Stonebake Cafe and Deli

We came here this morning on a hunt for a new place to go to for weekend brunch. Other than Coffee Club down the road (which doesn’t even register on my radar anymore as I’ve had so many bad experiences there), this is the only place on the Lunn Ave strip of shops that you can sit down and order coffee, breakfast or lunch. They have a huge range of cabinet food which all looked quite appetising, however we chose from the wall menu — I got French toast with a hash brown on the side and my mum got scrambled eggs on toast. I mostly enjoyed my meal — liked how they had pre-​drizzled maple syrup on my pieces of toast, as often I find that I have the problem of running out before I’m finished. The hash brown was clearly just one out of a packet though, and was quite greasy so I sort of wished I didn’t get it in the end. We sat outside on the deck, where I guess you could say we car-​watched at the busy Lunn Ave/​Abbotts Way intersection for the duration of our meal (despite the nice openness of the deck, there isn’t really anything else to look at). Not sure if I’m super keen to come back here, but it definitely fills the gap in the market of brunch outlets in that area.

Apart from the difficulties that you might encounter upon finding the entrance and parking for this café, it’s not too bad once you get in the door. It has a very large and spacious interior, equipped with its own kid’s activity corner near the entrance. There is ample space as they don’t seem to get particularly busy here. There is also a nice outdoor section which is perfect on a nice day, although there is not much of a view to look at, just a busy Mt Wellington intersection.
They have a large selection of sandwiches, sweets and pastries on offer, as well as many cooked options. The pies are quite nice; the good homemade kind with actual large chunks of meat inside. The coffee was ok, nothing spectacular but I’ll come back here.