Apr 7, 2025 Food
For our Top 50 Cafes list we usually stick to the contemporary understanding of ‘cafe’ as a Western-style, variously influenced, coffee-forward establishment. But there are plenty of other eateries in Auckland serving casual, satisfying drinks and food that also go by the name of cafe — and many of them offer excellent morning meals.
These cafes and their breakfasts are entirely liberated from the conventions of typical cafe culture: deep-fried fish at 8am, wontons at 9am, nasi lemak after sunrise, fluffy idli to kickstart your day. There’s little emphasis on elaborate fit-outs or trendy newfangled breakfast items; the hosts here pour out Ceylon tea and coconut coffee and milky English breakfast. If you’re not feeling called to croissants, muesli or eggs on toast, here’s where to find the other best cafe breakfasts in Tāmaki Makaurau.
*
Pani pol/Sri Lankan pancakes at St Anthony’s Food
Breakfast carries a certain optimism, and few dishes embody that better than these joyful yellow pancakes. At St Anthony’s Food, you can swing by from 8.30am for a Sri Lankan breakfast spread — sugar buns, roast bread, egg roti, fish patties, to name just a few. But the star of the show is the pani pol: a turmeric-infused crêpe enveloping a sweet and spiced coconut filling, laced with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Pair it with a cup of fragrant Ceylon tea for an especially wonderful way to welcome the day.
585 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham
*
Silog meals at Papa Ben’s Lomi and Taste of Manila
Silog is a distinctive category of Filipino breakfast dishes, combining sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (sunny-side-up egg), then pairing it with a protein. At Papa Ben’s Lomi in the WestCity mall in Waitākere, you can commence your day with quintessential choices like tapsilog (marinated beef), longsilog (Filipino sausage) or bangsilog (milkfish). You’ll also find silogs at Taste of Manila in New Lynn, which serves a myriad of versions — offering the aforementioned three, plus tocilog (cured pork), spamsilog (spam), lumpiasilog (spring roll) and the especially fun hotsilog (hot dog). When one of these is your breakfast, your day just might peak with a perfect spoonful composed of rice, protein, runny egg and a splash of spicy vinegar, and that’s entirely okay.
Papa Ben’s Lomi: Shop 292, Level 2, WestCity Waitakere, 7 Catherine St, Henderson
Taste of Manila: 3119 Great North Rd, New Lynn
*
Chinese breakfast at various locations
Chinese breakfasts, much like the cuisine itself, are diverse and full of regional variations. In Auckland, you’ll find a huge number of Chinese breakfast offerings, in a multiplicity of forms, though largely originating from Shanghai and Beijing. Head to Bun Shack, for example, in New Lynn, for dishes like congee, tea-leaf-marinated boiled eggs and 10 kinds of filled steamed buns, or go to The Stove on Dominion Rd to find black rice jianbing wonton soup or black rice and pumpkin congee. Make a trip east to Half Moon Bay to Jingu’s Dumplings, where they keep a special little corner of their menu for breakfast items: the jianbing (crêpe) stuffed with fried dough, egg or ham is a must-try, along with other delicious little components for around $2 a pop. Head north to Mrs Bun & Dumpling in Rosedale for Tianjin-style breakfasts, involving garlic-spiked gravy-topped soft tofu, golden youtiao sticks and iced soy milk, an array best consumed in a revolving manner: dip the dough stick, slurp the tofu, take a sip of soy milk, repeat and enjoy.
Bun Shack: 3097 Great North Rd, New Lynn
The Stove: 465 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
Jingu’s Dumpling: 12 Dunrobin Place, Half Moon Bay
Mrs Bun & Dumpling: 1/56 Apollo Drive, Rosedale
*
Foul Medamma at Red Sea Cafe
Remarkably, this is the second WestCity joint mentioned in this round-up — proof, once again, of Henderson’s blossoming culinary scene. Here at Red Sea Cafe, the vast East African menu includes a corner dedicated to Sudanese breakfasts, offering three dishes including foul medamma. This is a dish of fava beans simmered in onion and tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and served alongside falafel, tahini sauce and semi-circles of Lebanese bread for mopping things up. It’s indulgent yet light, in the way that one often desires at this time of the day, and all for the meagre price of $13.50. Side note: their basbousa cake (on the counter) is a total delight.
Store R9, Level 1, WestCity Waitakere, 30 Edsel St, Henderson
*
Podi idli at RRK’s Madras Cafe
Okay, RRK’s 10am opening might seem more conducive to brunch than breakfast. But I firmly believe breakfast is a state of mind, dependent on when you wake up and whether you’ve had your first meal of the day yet. With that in mind, I think this lively little eatery in Sandringham with its big yellow banners emblazoned with “WELCOME” and “KIA ORA” on the front door could easily serve you one of the best breakfasts of your life. The deal here is that you write your order on a small slip of paper which gets handed to the person working front-of-house. Whatever you choose, one dish is non-negotiable — their unrivalled ghee podi idli, a South Indian breakfast dish made by tossing steamed idlis in a spicy ground-lentil condiment called podi. It’s fluffy, nutty and savoury. And the breakfast here goes down a treat accompanied by a cup of RRK’s frothy filter coffee, which is wonderfully pleasing to look at in its metal cup.
580 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham
*
Nasi lemak at Sim’s Kitchen
It’s always a pleasure to be at Sim’s Kitchen in its unfussy little industrial corner of Onehunga, but there’s something extra special about your visit when it’s a breakfast affair. First things first — you’ll want to order a kopi ice or a teh tarik to kick things off. Then, settle into Malaysia’s unofficial national dish: nasi lemak. There’s something about the combination of coconut rice, boiled egg, cucumber, sambal, peanuts and ikan bilis, with its textural variety and fragrance, that feels coherently perfect for breakfast. You can, of course, order whatever else pleases you from the menu, but this is a meal I would personally run great distances for at any time of the day. You won’t need to do that, however, as the train station is very close by and there are plenty of carparks out front.
1/59 Victoria St, Onehunga
*
Bánh mì at various locations
In Auckland, you can have bánh mì at almost any time of day, but it’s especially satisfying to eat one in the morning. I mean, why not? A bit of carb, a bit of protein, a bit of vegetable — it’s the ideal prelude to whatever the rest of your day holds. For early risers, Happy Vietnamese in Kingsland is the first option you’ll find — doors open from 8am. This minute, slightly sunken shop serves its rolls on homemade bread that’s both crunchy and soft, with a notably peppery pâté — just make sure you ask for a good heap of chilli if you’re spice inclined. By 9am, you’ll be able to order a sandwich from Bahn Mi Delight, a food truck parked in the carpark of an Avondale fruit and vegetable shop. It’s their pork bánh mì you’re probably after — which has all the right textural and flavour-balanced qualities of a model bánh mì. They’re generously filled, too (opulent by Auckland standards). At Nam Viet in the Atrium on Elliott shopping centre, you can get bánh mì and more: fragrant bowls of phở, multi-hued rice noodle salads and grilled pork with rice — all of which also make for wonderful breakfasts. One place that I’ve thought about a lot since I visited a while ago is Daily Vietnamese Coffee in Royal Oak. Sure, you could order a bánh mì, but I’d urge you to try a noodle soup for brunch — the bún bò Huế or phở, to be specific. And their coconut coffee is the best in the city, in my humble opinion.
Happy Vietnamese: 401A New North Rd, Kingsland
Bahn Mi Delight: 1907 Great North Rd, Avondale
Nam Viet: 21/25 Elliott St, central city
Daily Vietnamese Cafe: 778 Manukau Rd, Royal Oak
*
Gastronomy
I have a real soft spot for this bakery and deli in Albany. Gastronomy sells all manner of Eastern European goods: frozen homemade pelmeni, tinned herrings, jars of dill pickles, packets of dried mushrooms, matryoshka, Borjomi (my favourite mineral water), plus an impressive range of bread, baked in-house, prolifically. They’ve also got an excellent selection of cabinet food and a couple of tables scattered on the footpath out front, which means you can pull up there at 10am to sit and eat pierogi or piroshki accompanied by a mug of their raf coffee (a sweetened Russian drink named after a Muscovite called Rafael) while you mull over how many jars of pickles you want to cart home with you.
19/270 Oteha Valley Rd, Albany
*
Mana’ish at Baklawa Cafe
The breakfast menu here is dominated by mana’ish, a Levantine flatbread which tends to be topped with spices, cheeses or ground meat. Among the varied options you’ll find here, the za’atar and labneh or mouhamara versions are good places to start. They arrive in triangular, pizza-like slices, which means you don’t need to faff about with cutlery or anything — which comes as a certain relief at breakfast time. I struggle to leave here without a piece of baklava too (I mean, it’s in the name of the place), which lends itself very well to being eaten with a cup of Lebanese coffee.
Shefco , 46 Stoddard Rd, Wesley
*
Fish and chips at various locations
There’s something oddly comforting about fish and chips for breakfast. In Glen Innes, Marsic Bros might just serve the city’s earliest breakfast, having done so for 57 years. Their fish and chips is some of the best in the city, and you can order it as early as 6am, every day except Sunday. For a slightly later start, Best Baits in Māngere starts taking orders for their deep-fried delights at 9am. I endorse hauling them across the road for breakfast with a view of the harbour. Sometimes you want to dine in, and in these instances I’m especially fond of Toby’s Seafood in Ōtāhuhu. From 7.30am, you can settle in at one of the jolly yellow tables in their immense, functional dining space (you’ll be able to watch them cleaning and filleting fish down the back of the shop) with a paper-lined tray piled with delicious things. The typical order is the meal consisting of two pieces of deep-fried snapper, two eggs, hot chips, a salad and a wedge of lemon — but those components are endlessly adjustable depending on your preferences. Do add a pottle of raw fish and a fry bread or two if you’re especially hungry. Nearby, Otahuhu Fisheries opens its doors at 9am for its infamous white plates stacked with fish or oysters or mussels or steak, with chips, shredded cabbage and eggs, expertly fried, plus a stack of soft white bread on the side. It’s simple, affordable and utterly satisfying — unpretentious to the point that it feels like a time capsule.
Marsic Bros: 47 Mayfair Pl, Glen Innes
Best Baits: 1 Coronation Rd, Māngere Bridge
Toby’s Seafood: 628 Great South Rd, Ōtāhuhu
Otahuhu Fisheries: 292 Great South Rd, Ōtāhuhu
