Grano

Vibe

Exposed bricks, jazzy beats, retro wallpaper and spacious shared tables all add up to make Grano one of Auckland’s coolest cafes. So cool that it’s quickly become a favoured Mt Eden hangout for various newsroom hipsters and media types from the nearby TV3 offices.


Service

Friendly and relaxed, smoothly delivering a superior long black from Caffe Allpress.


Drinks List

Daytime options include San Pellegrino mineral waters and local summer quenchers from Charlies and Phoenix. Grown-up and later in the day options showcase a concise but well-chosen winelist, champagne, and beers including Little Creatures Pale Ale and Hoegaarden wheat beer. The boozy selections are most popular on Thursday and Friday nights when Grano morphs from a daytime café into an after-work tapas and wine bar (open until 10pm).


Highlights

Grano’s spin on a big breakfast with free-range eggs, potato hash, lamb sausages, streaky bacon, mushrooms and a roast tomato ($16). Interesting and well-priced Thursday and Friday night tapas include crispy squid with pineapple salsa and a chilli dipping sauce ($10).


Most Surprising Dish

The classic-with-a-twist spin of the omelette with queso Iberico (a mild Spanish cheese), rocket and a mint and cucumber salsa ($14). A more challenging tapas option is the thinly-sliced porchette di testa (rolled hog’s head) with radish, lemon, rocket and parmesan ($10).


The Bottom Line

Grano is an effortlessly cool and relaxed spot that’s versatile enough to seamlessly bridge the gap between café and tapas bar. In Grano, we may well have found our new favourite Auckland caffeine haunt.


A Reason To Return

For a longer after-work visit to linger over the concise tapas list. We’re already lining up a few Little Creatures with the squid and the rolled hog’s head. Apparently the tapas selection changes regularly, so we’ll have to be quick.

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