162 Garnet Road,
Westmere
Auckland,


(09) 376 8227

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3 out of 5 stars

When the sun comes out on a Sunday morning, so do Aucklanders, and most of them will head to their local cafe for a relaxed brunch, good coffee and a chance to read the Sunday papers uninterrupted. One cafe that has been serving breakfast and coffee to city dwellers for years is Garnet Road Foodstore in Westmere.

So when I woke up on a recent sunbathed Sunday and the clocked ticked past 10am and I still hadn’t made it to the kitchen I thought, ‘what the hell, why don’t I give Garnet Road a go?’ My brunch buddy and I jumped in the car (the Westmere address isn’t in walking distance to my east Auckland address) and made my way.

Garnet Road Foodstore is towards the water view end of the street nestled in between a local bakery and wine merchant. There’s also a dairy or two, pharmacy, antique store, Chinese takeaway and a competitor, Meola Kitchen, on the same commercial strip.

The foodstore was already busy by the time we arrived with morning walkers, locals and young families making up the majority of the clientele. Luck would have it that an outside table was vacated as we approached so we nabbed it, grabbed a Sunday paper, poured a glass of water and settled into the silver metal seats before someone else could.

Inside the cafe is pretty standard, as are the prices. There’s a few tables of varying sizes, a noisy coffee machine, a glass display cabinet with a chalkboard menu on the wall behind the counter. On the menu is the standard all-day breakfast options; poached eggs, omelette, big breakfast with sausage and bacon and a variety of toasted bagels. In the display cabinet are Panini’s, home-made pies and salads, while muffins and lemon tarts are neatly presented on top.

I went for the tomato, basil and pesto bagel, while my brunch buddy went for a hearty chicken, mushroom and mustard pie with a broccoli salad as a side. Neither of us are coffee drinkers, so we had a hot chocolate each. Despite the one-man barista show our drinks were served to us outside quickly and devoured with nodding approval as quickly.

I guess the coffee is just as good as many customers came purely for a latte, espresso or flat white. Some coffee drinkers arrived in cars, ordered a coffee or two, lingered around the tables outside and took off as soon as the waitress delivered the hot contents in cardboard cup carriers.

Our food met our expectations, as did the service, but didn’t excite us. If you are going to sit outside expect some road noise as it’s a busy little street.

All in all, the experience wasn’t unpleasant and did reach the objective of a relaxed start to a lazy Sunday.