184 Garnet Road,
Westmere
Auckland,
(09) 360 6184
The ViewAuckland Review
4 out of 5 stars
Hands up anyone who lives in Westmere. Stop looking so smug you lucky buggers. Not all of us have a great neighbourhood café like the Meola Kitchen just up the road.
The Meola Kitchen is the latest opening around the intersection of Garnet Rd and Meola Rd, an area that’s quickly developing into the next West Lynn. Up on Richmond Rd the transformation to a gentrified eating and shopping hub is just about complete with places like Malt, the Gyspy Tea Room, and the Monterey Lounge, but down the hill in Westmere there’s a transition still happening with good eateries and bars sharing the area with long-established butcheries and dairies. Good eateries like the Meola Kitchen.
Like the nearby Monterey Lounge and Jafa, the Meola Kitchen keeps thing simple with a tight menu of breakfast and lunch options that are spins on old favourites. Carol’s Straw Potato Cake with Gin Cured Salmon ($13.50) is enlivened with dill crème fraiche and cucumber and is an ideal brunch on a warm summer’s morning. I opt for the Huevos Rancheros ($14) with eggs, Mexican-style beans and manchego cheese atop two robust tortillas. It’s beautifully prepared, but needs an extra zing of chilli heat. Next time I’ll ask for a bottle of Tabasco sauce.
The menu also extends to lunch, and across summer dinner is being offered from 5pm to 8pm. If nothing on the menu takes your fancy (unlikely) there’s counter food available including Turkish pide sandwiches, fresh pastries and interesting looking Scotch eggs – really all the stuff you’d buy if you could walk up here on a regular basis. There are also a few interesting drinks on offer, including Hardie Boys ginger beer and lemonade from Wellington, and Omaha organic juices from Matakana.
Simplicity really is the key at the Meola Kitchen, and the corner location (a former butchery or bakery maybe?) is light and airy with warm wooden floors. Huge windows allow glimpses of the ocean, and you just know that in winter the space is going to be equally cosy.
No wonder the locals with their attached well-behaved dogs are looking so pleased with themselves.
Meola Kitchen has been reviewed by 8 users