When it comes to restaurants the ambiance and service are as important to me as the food. This is why Pravda is my favorite place for lunch in Wellington.

It’s a beautiful space and has an elegant but warm feel about it. Never empty it has a nice buzz and I’ve always found the service professional and genuinely friendly.

If you come for a meal and sit upstairs you are taken to your table and the vibe is slightly more formal, if you come in for coffee or a drink at the bar it’s more relaxed.

The chef always has a divine fish of the day which I tend to order, but recently the cold weather drove me to the rack of lamb / lamb shank pie, which was excellent.

I recommend Pravda as the food is consistently great and the service consistently charming.

I took part in a “Christmas Lunch” for six at Pravda in November – having the special set menu.

The food was good, breads, then a tasty starter followed by confit Turkey leg and Christmas pudding, and the service kept things flowing well.

We had a couple of wines from the list as well as a glass of port at the end and the atmosphere made for a good Christmas feel despite the fact there was still a month to go.

The Christmas menu is $60pp and we spent a further $60pp on drinks, but it felt like money well spent on a festive meal.

Well done Pravda – I’ll certainly return.

Pravda, Pravda, Pravda. Why everytime I go to get a coffee from you do I have to wait upwards of 15 minutes to get it? I know I go at the busiest times (which the person making coffee so ‘politely’ pointed out to me today) but shouldn’t you realise that 10-11 is going to be busy and employ more staff to be making the coffee? The coffee itself is fine but the wait is far too long.

Pravda is really great! We went for the first time using a deal voucher (which comprised mains, sides and two drinks). We also ordered some extra drinks, a cheese platter and dessert. Everything was lovely, my partner (who is veggie) was very impressed by the gnocchi and I loved the Akaroa Salmon. The dessert (chocolate figs) was truly sensational. The wines we sampled were superb. We were impressed by the reasonable prices at this restaurant, compared to, for example, Logan Brown and Martin Bosley’s. Pravda offer similarly high calibre cuisine, and an elegant, sophisticated ambience, but in addition won’t break the bank! The wait staff were mostly lovely, but as the place was very busy, perhaps a little rushed. Can’t wait to take my family to Pravda!

Quick visit for supper before a concert on Saturday night. Friendly staff and really excellent meal – we all had the special of the day – groper. The bruschetti for starters were interesting and tasty – one plate was plenty for the three of us. Will be back for a longer meal next time.

I recently celebrated my 5 year anniversary and emailed Pravda and asked about the possibility of a degustation. I received a call from the functions manager who said that she chatted with the Head Chef and they would be delighted to accommodate my request. I had a quick meeting with him the following week to discuss the evening, state that I have an egg allergy, and he said he can take care of everything.

We arrived on the night and were taken to our seats, a wonderful cosy corner with the outlook of the entire restaurant and the kitchen. We had custom made menus just for our special night. The menu looked incredible and the wait staff were always so happy to serve us and answer any questions – we didn’t have to ask for anything the whole night and were really taken care of.

The Head Chef came out to personally serve us a couple of dishes and talk about the food which was fantastic, so incredible that he was able to do this and that there was a bit of a fuss – this made us both feel on top of the world.

We got a touch nervous at certain parts of the meal because there was ‘Mayo type sauces’ and Gnocchi but without eggs! I’m often I’m reduced to having no sauce to speak of or very run of the mill, packety, type stuff – This was fantastic for me and the Head Chef shared a few nuggets of gold ‘cheffy’ information on how to’s (fantastic!).

The food was absolutely terrific, The Head Chef is truly an artist and you can see the passion on the plate when we were presented with the meals. We were so impressed.

We have been foodies since before it was ‘mainstream’, we have travelled far and wide, close on 30 odd countries with a passion for tasting everything we could. Our mind over the evening and for the week since has turned to our best dishes and dining experiences, the food and our experience at Pravda is right up there.

The Head Chef (Adam) is a ridiculously passionate and fantastic chMoreef.

In Wellington we have dined at The Chameleon, Boulcott St Bistro, Logan Brown, Shed 5, White House, Matterhorn among others and Pravda would be one we would revisit and recommend to our friends in a heartbeat.

Why oh why do they take all of their good dishes off the menu and replace them with blandness. The coffee is always reliable and the interior is brooding. I always leave wanting brunch to have been better as more potential than is delivered upon lies within

Overall I came away unsure how I felt. Due to the price structure of the menu I felt slightly violated, but due to the quality of the food I am not sure I minded, too much, in the end.

I arrived early and surveyed the menu, and the others arrived soon after. I told them, that in my opinion there really was only one valid option, the Pravda big breakfast. They perused, and then agreed. The pricing of the sides was either an attempt at humour, or a loud statement along the lines of “Don’t you dare go messing around with side orders… order a dish from the menu please, we try very hard to ensure our dishes need no side orders.”

$8 for a side of bacon or sausage,
$5 for sough dough, and
$3.50 for hollandaise sauce.

Is that a Tui Commercial?

So, three Pravda Breakfasts it was. At $21.00 each this was in the category of “Well it had better be bloody good then”.

And it was. The sausage was extraordinarily good. The mushrooms were great – whole portabellos, and the bacon was nice and crispy. The eggs were good eggs, mine scrambled and the other two poached. The hand made has browns got mixed reviews. I thought they were a close second to Mixed Business’s (on the Terrace) for the title of ‘Best hash browns in Wellington’, but the other two members of our partly were less impressed… one thinking they were overly salty and one thinking they could have been cooked longer to be more crispy – whereas I liked the moist soft centre… The food was very very good, and we were all very pleased and well sated.

The service and the coffees were both good, although the continued difficulty with the sugar dispensers at Pravda did cause consternation and humour (and sugar all over the table). The music was overly loud and the ambience was intrusive – you have to try to maintain a conversation. Pricey, but with food of a suitably high standard to match.

I see a wide range of responses from highly favorable to highly unfavourable, with a general agreement that the food is excellent, but questions around the service and the portion sizes. I ate at Pravda on a Tuesday night. The food was very good, the service was fine and the portions weren’t especially small – although having an additional vegetable side dish with the main course proved to be a good idea. With that, my group was happy to stick to a main – although a second course would also have been OK.

This is a place you need to knwo what to expect …. good tasting food, but small portions – relaxed dining. Not a plce to go for a quick lunch. Tends to be on the high price side for what you get.
Again – if you are expecting this you will be happy.

This was my favourite cafe when I lived in Wellington so I looked forward to having breakfast here when we were recently in the city.

The service was dreadful. The girl who (eventually) gave us menus and took our order was rude and the girl who brought our coffee was mute – or at least we think she was – she didn’t appear to have the power of speech.

The food was fine – good salt and pepper squid; competent breakfast. Coffee way too strong – even at half strength – for me anyway – my partner drank his.

But whole thing spoiled by awful female waiting staff who treated us as if we were far too uncool to be treated with any degree of civility.

Having eaten in this restuarant before we were looking forward to our meal on Friday night. There was nothing wrong with the taste, in fact quite exquisite, however the size of the meal was minimal especially for the cost, a duck leg should have read duckling (1 bite). The fish, groper? doubt it and very small portions. Two scollops on a small amount of parsnip mash, even for an entree at $18.50 that was pretty mean, especially as the waiter had told us there were three large scollops.
To end it all the coffee and hot chocolate tasted great but were cold.
When we commented on these failings we did not feel it was taken graciously at all. The staff may have been busy but they need a little more training on seeing that their customers have everything they need, having to ask twice for the ordered wine and sugar for coffee etc
Shame we (three of us, two who were regulars) will not be revisiting or recommending this restuarant.

Great atmosphere, but rather patchy. The servings are clearly set to entict you to buy at least 3 courses to fill you up. The bruschetta was almost laughablly small. I had to stand up and go looking for one of their staff members twice, astonshing considering there were 6 of them. Food was lovely though.

The food was amazing, I had the duck and my friend had the Salmon, then we shared the choclate Fondant which was Devinne I will be back for sure. Staff are very friendly and attentive, but the manager was chewing gum which i found unprofessional.

Awesome food, potato dumplings to die for! Excellent friendly service. Highly recommend this restaurant

Sometime life is about quality not size. I dined for the first time at Pravda last Tuesday unlike the other reviewer I did not take my measuring stick.

I also had the Bruschetta w semi dried tomatoes and feta, I purchased the same incredible semi dried tomatoes from a deli yesterday and could not believe how expensive they were however they are just amazing. (the brand name of the is Menu and are imported from Italy) worth every cent. I fail to see how Pravda could make money out of this dish given the cost of the semi dried tomatoes never mind the feta, bread etc.

I had potato dumplings for a main, oh my god just fantastic.
Another highlight of my meal was the gin and tonic sorbet, the sorbet was still fizzy, very very cool.

I will be going back