Burger Wellington finalists announced

Monday, 25 August 2025

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Wellington’s best burger is one step closer to being announced with the naming of the finalists of this year’s Burger Wellington competition.

Burger Wellington officially finished on Sunday. The regionwide event completed its 16th year, seeing 40 different eateries around Wellington put a spin on the classic meal in the hopes of winning gold.

This year’s theme for Wellington on a Plate was Food is Love - so burgers inspired by comforting, home-cooked meals featured on many menus. Boil up, pork roast, fish curry, and laksa were a few of the familiar meals that inspired various WOAP burgers.

After 21,886 votes were cast and tallied, the five final restaurants have been announced by Wellington on a Plate: Khao Soi; Macha, Jom Tapau!; One80 Restaurant; Sushil's Musclechef Kitchen and Café; and Te Papa Café.

Te Papa Cafe’s Āhuru Kai Kōhua Poaka translates to cosy pork boil-up and was inspired by the traditional Māori soup, which the cafe calls “a dish of love”, traditionally made in big pots for extended family.

This burger comes with a roulade made from a traditional pork boil-up, lettuce, tomato, and puha cream in a watercress milk bun, alongside kumara fries, aioli, a shot of bone broth and a heart-shaped raspberry dessert.

Khao Soi’s burger, Soi Mate, is a beef fillet patty with crispy noodles, pickled red onions, parmesan cheese and curry, all inside a brioche bun. On the side, there are kūmara fries and a curry drizzle.

One80 Restaurant won the last two Burger Wellington competitions in a row. The restaurant’s burger this year is called Curry Rice Papad Project. The meal comes with two burgers: one has a beef patty, salad, pickles, cheese, potato salli and curry sauce; the other has fish curry, pickles, and potato salli. Both burgers are in a rice bun, and the meal comes with with poppadum-spiced fries and pickle aioli.

Macha, Jom Tapau! is a Malaysian restaurant on Cuba Street’s Left Bank. Its burger is called Laksa Lover’s Affair. Inside, a lemon-grass-ginger chicken patty comes with pickled cucumber, bean sprouts, coriander, crispy noodles, fried shallots and coconut mayo, all wrapped up in a coconut bun and accompanied by fries.

Gran's Table is the final nominated burger, made by Sushil's Musclechef Kitchen and Café in Porirua. It comes with chicken kurma curry, an omelette, kachumber salad, smoked havarti, coconut chutney and spiced green banana crisps in a coconut milk bun. The meal is accompanied by karam podi fries and mango oorugai mayo.

Over August, hundreds of burgers were served up to hungry customers. Multiple chefs The Post spoke to reported high demand for the meals, with Te Papa Cafe’s executive chef Ilavarasu Rajendran saying the eatery chose to extend its burger’s runtime for another week to give more customers a chance to try it.

The winner of Burger Wellington will be announced next week.

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