rousing sea shanties, and a singing session brings unaccompanied traditional songs to a table of friends. Sunday evenings belong to the pub quiz, played in teams of up to six, with solo visitors helped to find a team, and because the doors stay open late, a chat in the beer garden can easily stretch well into the night.
Address: 10A Cambridge Terrace, Te Aro, Wellington 6011
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