Aug 11, 2025 Uncategorised
The everyday life of this city is, in no small way, structured around baked goods. The scent of freshly baked bread marks the beginning of the day in many suburbs. A morning commuting route might detour for a dependable scone. Schedules bend for the sake of an impromptu pie. The appearance of a pastry can redeem an otherwise dreadful day. And whole pilgrimages are made for a single, transcendent slice of cake. Baking sustains, consoles, sometimes even astonishes.
Breads, buns, cakes, biscuits and pastries — found in bakeries, patisseries, bread shops, cafes, restaurants and food courts — also serve as an edible archive. In the first instance, their existence is owed to the labour, skill and creativity of those who bake them daily. But these things are also shaped by history, migration, technologies, tastes, economics and memories. Rarely the product of a single culinary tradition or era, they’re instead collaborative expressions: cross-cultural, hybrid and unmistakably of this place.
The 50 items gathered here speak to that plurality — across origins, textures, flavours and forms. Together, they represent a distinct culinary dialect, unique to Tāmaki Makaurau.
As a city, we unsurprisingly adore the expansive canvas of the pie, which we fill with pāua and palusami and prawns, among other things. Some baked items trace our pasts, while others speak to contemporary waves of immigration, internet-born trends or novel techniques. In a single day we have the option of slicing into a rustic loaf of organic sourdough, then, hours later, a heart-shaped cake dyed fabulously and unnaturally pink. That’s range! Exceptional buns exist at every compass point — stuffed with Japanese curry, red bean and rice cake, or delicately spiced fish. Some bakes whimsically reimagine traditional recipes. Others venerate tradition to precise and obsessive heights. There are stalwarts and unsung gems, utilitarian staples and fantastical, ephemeral treats. We take democratic joy in knowing that the same pleasure can come from a $14.80 sculptural tart in Parnell as from a $2.50 coconut bun in Ōtāhuhu.
Curating this list was no small undertaking. In the pursuit of variety and excellence, hundreds of outlets were researched and discussed, and a multitude of baked items tasted, shared and assessed. We limited ourselves (reluctantly) to items available at brick-and-mortar shops (though there are exquisite baked goods to be found by way of market stalls and online sellers). Each entry considered also had to exist as a ready-to-go, self-contained item and cost less than $20 — though most things on this list will cost you less than $5. And so, here is a field guide to the cakes, pies, tarts, doughnuts, loaves and more that shape, and are shaped by, Tāmaki Makaurau.
Barbari bread
Hesari Bakery
6 Queens Rd, Panmure
The people of Panmure are lucky to have this grotto-like grocery and bakery. Shelves here are stacked with packaged biscuits, boxes of tea and jars of assorted pickles, but the true treasure is the barbari bread — an elongated flatbread that’s crisp on the outside, light and airy on the inside. If you are in a hurry, you can buy a loaf ready-made from a stack at the counter. But if you have a couple of minutes to spare (it really is only a short wait), we recommend ordering your bread to be made fresh. In this case, Ali, the master baker, recognisable by his white apron and safety glasses, will retreat to the back to slip a mound of dough into the wood-fired oven. Within moments you’ll be presented with a steaming hot flatbread, shrouded in brown paper and long enough to cradle in two arms. Very good to eat as is, or when torn into hunks for dipping into good olive oil, or with any kind of soupy meal.
Dame blanche
La Tropezienne
160 Kitchener Rd, Milford
‘Dame blanche’ loosely translates to ‘white lady’, which is, presumably, a nod to the hefty dusting of icing sugar blanketing these biscuits (best not to sneeze around them). With cut-outs revealing a glint of glossy jam at the centre and delicate scalloped edges, they’re reminiscent of Shrewsburys — only bigger, bolder and far more indulgent. Particularly good alongside a black coffee or strong cup of tea.
Curry bun
Mizu Bread
187 Symonds St, Eden Terrace
A golden, deep-fried vessel of intensely savoury Japanese curry, made with either beef mince or a blitz of different vegetables. These buns have it all: airiness, a bit of chew, a decent hit of heat from the curry, and a lot of enjoyable textural nuance due to the varying size of the breadcrumbs clinging to the outside. The type of thing you can eat just once, then never stop thinking about.
Croissant
Fort Greene
327 Karangahape Rd, Newton
Each year it seems that this city gains more crescents of laminated perfection, and we are so thankful for that. But even among the growing community of wonderful croissants, the ones that Fort Greene pumps out — with just the right crunch-to-air-pocket ratio — remain unparalleled.
Long pink bun
Clendon Bakery
469 Roscommon Rd, Clendon Park
You can’t leave Clendon Bakery without one of their pillowy soft sweet buns. Several delightful renditions of the genre line the cabinet here in neat, enticing rows — all somehow $2.80 each. Some are dusted with icing sugar, others riddled with raisins, a few topped with desiccated coconut, and about half of them filled with fresh cream. But it’s the cartoonishly cute long pink buns that call to us most loudly: they’re fabulously plush, capped with a swipe of pale pink icing, filled with cream, and finished with a teensy glistening dot of red jam.
Fish bun
St Anthony’s Food
585 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham
Deceptively simple at first glance, this bronzed Sri Lankan bun — a bundle of fish-and-potato curry, spiced just so, concealed within an implausibly light dough — is in fact so much more. And at just three dollars a pop, it’s an ideal incidental snack for those hungry-between-meal moments.
Fresh pretzel
Sylvias’ Bakery
12 Queens Rd, Panmure
We are totally besotted with the fresh pretzels (also called Brezeln) that you’ll find at this one-woman German bakery in Panmure. Spot them dangling to the left of the counter from purpose-built wooden hooks: soft, perfectly burnished knots of dough, each speckled with a few coarse salt crystals. They’re perfectly lovely on their own, unadulterated in chewy glory, but we like them best when torn apart and dabbed with hot mustard.
Madeleine
Apéro
280 Karangahape Rd, Newton
For over a decade, Apéro has been turning out these shell-shaped sponges to order — light, tender things that arrive still warm, bearing only the faintest gossamer fall of icing sugar. Other than that, no embellishments. It’s always the simple things.
Cherry blossom tart
Eves Pantry
399 Manukau Rd, Epsom
Eves Pantry, whose presence within the city’s baking landscape we believe we can trace back to July 1939, might often be overlooked for the gleam of the new. But there’s nothing quite like their cherry blossom tarts — dinky little confections whose exact origins are hazy. They bear some resemblance, in form at least, to the neenish tart, though, from what we can tell, the cherry blossom is a creation unique to this bakery. The colour alone, that waxy rosy pink, perfectly matches the layered sweetness of the whole tart: an airy cherry filling held inside a sweet pastry shell, topped by a soft mound of sponge and a rosy fondant cap. At the summit is a solitary split glacé cherry, a tiny, glistening ruby set into the cutest little piece of local baking history.
Palusami pie
Blue Rose Cafe & Catering
414 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham
Not just a pie, this is essentially a small, self-contained feast — generous in portion and impressively rich, with its mingling of corned beef, taro and hint of coconut. In its fusion of pastry and Polynesian culinary traditions, it’s also distinctly, quintessentially of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Slice of chocolate cake
Mezze Bar
Durham St East, central city
When you are a person desiring a slice of good chocolate cake, this city can be difficult — for reasons unclear, satisfying incarnations of this classic are oddly hard to come by. Thank goodness, then, for Mezze Bar. Behind their glass cabinet, they reliably house a great big Bruce Bogtrotter-esque number: dense, moist and tender crumbed. Ask nicely for a splodge of cream or yogurt to go with it, too.
Pāua pie
Lunchbar Eighty8
15 Saleyards Rd, Ōtāhuhu
At this bakery right in the heart of industrial Ōtāhuhu you’ll find a thing of rare beauty: the flakiest of pastries, brimming with a creamy, pāua-laden sauce — so potent that it is instantly redolent of the moana. On a recent visit, I overheard a fellow customer ordering two of these pies. “I’m only here once,” she said to her friend. Whether she meant her visit to the shop, or life itself, I’m still not sure.
Hot honey donut
Small Mercies
7 Mount Eden Rd, Grafton
Kkwabaegi, the chewy, twisted Korean donut, gets souped up at Small Mercies with a thick stripe of garlic-chive-flecked cream cheese and a zigzagging drizzle of hot honey. The final result is nothing short of magnificent.
Sweet Danishes
Mor
158 Remuera Rd, Remuera
We never tire of the cabinet at this pint-sized Remuera bakery, where the ever-changing selection of pastries is as aesthetically appealing as it is reliably delicious. We’re especially fond of the Danish offerings, which shift with the seasons — and maybe also with the whims and creative instincts of the bakers who make them. Which is precisely why we can’t recommend just one. Each pastry is a small, perfectly composed and impossible-to-predict celebration of the moment: seasonal fruit (which might be poached or fresh or macerated) paired with various infused creams, frangipanes, custards, jams and crumbles, and often a few fresh blooms — all exultantly placed atop a remarkably laminated pastry base.
Pineapple pie
Tupu’anga Coffee
597 Mount Eden Rd, Mt Eden
A bite of this pie — wisps of torched meringue, a sharp, sunny blitz of pineapple, a delicate pastry base — is like letting a little daylight into the long, cold, fruitless days of winter.
Injeolmi bread
Morning Bakery
174 Lake Rd, Northcote
That some of the best Korean baking in Auckland is found in a converted house addition in suburban Northcote is one of the endearing quirks that make this city such a joy to eat your way around. Here, you’ll find the full spectrum of idiosyncratic, slightly sweet and yielding Korean breads — filled with garlic, or custard, or red bean paste, or, most fun of all, sausage. Our pick is the injeolmi bread: plump bready domes of near ethereal fluffiness filled with injeolmi (a mochi-like rice cake), cream and mashed red beans, then dusted in a sandy crust of roasted soybean powder. In the world of glossy, picture-perfect baked goods, they might not look like much — but they’re diabolically good.
Sausage roll
Nice Bakery
Shop 4, 56 Waimumu Rd, Massey
Most sausage rolls are pretty satisfying, but only a select few are properly special.
Curry mince pie
The Mill Bakehouse
402 Titirangi Rd, Titirangi
Unless you happen to live in, or find yourself regularly mooching about, this particular pocket of the city, there is a good chance you’ve never heard of this bakery. Even if you have passed it, it may not have registered. From the outside, it presents the sort of modest utilitarianism familiar to hot bread shops around Auckland. But you really should notice this place. Among the gamut of bakery orthodoxies, they do the usual pies — very good ones, in fact. But one in particular stands out, the curry mince. The pastry is done well, though isn’t revolutionary: crisp, golden and somewhat flaky. The revelation here is the filling, an immaculately spiced mince that begins as a gentle whisper of heat and blooms, gradually, into a heady, complex spiciness. Wolf one down before embarking on a viewing at Te Uru, or a wander through the ngahere, and you have yourself a very good day.
Canelé
La Voie Française
Shop 4, 875 Dominion Rd, Mt Roskill
The canelés here are compact, custardy, caramelised triumphs.
Honey toast
Rhu
235 Parnell Rd, Parnell
You know what’s better than a good loaf of bread? A good loaf of bread that’s been sliced thickly, then the slabs doused in mānuka butter and roasted in a hot oven until their edges crackle and caramelise. The result is ‘honey toast’ and it’s a textural revelation, in which a brittle outer shell gives way to the squishy chew of the milk bread within. At Rhu, they sell these pre-cooked toasts by the slice, straight from the cabinet, but if you dine in, they’ll compose you a dish of toast with vanilla yoghurt and a cloak of seasonal fruit. The sweet breakfast of our dreams.
Egg tart
Lucky Fortune
532 Mount Albert Rd, Three Kings
At this yum cha restaurant, when you spot the egg tarts — three to a plate, encased in red paper cases, and ferociously yellow inside — being wheeled past your table, you simply must wave their trolley down.
Pink heart lamington
Windmill Bakery
1B Garus Ave, Māngere
With all the lovely, romantic connotations attached to the heart symbol, there is something extra-sweet about foods shaped like a heart. This giant, $20, heart-shaped lamington that generously serves at least six people is one of the most charming confections you’ll ever lay eyes on, and one of the city’s best-kept cake secrets. The amazing hearts are available daily, straight from the cabinet of this Māngere bakery. I like to take my cake home and fill it with raspberries and dollops of whipped cream before wheeling it out at the dessert stage of a dinner party, when it is usually and appropriately greeted by a chorus of oohs and aahs. It is tempting to keep this dessert idea to myself, as a magician would her tricks. But here it is: my fantastical, heart-shaped party trick — now yours too.
Lengua de gato
Heis Kitchen Studio
141–151 Queens Rd, Panmure
The name of these biscuits, lengua de gato, is a reference to the long and flat shape of a cat’s tongue, and there’s something delightful (but also slightly troubling?) about that fact. The brittle butter biscuits originated in France and have since spread through Europe, South America and Asia, where they’ve been embraced within Filipino pastry culture. Tucked away at the back of an almost empty arcade in Panmure is Heis Kitchen Studio, which offers a range of classic and remixed Filipino baking. We like much of what is on offer at this place, which feels more laboratory than bakery with its immaculate, almost clinical fit-out and open kitchen. Especially good is the aforementioned lengua de gato. Heis Kitchen’s circular interpretation of the treat (less cat tongue, more geometric disc) comes in squat, translucent tubs: a small stack of resplendent, uniform and remarkably snappy cookies. They’re only open Thursday through Saturday, however, so plan accordingly.
Pandesal
Dozena Bakery
9 Shirley Rd, Papatoetoe
If the Philippines had a national bread, it would most probably be the soft, slightly sweet, breadcrumb-dusted rounds called pandesal. We think the versions at Dozena Bakery are the best you can find in this city, and they’re equally as tasty made into a sandwich or eaten plain with a little pat of butter inside. Texturally, it’s like eating a cloud (or so we imagine).
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Part Two coming later this week!
