Blue Rose’s playful blue exterior, friendly staff and interior brimming with personal mementos combine to confer it with all the warmth of a community hub. At the same time, it’s the kind of place you’d happily cross the city for. This is very much a destination cafe disguised as a neighbourhood spot. The menu offers brunch classics like pancakes and eggs Benedict alongside celebrations of Auckland’s Polynesian identity — mussel fritters, lu‘au and a dependably good ika mata. But what really draws the crowds are the legendary pies, which act as vessels for an ingenious range of fillings — palusami, hāngī, boil-up and so on — that you’d struggle to find anywhere else in the world. Maybe it’s surprising that this kind of cafe offering, which reflects our unique melting pot of indigenous and Polynesian food traditions, is so rare in Tāmaki Makaurau, but we’re just glad someone’s doing it — and with so much flair.

While you’re in the area: Smart Deal Bazaar, Spice Supermarket