Amazing! Great food, great service, and great ambience!

Excellent restaurant for a special occasion. Also in the entertainment book but once you’ve dined, you don’t want to use the voucher, you want to pay the full price!

Attention to detail and the plating is impressive. The flavours were lovely.

I did get a bit of food envy though, as my partner picked a much nicer entree and main then I did (Don’t like it when I concentrate on another plate and not my own) Sort of dampens the experience, and plates should be equally impressive.

Service good. Booked a week in advance for two, however disappointed that we were seated back and not at a window seat for our special occasion.

However a place you must go to. If your complaining about price though, you are not suited to be at The White house. I paid $300 for two and overall I was happy with the whole night.

Went to the White House last night (Sunday) for their 3 course Bistro Menu – food was wonderful – flavours amazing – couldn’t fault the service. We took my father for his 81st birthday and he loved every minute of it. The Rum Baba is fabulous as was the snapper. The portions are not huge but we all left feeling we had had plenty to eat and the quality of the food was so worth it. Being Sunday we could also take our own wine! Would highly recommend as a fine dining experience.

We went to The White House for the first time last weekend. Wow! Our service throughout the evening was excellent, beginning with a warm greeting from the maître d’ who seated us to the attentive waiting staff throughout our meal. We appreciated the fine touches: bread to start and a palette cleanser before each course. The restaurant environment is simple and understated with a spectacular view across Wellington Harbour peeking out through the fog. Sunday is BYO wine night so we brought our own bottle of sauvignon blanc. It was kept chilled and topped up during the evening along with our water glasses. I had the twice-cooked pork belly to begin and my partner had the rabbit consomme entree. For our main course, I’d highly recommend the Pirinoa Station lamb rack, which was served medium rare. My partner’s grilled Cervena venison was also deliciously medium rare with complementing beetroot flavours. Each course was small but exquisitely formed and beautifully presented. A beautiful fine dining experience.

This was possibly the best meal I’ve had all year. The food was delicious and attention to detail was amazing. We enjoyed the salmon ceviche, the ciabatta and butter, both made in house and melt in the mouth outstanding. Then we shared the scallops and the white bait which were plump and soft, but crispy on outside (whitebait). The snapper was cooked to perfection on a creamy risotto, finished with a delicious almond cream. and the grilled venison with an accompanying roast beetroot, and pie was delicious. Nothing was bad about this experience. Service attentive, knowledgeable and timely. Who wants to be rushed in and out in an hour? Not me or anyone who appreciates fine dining. Thank you for a great evening.

Went for a special occasion. The view at the White House looking out over Oriental Parade is great. The interior decor looks like an old person’s house; dark paint that looks dirty (but isn’t), straight back chairs covered in a fabric that looks like grandma’s old couch. We were asked if we wanted sparkling or still water, assumed still was tap, but it wasn’t, it was a $10 bottle, best to check if not sure but too late now (newbie mistake). I was brought the wrong wine, his fault not mine, but that was not the impression I got from him. At each table wait staff grimly rattled off a spiel pushing the $140 per person degustation; it was like one of those phone sellers that drone on, except no option to hang up. Did not see anyone take them up on their offer (price not mentioned in the spiel but fine print at bottom of menu). Rabbit consome entree $28 was delivered as ravioli and flowers, jug of consome is produced, the trick at the White House is that even though the jug is full, they pour in so little that you have to tilt the plate to get any in your spoon! Ravioli is all wrapper and very little filling. Wife’s lobster $36 entree had been deconstructed and forced into a salty tube. *Very* long wait between courses (we arrived at ~7:30pm and (without dessert) got out at 9:15pm). Fish of the day was very ordinary fried fish on a bed of salty pumpkin. Interesting white side streak with more flowers in it and a couple of macadamia nuts. Wife’s rabbit was tough, she bought the same cut from Moore Wilson today and roasted it to show how it should be done. Side of asparagus was the same as we would do at home, side of chips were presented in a dinky little copper saucepan, but were more chewy than crispy. We bolted for the till before they could come around and ask about dessert. David Burton (who is usually a good reference) says Joe Blo might balk at the prices and doesn’t appreciate the sophistication. Guilty aMores charged I guess. On a special occasion you don’t mind paying a bit more, but you do expect to get something a bit special for the extra crack. For $212 the only thing that was special was the view (and the butter, which apparently is home-made).

Very surprised to read bad reviews for the White House. It was by far the best restaurant we have been to-and we are from Auckland! Great service, delicious food-everything was just perfect. The waiter was very helpful and the atmosphere was just amazing!

Superb fine dining, awesome food and excellent service.

We arrived a little early but were seated promptly. Our waitress was very friendly and helpful. I had the duck for mains and it was done perfectly, my wife had the ravioli and it was the best pasta dish either of us had ever tasted.

Definitely what we expected, would love to dine here again.

Went for the Wellington on a Plate menu for a Sunday lunch as was actually really disappointed. I’ve been to most restaurants in Wellington and was looking forward to finally eating at the White House.
I ordered a G&T when I arrived and wasn’t offered a drinks menu.. when the bill came it appeared that they had given me a $16 G&T almost twice the price of the cheaper gins (they have a selection of four or five) it just seemed like a tacky way to get a few more dollars..

The Waikanae crab cake, spiced coconut caramel was nice especially since I’m not a huge crab fan but it certainly was nothing to write home about.
My date & I both ordered the Fish, Lavender’s Green preserved lemon, potato, watercress, South Coast crayfish bisque which was ‘fine’ at best, I personally think that when more than one person at the same table orders a dish they should look similar in portion size and presentation, his fish portion was about 40g larger than mine. I know it seems picky but for a restaurant of this calibre I expected a higher standard.

The service was good and I would recommend the Crispy chocolate, L’Affare espresso mousse, caramel, yoghurt

Me and my boyfriend went here on Monday just gone, and we ordered the pork belly for our entree, that was cooked to perfection, crispy on the outside and moist, flavoursome and tender on the inside, and I got the lamb for my main, and I’m not a fan on lamb! But gee did I love this! It was FANTAASTIC!! It was super tender, bursting with flavour, brilliant choice of sauces with it and I was sooo disappointed when I finished it, I wanted another plate of it!! My boyfriend got the fish (Terakihi ?) and he said that it was great, nice, fresh falling to pieces in your mouth delicious!! And we got the chocolate cannelloni and snow egg passionfruit for dessert, they were both superb, the passionfruit wasn’t overpowering like it usually is! It was very nice (even for someone that doesn’t like passionfruit!) And the chocolate cannelloni was divine! it was “moussey” and soft, very delicate, and it came with some kind of coffee powder that went BEAUTIFULLY well with it! You really just need to try it for yourself to know what I mean!! We will definitely be going back there. Fantastic service, absolutely wonderful out of this world food, and brilliantly beautiful atmosphere! Definitely recommended if you want first class fine dining at its best! AAAA++++++++ Guys! Kepp up the brilliant service! <3

Dined at White House last Saturday with my lady.

Something I had been looking forward to for some time, at least 4 years since my last visit.

I have to say the food didn’t disappoint and was well up to the standard I expected.

The service was friendly and attentive, but the WH was let down a little by a couple of matters of detail.

Specifically:

The glasses of NZ bubbly we ordered before the meal, while not completely flat, was certainly not particularly fresh out of the bottle.

Entrees were excellent, but we were very surprised when 2 of the three (2 mains plus one side) which arrived were not what we ordered. Whilst this was cheerfully remedied after a couple of attempts.

No complaints about the food, but I visit quality restaurants such as the White House with very high expectations, and on this occasion, they fell a little short.

Mother’s Day lunch and for the mother it was a wonderful day so mission accomplished.

The service was good and they catered for our gluten free guest with ease

The food was tasty and presented well

What we did not like was being asked if we would like to start with a glass of bubbles and without choice, being served a $25 option

Might go back if the occasion arose and finances allowed.

This was our third visit to The White House, but the first time trying their degustation menu.

What a treat!! Our absolute favourite course was the pork belly with ginger and lychee jelly!! YUM! They were all good, but the pork … mmmmmm We didn’t go for the wine match for all courses, but were able to sample for a couple.

Such a great night. Great food and service, topped with comfy seats and stunning views.

My girlfriend and I just had the new set menu lunch on the balcony in the sun watching the Seven’s fans go by.
The location is great, close to the CBD, but right next to the golden sand beach on Oriental Bay, with plenty of parking. The food was fantastic – 3 choices per course, a choice of 2 courses for $35 or 3 courses for $50 (bargain). 5 star quality meals, exquisitely presented. I had the pork belly, followed by the snapper, then the amazing panacotta. My friend had the fish cakes, then the chicken breast, followed by french cheese. Great cocktails and coffee too. Lovely, attentive and knowledgeable staff. We highly recommend it!

My partner and I took my little sister and her new husband who were in NZ on their honeymoon for dinner here the night before they left the country as I’d heard great things about The White House and wanted to give them a fine dining experience on their last night here…..

The food was nice but the portion sizes were too small… I don’t have a huge appetite and get embarrassed when I have left overs on my plate so I didn’t order an entree but I was still hungry after the amuse-bouche(very tasty though!), bread, main , cheese course ,dessert and coffee even at a fine dining restaurant I still expect to go away full, especially given the price of their mains and although the food was very nice it wasn’t amazing…. The service was ok, the staff were more attentive at the start of the evening making sure our glasses were filled etc but once the restaurant started to fill up the service went downhill.

I’ve been to a number of fine dining restaurant and unfortunately I’d rate the service at the White House at the bottom of these, the service was ok but around the level I’d expect at Lone Star or Speights Ale House. (We possibly also lucked out with the waiter we had because he seemed a bit grumpy some of the others in the dining room seemed quite good).

We ordered a bottle of wine around the time our mains came out but even though I attempted to eat slowly the bottle didn’t come out until we’d almost finished the mains.

Views for the two people facing the window were great but not for the two of us facing with our backs to the window, it’s a shame the orientation of the tables are that way. The set up of the table we were at was booth style so the waiters couldn’t properly serve one half of the table.

The coffee was possibly the worst I’ve ever had.

At the end of the evening we waited for quite a while assuming they’d bring us our bill, we then went up to the counter to pay and waitedMore quite a while for someone to serve us.

Overall it was quite disappointing. The motto on their menu is “Unashamedly first class” I think they need a refresher course on what a first class experience is meant to be like, the bill at the end of the evening was first class but the experience was not.

Great attentive service. View magnificent (although requested a window seat that only 1 of us could see out of!?!). Food was good. Flavour of Ravioli starter great, although pasta was hard as nails! Duck confit was melt in your mouth delicious, although duck breast a bit overdone. Venison sauce a bit too overpowering. Pumpkin side nice but too garlicky but salad good. Snow egg dessert a great novelty. Wine matches superb. Overall, a good night out but not as first class as they promote. Would go again though.

Superb food, great wine list and very attentive staff. What more could you ask for?

I have to say the White House has been one of the restaurants in Wellington that I have always wanted to go to, and going during Wellington on a Plate gave me the perfect excuse to go with some friends. My mates have been before and assured me that I was in for a treat. I found the waitresses to be pretty inattentive, we were left waiting for ages so we could order and bizarrely when they came to top up one of our waters, they only partially filled the glass and didn’t bother topping up anyone elses drink! The food was nice, which surprised me. I was expecting fantastic, amazing, but it was OK. Value for money? I didn’t think so. When it came time to pay, they got what we had wrong and we had to wait quite a while before being able to pay. Overall, really really disappointing. Whether we were there for Welly on a Plate or there for anything of the standard menu, the service for somewhere like this should have been first class, and it wasn’t.

I’ve been here four times now, and I love the consistency of the food and just really good flavours that don’t wreck any of the ingredients. The only negative is the dessert menu. Two or three years ago it was peeerrrrfect – however I’d love to see the amazing hokey-pokey ice cream back on, and the chocolate selections. I’m not sure if they’re back on yet, but please please bring them back if not I did have an amazing chocolate cake recently where the hot chocolate sauce was brought out and poured on top of the cake – and it melted through the middle – bliss!

Enjoyed a lovely dinner with my husband here. Window seat was a lovely bonus to the night. Service was attentive and our entrees and mains were stunning.

My dessert was not fully cooked, staff handled it well in apologising and having the kitchen rectifying it but must stay but the time it came back out my partner had finished his dessert and I then had to eat on my own.

Good wine selection.

Excellent food, service, menu and wine selection, highly recommended! As a self appointed food critic with International hospo experience, I would rate this a 10/10.

Fantastic and I should also say beats Logan Brown in a heart beat!

For a long, long time this has been our most favourite restaurant in Wellington. Food is very innovative, service impeccable. The location is good as well. We will be frequenting this highly regarded establishment.

The White House Restaurant I have been for the best high-end restaurant. Pork crispy but not greasy, taste fresh and delicious lamb chops, chocolate desserts new style, taste slippery. Delicious food coupled with unbeatable sea views, romantic candle light in a glass of red wine, enough hard to forget. Highly recommended

In one word – DEVINE!!!!! The best food I have ever tasted in a fine dining restaurant. Had the crab ravioli, pork belly entrees; venison main and the variation on chocolate and creme brulee. Coffees to finish were great as well. Waiter was awesome – attentive but not obtrusive and a friendly guy as well!!

How disappointing, we were return diners thinking we would enjoy guaranteed quality cuisine by dining here. But alas, it was dreadful. The ravioli entree was much better suited as a desert, the whitebait entree tasteless. My duck had surrounding embellishment that simply killed it, a far too sweet juice, very inappropriate. The salmon main OK but the vegetables bland. Suffice to say we didn’t stay for deserts, an experience not to be repeated.

On Tuesday night this week I took my lovely lady out (for her birthday) to what can only be described as one of the great jewels in the crown of Wellington – having been to many restaurants of this calibre in New Zealand you expect great things, and this was no exception!

When a restaurant is able to provide an experience of this standard with the most amazing food and wine to match, with wait staff who just appear when you need them it deserves singing from the roof tops. I don’t write reviews, I’m like most kiwi’s who tend to only speak up when things don’t go well… for The White House though even I am willing to make an exception because you should enjoy it liek we did.

We dined at The White House recently on a thursday night. The food was absolutely delicious. But we felt the whole experience was seriously let down by our waitress. The evening we were there there were two waiting staff on duty. The guy was everything you would expect in top restaurants like this: professional and friendly service but slightly aloof, so we did’t notice him too much. But the woman working there was terrible. Every time she come to our table (to take our orders, bring food or drinks, clear plates, check if everything was ok) she would start by saying “my apologies”. It was really annoying. She also blanked out when trying to remember what the evening’s specials were. And we overheard her making some very embarrassing comments to the couple next to us who were from Luxembourg. (“where is luxembourg? In Europe? Oh – Europe is such a beautiful country”). She wouldn’t be too out of place at your more average NZ restaurant. But she was too provincial for a top restaurant. And it was enough to put me off going back there again.

We had an amazing experience. Service was very attentive – we let them know about my wife being pregnant and they catered the meals to her needs and provided a fruit cocktail on arrival. The staff were extremely knowledgable (the waiter had been a chef for nine years before moving to White House).

Apart from the service the entrees were probably the best part, but we loved every course all the same. Will defintely be going again when we can.

My husband and I dined at the White House recently, it was a Saturday night.

We had been told to book a table by “a window” which we did. When we arrived, the waitress attempted to seat us at a table in the middle of the room. We explained that we had been promised “a window table”, so they asked us to take a seat in the foyer while they prepared a table for us.

Half an hour after arriving, we were eventually seated.

The dining experience was below average. The waiter seemed anxious, and the reason became evident after we finished our entree. Shortly after the plates were removed, the waiter approached us and explained that we needed to order our main as “the kitchen was closing”. The time was 9:15pm!!! and were in no mood to shovel down more food.

Reluctantly, we ordered our main which arrived within ten minutes. The steak my husband was served, at 42 dollars, was the worst steak either of us have ever tasted. It was ordered medium rare, and was served over cooked on the outside and bleeding in the middle. It had all the hallmarks of a steak fresh out of the freezer and cooked too quickly. It had no taste and the plate looked disgusting once it was cut open.

The problem was explained to the waiter, and he said they wouldn’t charge us for it. No offer was made to redo the steak or offer an alternative, so my husband left hungry!!!

The restaurant was rated as one of NZ’s best, and that is a bad joke. We don’t know who decides those ratings, but from our experience.. it was not deserved. They are far from NZ’s best, they are typical of a second rate Wellington restaurant.

i loved this place. i went here for my dads birthday and the food was great (perfect sized portions and flavours) and the staff were very friendly and patient. the place is very expensive but its worth it.