Bestie occupies a shop on the ground floor of St Kevins Arcade, the famous passage off Karangahape Road. The arcade dates from 1924, when it was built on a strip of land the Nathan family had gifted as a walkway from K Road down to Myers Park, and in its early years it was full of tailors, dressmakers and tea rooms. Today the cafe keeps that spirit alive with views across the green of Myers Park, and it goes out of its way to welcome everyone, whether that means bringing your mum, your kids or your fussiest friend, meeting a date, or settling in alone with a book and a coffee.
That coffee comes from Eighthirty, pulled as espresso in all the usual styles or brewed as a single origin filter, with matcha and a sweet turmeric latte for something different. Tea drinkers can choose from Kerikeri Organics loose leaf blends that bring native flavours into the cup, such as orange and horopito, kawakawa and lemongrass, or rooibos with manuka. Cold drinks lean homemade: lemonade, turmeric and ginger, and strawberry and basil sodas made in house, blueberry or chilli kombucha, peach and oolong iced tea, smoothies and homegrown juices, with a strawberry matcha for anyone who likes their iced drinks fruity.
Bestie rotates its menu seasonally, and the winter version showed the approach well: familiar cafe dishes given a clever twist. It has included edamame on toast with miso cream, radish, chilli crisp and poached eggs, glazed miso mushrooms on sourdough with pickled red onion, and beet cured salmon with burnt orange cream cheese and dill. Sweeter choices have included hotcakes topped with whipped butter and a pour of maple syrup, and a cardamom rice pudding with gingerbread crumb and mandarin, while bigger appetites could tackle the chip buttie, stacked with thick cut chips, salt and vinegar mayo, beetroot pickle, a chilli fried egg and bacon in toasted tin loaf, or sardines in olive oil with pickles and herbed ricotta.
Special diets get thoughtful attention. The menu marks vegan dishes, plenty of plates with no gluten added and others that can be made without it, and an OMGoodness loaf with no gluten added sits alongside sourdough and the cafe’s own grain loaf. Sides such as house pickles and fried halloumi bites with hot honey and whipped ricotta make easy additions. For people on the move, the cabinet is stocked with sweet and savoury baking and fresh salads to take away. Getting there is straightforward too, with K Road’s separated cycleway and its bike parking close at hand and the City Rail Link now bringing visitors from further afield by train.
Address: Shop 13, Ground Floor, St Kevins Arcade, 183 Karangahape Road, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
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