Aug 13, 2025 Uncategorised
Read Part One here
*****
Cheese scones
Burnt Butter Diner , Hill House Cafe and Wise Fox Food Co
62 Rosebank Rd, Avondale
72 Hillsborough Rd, Hillsborough
43 Totara Ave, New Lynn
Call us cowards, but despite our best efforts to anoint a single cheese scone as the city’s best, we couldn’t bring ourselves to pick just one. There are three we hold in equal, cheesy esteem — each an unadorned, faithful take on the classic. At Burnt Butter the interpretation is almost square in shape, at Hill House Cafe they’re triangular and at Wise Food Co they come as rectangles. Nice to have a little geometric diversity.
Custard tart
Mount Eden Bakery & Lunchbar
94 Mount Eden Rd, Mt Eden
Few things are more pleasant as an afternoon treat than these custard tarts — wonderfully jiggly and cheerfully yellow, finished with an elegant sweep of powdered cinnamon on top. Plenty of bakeries around town do a custard tart, of course, but these ones are unrivalled.
Steamed pudding
The Hangi Shop
583 Great South Rd, Ōtāhuhu
In Aotearoa, the steamed pudding carries with it a long and intricate history — adopted, adapted and reimagined within Māori culinary traditions. But like most Māori baking standards, it remains elusive in Tāmaki Makaurau’s bakeries, cafes and restaurants. This scarcity is not necessarily a bad thing — the best versions are found in marae wharekai and home dining rooms. Still, there are times, particularly in an urban dweller’s life, in which a single, self-contained, takeaway version is needed. And for these moments, one should head to The Hangi Shop, where steamed pudding is served in individual plastic pottles, in a pool of warm, pastel custard.
Ube donut
Moreno Café and Bakery
29D Woodside Ave, Northcote
Long a mainstay of Filipino desserts, ube — the vividly purple yam with an earthy, nutty, almost vanilla-esque profile — has for the past few years been appearing across the city in increasingly imaginative forms. Few of these examples are as satisfying as this glossy, audaciously purple donut found in the cabinet at Moreno in Northcote — which feels like a gentle rebellion against the notion that baking is by nature cosy, delicate or subdued.
Poppy-seed cheesecake
Diehl’s Bakery
5/65 Hillside Rd, Glenfield
You will probably fall head over heels for these rectangles of baked cheesecake bisected with poppy-seed filling. It might even be love at first bite. But be warned that this cheesecake will break your heart just as quickly — you’ll feel immense sorrow on reaching the end of the deliciousness.
Kulcha cholle
Bhalla Fresh Bake House
5/11 Rangitoto Rd, Papatoetoe
Kulcha, round discs of leavened bread common in northern India, are sold at this South Auckland bakery by the bag or sliced open individually and stuffed with cholle — a Punjabi concoction of chickpeas in an assertively tangy and spicy gravy. Slightly denser than your usual flatbread, the kulcha has great structural integrity, which means the curry-filled variant can be devoured handily as you carry on your merry way, no implements required.
Knafeh
The Greek House Restaurant
11 Point Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier
Knafeh, or kunafa as it is sometimes spelled, is a Levantine sweet made from kataifi, a shredded filo pastry, layered over a soft cheese filling, baked until brilliantly golden, soaked in a fragrant sugar syrup and sometimes embellished with pistachios or dried rose petals. Though its precise origins are debated, it is most famously associated with the Palestinian city of Nablus. Versions appear across the Middle East and beyond, taking on regional variations in texture, sweetness, appearance and even the kinds of cheese used. At this Point Chevalier restaurant, where the menu draws broadly from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditions, the rendition closely resembles the Palestinian version. Mozzarella stands in for the traditional but harder to source Nabulsi cheese, the kataifi top is lacy and crisp and the syrup faintly floral. Most importantly, it’s super sweet, unapologetically so.
Steak and cheese pie
Northside Bakery
21B Great South Rd, Manurewa
Everything the perfect steak and cheese aspires to be, but rarely is.
Pandan lamington
Folds Patisserie
297 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
Like much of the baking at this Dominion Rd shop, the pandan lamington draws on the flavour profiles of Southeast Asia. Its construction is double-decker: two rectangular pieces of pale, viridescent, pandan-imbued sponge sandwich a thin sheet of lightly salted coconut jelly. Then the whole thing is showered in shredded coconut. This cake does not just use pandan, it venerates it.
Mana’ish
Baklawa Cafe
46 Stoddard Rd, Wesley
Mana’ish — also known as manakish, manakeesh or manaeesh and, in the singular, man’oushe — is a Levantine flatbread typically topped with a variety of spices, cheeses or ground meats. At Baklawa Cafe you’ll find no fewer than 14 variations, ranging from those smudged with za’atar and labneh, or with lamb and cheese, or terracotta-hued muhammara. They arrive either sliced, pizza-style or folded in on themselves. Importantly, the dough itself hits that elusive Goldilocks zone — thin enough for a satisfying bite at the edges, but thick enough for an airy chew. Note: only served before 3pm.
Honey cake
Queen Sweet
8A/368 Queen St, central city
In Auckland, the best honey cake — a notoriously labour-intensive layer cake of sponge, honey and sour cream that’s beloved across the former Soviet Union — is found, improbably, at a chess-themed cafe hidden away inside a central-city food court.
Wagyu mince and cheese pie
Cazador Delicatessen
854 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
One would think that, by now, we fickle Aucklanders would have moved on. These pies of wagyu mince, bechamel and cheese, a ritzy take on the classic mince and cheese, emerged after the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. Comfort food for strange, uncertain times. And yet, from what we can tell, they remain as beloved as ever. The deli still seems to do a roaring trade in these pies, with customers (Metro included) happy to wait patiently for fresh batches to come out of the oven. Perhaps we’re not so fickle after all. Or perhaps the times remain just as strange, just as uncertain.
Donuts
Hare and the Turtle
1/63 New Windsor Rd, New Windsor
At Hare and the Turtle, you will find an ever-rotating cast of improbable (and wordily named) donut creations that change week to week. One week it might be pandan glaze with mango, lime, coconut and Rice Bubbles; the next, matcha, lemon, white chocolate and pistachio. Perhaps maple bacon with blueberry and almond, or an invitingly named ‘Tropical Pavlova’ variety that’s stuffed with meringue, cream, mango and kiwifruit. We could go on and on. Should you want to know which maximalist creation you’re in for, check their Instagram. Alternatively, just show up and see what fate the donut gods have in store for you. We’re yet to be disappointed.
Kiwi onion stick
Beabea’s Bakery
160 Garnet Rd, Westmere
Edible odes to Kiwiana can sometimes feel repetitive, wearisome even. But not at Beabea’s, where their homages to nostalgic New Zealand baking touchstones are playful, precise and, importantly, baked to heavenly perfection. Pink buns (the icing made rosy by the addition of freeze-dried raspberries), Marmite-laced pastries (more croissant than scroll) and pies (with impeccable fillings and pastry) sit alongside pastries that adhere more strictly to French tradition. But it’s the clever Kiwi onion stick — a baton of intricately laminated pastry, its sides fringed with cheese filigree — that we like best. It makes a persuasive case for nostalgia. Things get busy here, so get in early.
Petits cakes
Vaniyé Patisserie
1/7 Windsor St, Parnell
2/15 Fleming St, Onehunga
Even those lacking a sweet tooth will be charmed by the many single-portion sugary masterpieces that beam from behind the counter at this patisserie. These are baked sweets that lean into theatrics — compiled, piped, dressed and adorned. There’s a tart, for example, that rests on a Breton biscuit base, ringed by a lightly torched, fluted border of Italian meringue and filled with glossy mounds of lemon-lime curd. Another looks like a diminutive tower, constructed from varying layers of pomegranate and peach mousse cake, fig crémeux, springy almond sponge and meringue, crowned at the top with a knick-knack-like scattering of almonds, dried fruit and petals. The Black Forest choux cake is especially fetching: chocolate-filled choux orbs, piped with vanilla kirsch crème. Atop rests a scalloped wreath of chocolate surrounding a blob of cherry compôte. And at the highest point, a single rose petal, placed just so, balances jauntily — like a feather in its cap.
Kūmara sourdough
Wild Wheat
Locations in Mt Eden, Howick, Belmont, Mt Albert, Māngere and Birkenhead
To begin with, this is, quite simply, an excellent loaf of bread — a wholemeal and rye sourdough permeated with roasted kūmara. But its appeal goes beyond earthy brightness and crustiness. What makes this loaf special within Auckland’s bread landscape is its reliability: you can find it at any of Wild Wheat’s six outposts scattered across the city, as well as a good number of local supermarkets. For both those reasons, it may be the bread we return to the most. And in the end, perhaps the best loaf is the one that’s always within reach?
Melon pan
Baker’s Diary
448 Rosebank Rd, Avondale
Baker’s Diary has a lot of very loyal fans, though due perhaps to its out-of-the-way location on Rosebank Peninsula, right in the heart of a pedestrian-hostile industrial area, it has remained relatively shielded from city-wide hype. Still, business is brisk. The pies are deservedly popular, but we go for the Japanese baked goods. Among these items, the standout is the melon pan — a sweet, dome-shaped bun cloaked in a delicate cookie crust. Despite the name, the bread isn’t melon in flavour; the reference is to do with appearance, its textured outer surface like the craggy rind of a cantaloupe. Cute!
Cream donut
The Baker’s Cottage
2 New Bond St, Kingsland
You deserve one of these spherical cream-filled gems. Actually, we all deserve one of these spherical cream-filled gems.
Coconut bun
Pinati’s Keke Pua‘a
19A Queen St, Ōtāhuhu
Somewhat hidden away from the main thoroughfare in Ōtāhuhu is Pinati’s — a local institution, known primarily for their keke pua‘a, a form of steamed, pork-filled buns from Sāmoa. But most visitors don’t leave with just those, because among the other various trays behind the counter are deep-fried spheres of dough, golden and filled with a lush, oozy coconut cream. If you can hold back long enough, cart them home for a brief heat in the oven. We understand if you can’t wait, though.
Mille crêpe cake
Fukurou
384 Dominion Road, Mt Eden
With so much variety in the world, there’s something reassuring about a place that does just one thing, and does it exceptionally well. At Fukurou, that thing is mille crêpe cakes: delicate, stratified confections whose roots trace back to 17th-century France. A later Japanese reinterpretation transformed the cake into a globally popular dessert, and that’s the form you’ll find here. The cross-section of these cakes is something to behold: no fewer than 18 paper-thin crêpes, separated by layers of textural elements and flavoured creams — genmaicha, sesame, vanilla, tiramisu and our personal favorite, rum and raisin.
Sesame seed morning bun
Florets Bakery
596 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Florets is not only one of the city’s finest bakeries, it may also be its most beautiful, with its front window stacked abundantly with seeded ryes, whole wheats and dense overnight oat loaves shaped into bricks and rounds. Each loaf is made from organic, wholegrain flour sourced from Canterbury, which yields bread that is as nourishing as it is flavourful. Hiding among the heftier loaves are the morning buns — small, unassuming and now speckled with sesame seeds (after the poppy-seed version, also excellent, was retired some months ago). You can take one home for $2.50, or buy one that’s been sliced open and filled with a slab of cheese and a spoonful of apple chutney. A small but great thing.
Spicy prawn pie
PieFee
349 Karangahape Rd, Newton
It was back in 2017 when Chamnan Ly, of Karangahape Road bakery PieFee (then called Tasteful Bakehouse & Cafe), invented the whimsical PieFee™ — a barista-made coffee served in an edible-biscuit pie shell. This is exactly the kind of kooky culinary innovation that a city should take pride in, and that’s exactly what happened — the PieFee™ took off, especially on Instagram. Eight years on, you can still spot people at the cafe’s outside tables, sipping on caffeinated pie shells. But these days, for the most part, people show up for the pie pies, which are across-the-board excellent, and sometimes even award-winning. We think one in particular deserves more recognition: the spicy prawn pie. Often overshadowed by its more familiar flavour counterparts, it’s creamy, roundly spiced and studded with bits of prawn, the springiness of which makes you wonder why they don’t show up in pastries more often.
Sweetcorn cake
Brazilian Café & Bistro
Albany Tennis Park, 321 Oteha Valley Road, Albany
This Brazilian eatery, located inside a tennis centre, excels in more ways than one. The whole cake cabinet is a marvel, but the standout performer is an unexpectedly yum sweetcorn cake, served by the slice. Yes, sweetcorn. And yes, it’s wonderful.
Pineapple pie meringue cake
Sweet & Me
235 Church St, Onehunga
With its tiers of cream cheese and shortbread, vanilla cake, pineapple and coconut pie filling, all cloaked in a majestic sweep of toasted Italian meringue, this is a very good-looking cake. You can take home the whole thing if you’re in a celebratory mood, but you can also make a quick detour from your ordinary schedule for a single slice and a coffee. And truly, you should.
Cardamom morning bun
Daily Bread
Locations in Point Chevalier, Ponsonby, Belmont, central city, Newmarket, Botany, Takapuna, Mt Wellington and New Lynn
All feels right with the world when you have one of these knotty, twisted buns in hand — gently scented with cardamom, encrusted with glints of sugar.
Beef cheek, cheese and jalapeño pie
Levain
224 White Swan Rd, Blockhouse Bay
At this ever-popular bakery in Blockhouse Bay, the pies, especially the beef cheek, cheese and jalapeño, are the kind you can’t help but wolf down while standing out front on the footpath, pastry flakes catching the breeze. They’re a whole other realm of pastry excellence. Warning: the jalapeño is no joke.
