Sep 30, 2024 Food
Metro has previously done deep dives into Auckland’s best chocolate desserts and the glories of panipopo; always considers cakes and pastries as part of our assessment of cafes; and usually devotes the final paragraph of restaurant reviews to dessert. But we’ve rarely made sweet dishes the main event — until now. For this issue, we’ve found the best sweet things you can eat in this city, categorised by type: from the best granita to the best fruit sando to the best lamington.
An absurd number of sweet things were tried, tested and talked about — at home, in the office, in restaurants, and sitting at bus stops and in cars while en route to the next destination (to eat more sweet stuff there). When you start actively seeking out sweet things, you suddenly see them everywhere. They’re in bakery cabinets, atop cafe counters, inside restaurant dessert menus, at market stalls and, ever more often, on Instagram pages, ready to order. This list of 50 delights includes sweets that are the pride and specialty of their outlets, but also dishes that ordinarily go unsung, overshadowed by their savoury counterparts. This is their moment to shine.
Auckland’s sweet scene has range, too. If you were to mark the origins of each dish on this list on a map, you’d have a very marked-up globe. The 50 items vary in texture, in flavour, in aesthetics (some are fantastical looking, others unassuming blobs) and in level of sweetness (from simple sugars to layered complexity). Then there’s the perpetual tension between assessing those cakes or pastries or puddings that take an imaginative, newfangled approach to a classic dish and those that stick to conventions but achieve perfect execution — here, we have tried to cover both approaches. Despite their differences, the things on this list all have one thing in common: being the best examples in Tāmaki of what their makers set out to do.
Sweet things offer a relatively low-stakes entry point to new places, cuisines and flavours. Most of the exemplars that follow ring in at under $10, and barely anything is over $20. A simple scoop of ice cream or a wobbly bowl of custard can serve as a great introduction to a different part of the city, a restaurant you’ve never entered or a cuisine you haven’t tried. While you’re indulging, why not try some other (non-sweet) dishes on the menu, too, or pop into the grocer next door, or take a wander around the vicinity? Consider this compilation of 50 sweet treats a sugared tour guide to the city. After all, these are the things which make life here just that little bit sweeter.
LAMINGTON
Folds Patisserie
297 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
Despite the chokehold the chocolate/raspberry binary has had on lamingtons for most of their existence, they’re an ideal vessel for more playful combinations. At Dominion Rd patisserie Folds, they get this, hence their menu of lamingtons influenced by Southeast Asian flavours such as taro, mango and lychee. The standout, though, is their pandan version: a springy green pandan sponge sliced through with a layer of ever-so-slightly-salted coconut jelly.
SLICE OF CHOCOLATE CAKE
Mezze Bar
9 Durham St East, Central City
A good slice of chocolate cake should be two things: reliably delicious and readily available when a craving strikes. Mezze Bar’s chocolate buttermilk cake has been a dependable feature in their cabinet since the cafe’s founding three decades ago, and it’s still totally moist, mildly sweet and perfectly unadorned. Also, since they’re open from the morning till 10pm (or later) every day of the week, your chocolate-cake hit is almost always just a trip into town away.
Apéro madeleines
MADELEINE
Apéro
280 Karangahape Rd, Newton
Baked fresh to order… need we say more?
PUDDING IN A GLASS BOWL
Forest
243 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
When this issue went to print, the standout dessert on the menu at Forest was a fantastical sherbet glassful of Kyoho grape sorbet, marigold leaf jelly and grape skin oil — which is, in our opinion, an ideal way to end a meal. The menu at this Dominion Rd restaurant changes regularly, however, so it’s likely they’ve moved on to entirely new dessert options by the time you read this. However, whatever they are, they seem to be consistently served in great stemmed glass bowls and are consistently great to eat.
Shrewsburys from Sunday
SHEWSBURY
Sunday the Bakery
@sundaythebakery
The capacious, bloom-shaped, strawberry-and-rosewater-jam-filled biscuit you didn’t know you needed — till now.
SEASONAL CONFECTION
The feijoa cheesecake from Lunchroom Onehunga
297 Church St, Onehunga
There’s no better ode to the fleeting nature of feijoas than this verdant cheesecake you’ll find in an industrial corner of Onehunga.
SLICE OF PIE
The pineapple and coconut pie from Sweet & Me
235 Church St, Onehunga
A flawless pie with a punchy pineapple centre, marshmallowy topping and a dose of the Pacific baked right in.
INDIAN SWEETS
Roops Vegetarian Sweets and Snacks
6/489 Richardson Rd, Mt Roskill
The cabinet here is populated with all kinds of Indian sweets: kaju katali, penda, and an assortment of burfee, imbued with vanilla, orange, pineapple, butterscotch, mango or chocolate. When in doubt, though, order the jalebi — orange-hued whorls of sticky, deep-fried batter — that, for good reason, have become Roops’ signature sweet snack.
PANIPOPO
Latte Tei Coffeeshop
Unit 2/271 West Coast Rd, Glen Eden
Pillowy, drenched in coconut and enduringly comforting.
Kiin ’s mango sticky rice
STICKY RICE AND MANGO
Kiin Thai Kitchen
360c Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
At Kiin, they take their mango sticky rice seriously. (See page XX.) They use only R2E2 mangoes, which are strictly seasonal (meaning the dish is on the menu only between October and February); the sticky rice component is charmingly tinged purple with butterfly pea flowers; and the whole thing strikes a harmonious balance between sweet, salty and tart. Excuse us while we patiently wait for October to come around.
ICE CREAM
Flor
366 Karangahape Rd, Newton
At Flor, there’s just one dessert option: marigold ice cream. Which is perfectly fine, because it’s difficult to imagine anything that could compete with it. And while marigold is an unconventional flavour, it’s also yum, and the dish is pared back in a way that allows texture to take the spotlight. And it’s this texture that really makes the mind boggle. Somehow, it’s entirely free from ice crystals, to a point where it’s almost buttery. The chemistry behind it (we’re speculating here) is either the result of using a Thermomix or magic.
FLAN
La Mexicana
572 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
We should all be eating more flan, especially when it’s as jiggly, velvety and caramelised as the version that La Mexicana serves.
BUA LOY
Bona’s Thai Cuisine
47 Customs St East, Central City
Psychedelically coloured rice dumplings swimming in a fragrant coconut soup — dazzling and delicious.
LATE-NIGHT DESSERT
Perky’s Coffee and Desserts
442B Khyber Pass Rd, Newmarket
The decor is retro Americana, including vinyl booths and Formica tables. The doors are open till 11 every night of the week. The signature snow bowls (which you could compare to other ice-based desserts such as bingsu or tshuah-ping) arrive as a pile of ethereally fluffy ice plus a medley of fruit or nuts or coffee or ice cream. And because late-night dessert eating can range from a solo event to a crowded affair, the bowls helpfully come in three sizes: “personal”, “regular” and “huge”.
EVEN LATER DESSERTS
Denny’s
51 Hobson St, Central City; 19 Lakewood Ct, Manukau City
Denny’s has the edge in this category because the branches are open 24 hours — which means pancakes à la mode and banana fritters at whatever ungodly hour you like. We also appreciate their embrace of glacé cherries.
BUBBLE TEA SHOP
Daily Tea Birkenhead
13A Mokoia Rd, Birkenhead
Bubble tea is plentiful in Tāmaki Makaurau, but the team behind this North Shore shop cut through the noise thanks to their impressive selection of teas and toppings, plus their reliably generous (and fresh!) boba. They also have a joint in Henderson.
SUNDAE
Ollies
802 Manukau Rd, Royal Oak
Ollies has been around long enough (51 years to be exact) to know that the people want their sundaes adorned with pink wafers, chopped peanuts and copious hundreds and thousands.
DONUT (ROUND)
Doe
356 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn/ Commercial Bay, Central City
Exciting, grin-inducing flavours (such as lime milkshake and pineapple pie) that are delicious to boot.
DONUT (LONG)
Small Mercies
7 Mt Eden Rd, Grafton
Specifically, their donut flavours that straddle the line between sweet and savoury — for example, the brown cheese with maple brown butter, the garlic butter parmesan, and the chive cream cheese and hot honey. Who said a sweet can’t also be savoury?
PINK BUN
Clendon Bakery
469 Roscommon Rd, Clendon Park
This bakery does a lot of things really well, but it’s their squishy pink buns — cream filled and smudged with pink icing — that lure us back time after time.
FAST FOOD DESSERT
Wendy’s frosty float
Various locations
Whatever they’re doing to achieve that miraculous texture — the “frosty” part of the frosty float, somewhere between ice cream and thick shake — continues to elude us. We might not understand the science, but we do know this float is delicious. It evolves from the perfect thing to dip your fries into (if you’re that way inclined), to a cold scoopable treat, to a liquid melange of soft drink and melted ice cream. So much range!
BISCUITS
Sampler boxes by Offonwednesdays
@offonwednesdays
Māngere-based microbakery Offonwednesdays takes a meticulous approach to biscuit baking. (For proof of this diligence, see page XX.) You’ll find the outcomes in their sampler boxes — filled with edible creations like Black Forest checkerboards, coconut snaps, yuzu ricciarelli and sea salt sablés. Keep an eye on their Instagram for upcoming markets and pop-ups.
CUPCAKE
Blue Rose
414 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham
Cupcakes may have been overshadowed by cake for the past couple of decades, but Sex and the City made its debut on Netflix recently and everyone’s talking about recessions, so we’re predicting a cupcake revival. If you’re ready to embrace the return of dinky-sized cakes, head to Blue Rose cafe in Sandringham for their koko Sāmoa cupcakes made with organic koko beans grown in Sāmoa. And if you’re still stuck on full-sized cakes, they do a whole-cake version to order.
HALO-HALO
Gold Ribbon
1 West Coast Rd, Glen Eden
Unapologetically colourful, unapologetically textured and unapologetically messy.
MELON PAN
Mizu Bread
187 Symonds St, Eden Terrace
Named for its resemblance to a melon rather than for any kind of fruity flavour connection. The Earl Grey ones baked daily at Mizu Bread are simultaneously airy and crunchy — the best in the city.
GRANITA
Little Sicily
190 Onehunga Mall, Onehunga
There will likely be a trio of slushy machines behind the counter at Little Sicily when you visit, and each will be churning a different kind of granita. One of those will probably be almond flavoured — get that one.
Honey Cake from Subi’s
HONEY CAKE
Crispy Eatery
341 Remuera Rd, Remuera
The eight-layered honey cake, or medovik, is this Remuera cafe’s claim to fame. They’ve perfected the standard version (fluffy sponge meets sour cream, mascarpone and honey), along with a bunch incorporating more atypical flavour combinations. The cherry one is a must-try.
KULFI
Subi’s Desserts
128 White Swan Rd, Mt Roskill
You’ll find some of the most artfully presented frozen desserts in the city atop the paper plates served from this teensy Mt Roskill kulfi shop.
DORAYAKI
Guka Dorayaki
8 Teed St, Newmarket
Dorayaki is a pastry consisting of two pancake-esque castella sponges enclosing a filling. Traditionally, the filling is azuki red bean paste, but at this sleek Newmarket shop they also do coconut, Oreo cheese, grape, mocha and our favourite, matcha red bean. They serve the dorayaki cold and in a nifty tearable package, making it the perfect portable sweet treat.
BANANA POKE
Tasu’s TakeOut
3 Mason Ave, Ōtāhuhu
Cook Island poke — essentially dense chunks of baked banana pudding in sweetened coconut cream — is a versatile dish, one you can eat as a dessert course or as a savoury side. At Tasu’s, they serve it by the plastic pottle at a very pleasant level of sweetness. They also do a pumpkin version. Note: it’s not always available, so keep an eye on their social media, or take the risk of making a trip there anyway — they do have plenty of other delicious sweet things to fall back on.
FRUIT SANDO
iiko Sando
30 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna
The cream they use is spiked with yuzu, the fruit is always fresh, plus the shokupan (milk bread) is as soft as they come — it makes all the difference.
STEAMED PUDDING
Ada
454 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Steamed pudding gets a glow-up at this Grey Lynn restaurant, with the addition of a tangy fruit gel (the fruit changes seasonally), golden syrup foam and a muted peppery hint of puhikawa (horopito).
CUSTARD SLICE
Daily Bread
Multiple locations
When Daily Bread added a single layer of pink raspberry curd to this bakery mainstay last year, it took the city by storm. We’re still not over it.
SORBET
Tempero
352 Karangahape Rd, Newton
Not only is Tempero’s horchata sorbet — served in a pool of strawberry foam and flecked with almonds — one of the most inventive puddings in town, it also has the benefit of being something you can probably find space for even if you’ve gorged on dinner. I mean, it pretty much just melts into nothing.
CHEESECAKE
Basque cheesecake at Candela
155 Karangahape Rd, Newton
In its own right, this is an exceptional cheesecake. But the low-lit atmosphere at Candela, along with the option to pair it with a glass of sherry or one of their really good martinis, definitely adds to the swoon-worthiness of it all.
PAIN AU CHOCOLAT
La Voie Française
4/875 Dominion Rd, Mt Roskill
A little taste of Paris half way down Dominion Rd (or thereabouts). Just beware the notoriously long lines on weekend mornings.
CANELÉ
Beabea’s
160 Garnet Rd, Westmere
A paragon of the genre.
HOT CHOCOLATE (WEEKENDS)
Chocola
145 West Tamaki Rd, Glen Innes
Chocola is open only on weekends and only between 10am and 2.30pm — a tight window, but this Mexican eatery situated next to the Dove Hospice Shop does a hot chocolate worth waiting for. Made from a blend of roasted cacao nibs, almonds, sugar and spices, it’s a transcendent cup.
HOT CHOCOLATE (DAILY)
Miann
37 Galway St, Britomart; 518 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham; 136 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby
They have an entire hot chocolate menu, so it’s safe to say they take the drink seriously.
MUHALLEBI
Tapsi
985 Dominion Rd, Mt Roskill
Muhallebi, which originated in ancient Persia, is a chilled, custard-like pudding typically made from milk, sugar and a thickening agent such as rice or corn flour. The dish has since spread across the Middle East, where it takes various forms in texture and flavour. At Dominion Rd restaurant Tapsi, where the menu leans Iraqi, the muhallebi is astonishingly silky, topped with a mound of pistachios and dried rose petals and served in an ornate metallic bowl, which only adds to the majestically quivery feel of it all.
EGG TART
Lucky Fortune
532 Mount Albert Rd, Three Kings
At this yum cha restaurant the egg tarts are served in pink patty cases in sets of three, with the gooiest egg centres and the most buttery pastry ever. If you spot them being wheeled around, make sure you stop that trolley!
BARBOSA
Red Sea Cafe
WestCity, 30 Edsel St, Henderson
Make a trip to the mall for a generously cut square of this dense Egyptian cake that’s drenched in syrup and strewn with slivers of coconut.
BANOFFEE
Coffee Pen
6 Basque Rd, Eden Terrace
There’s plenty that stands out at Coffee Pen, but we have a particular liking for their banoffee tart, which is a beautiful collision of bananas, caramel, cloud-like cream and a crumbly crust that’s best eaten at one of their al fresco tables with a cup of coffee on the side. So, so good.
POFFERTJES
Dit
3 Birkenhead Ave, Birkenhead
Like pancakes, but smaller and cuter and more delightful.
Knafeh at The Greek House
KNAFEH
The Greek House
11 Point Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier
Knafeh, also known as kunafa, is a Levantine dessert made from kataifi (shredded filo pastry), and a cheese filling, baked in a round pan and then dredged in a sugar syrup. These days, knafeh is popular across the Middle East and the dish’s exact origins are debated, but it’s often considered to have originated in Nablus, Palestine, where it remains a local specialty and is called knafeh Na’ameh or knafeh Nabulsieh. Here in Tāmaki Makaurau, this Point Chevalier restaurant draws crowds with its rendition of the dessert, resembling the Palestinian version. Stretchy mozzarella is substituted for the traditional Nabulsi cheese, then crowned with a crisp, buttery kataifi top and a faintly floral syrup. It’s definitely the best knafeh in the city, and potentially also the best dessert, full stop.
CENDOL
Blossom Court
135 Queens Rd, Panmure
Admittedly, the food is so good and liberally portioned at Blossom Court that we rarely have room for dessert. But if for once you finish your mains with room to spare, do get the cendol. The bowls arrive beaming with truly iconic, neon-green strands of pandan-flavoured jelly plus red beans and crushed ice, all in a lightly sweetened coconut-milk broth. Now we just need to remember to pace ourselves on the dinner part of the meal.
SOFT SERVE
Tsujiri
10–14 Lorne St, Central City; Westfield Newmarket, 277 Broadway, Newmarket; 59 Corinthian Dr, Albany
Tsujiri offers three flavours of soft serve: there’s always matcha and then one of either black sesame or hōjicha, and you cannot lose with any of them.
TIRAMISU
Farina
244 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
After closing for renovations at the end of last year, Italian spot Farina on Ponsonby Rd reopened in April with an updated and expanded dining space, and a new menu to match. We love change, but ahead of their reopening, we quietly angsted over whether their glasses of never-soggy-tiramisu would survive the overhaul. They did, and thank goodness for that.
WATALAPPAM
The Walawwa
2 Basin View Lane, Panmure
When you delve into the origins of watalappam — a milky, steamed coconut custard injected with jaggery, cashew nuts and spices — you realise just how storied and tangled the origins of a relatively simple-looking dessert can be. These days, the Sri Lankan dessert watalappam is particularly associated with the island’s Muslim community, but it’s likely it derives from the Malay dish serikaya and that its name comes from the Dutch word vla, which means a custard. If you’re looking for watalappam in this city, we reckon you should head to Panmure, where Sri Lankan restaurant The Walawaa serves a rendition that arrives as a soft, cashew-adorned slab — a superb way to finish off a chilli-filled meal.
