Featherston Street (A Local's Guide to Wellington)

Featherston Street houses many bars for those 9-to-5ers that enjoy a drink or two but don't want to go all the way to Courtenay Place. There's Avida, Arizona and Arbitrageur to name a few. I'm not much of a drinker myself, but Leuven caught my eye (Belgian waffles, anyone?).

Leuven

A Belgian pub with a reputation of delivering outstanding mussels, we instead came for the brunch. 
The waffles were crispy, but doughy as though they hadn't been cooked through, and came with an odd assortment of cream cheese, banana and grapes. I ordered the porridge which was just okay. I could have made the same thing at home for much cheaper.
The hot chocolates were good if you added two sugars to them as they were made with dark chocolate (too bitter without the sugar for me). These were not made by Leuven, but were DIY hot-chocolate-on-a-stick ones from Bohemein (see below). 
The pub had a lovely atmosphere, with wood paneling and French music. 

Bohemein 
A boutique chocolate shop based in Hataitai, Bohemein has branched out to a store on Featherston Street. Here they do customisable hot chocolates. A large list to chose from, I have only yet tried the raspberry white chocolate and the dark chocolate mint. The chocolates themselves are excellent - I recommend the Black Devil Caramel (they have won awards) and the champagne truffle.

Louis Sergeant

A French tea house, Louis Sergeant offers a range of beautiful teas in beautiful tea pots and delectable little cakes. Seen above, 'L'intense' is chocolate sponge with a peanut caramel under chocolate mousse covered in chocolate ganache. 

The tea I tried was '4 saisons' which was quite spicy, the cinnamon especially shining through. It was already sweet enough without sugar, and was nice with or without milk. They offered a macaron of the day - on that particular day it was dark chocolate passion fruit. 

They also have savoury food, and for lunch I tried a ham off the bone sandwich with Swiss cheese and pickle creme fraiche. The acidic pickle cut through the creaminess perfectly. I will be back to try everything else on the menu and in the cake cabinet.

Marie Antoinette gazes down at diners.