BEST BAKERIES IN THE BAY

Hot flaky pies, cream-filled donuts and delicious soft bread rolls – who doesn’t love grabbing something yummy to eat from a bakery? There are plenty of reasons to treat yourself in Te Moananui ā Toi ׀ the Coastal Bay of Plenty as we have some exceptional bakeries on our doorstep. Check out our top picks below.

Tay Street Store 4

WILDFLOUR

This handmade small batch bakery at the Mount epitomises everything we love about food in the Bay – unique goods made with love, precision and plenty of flair! Wildflour proves that wholesome food can also be decadent, and artificial ingredients are simply not required. Their range of gooey raw slices, bliss balls and freshly baked cinnamon brioche buns are to die for. Locally-sourced ingredients are used to make treats like peanut butter chocolate bliss balls, raw cacao macadamia bars, and banana bread with chocolate chunks. Mmmmm…yum! You can buy online or pop into their bakery to purchase their goodies.

Wildflour, 5c Hull Road, Tauranga

best bakehouse v2

BEST BAKEHOUSE

Tara Road in Papamoa is home to the Best Bakehouse, a fabulous range of goodies and a great cup of coffee. This small family-run business opened in early 2022 and knows how to tempt the tastebuds. Their homemade bagels are overflowing with yummy ingredients like bacon, salmon, lettuce and micro herbs, while their pillowy hot-cross buns are in huge demand over Easter. This bakery loves to serve up delicate mini cakes (shaped like small loaves and topped with icing). Inventive flavour combinations like burnt butter feijoa cake with cream cheese icing or banana miso bread are beautifully baked and decorated to perfection. Chocolate brownies, slices and triple cheese scones are also available.

Best Bakehouse, 1 Tara Road, Papamoa Beach

Elspeth

ELSPETH BAKERY

This gem on Maunganui Road serves up handmade breads, pastries, savouries and slices for people who love exceptional food. Their recipes have been perfected over time and they’ve taken classic bakery items to a whole new level. Their light and flaky croissants and pastries take three days to make from scratch but disappear in an instant. The Elspeth custard square is a particular favourite and is filled with their secret velvety custard recipe, while their sausage rolls are stuffed with free-range pork and fresh apple and wrapped in delicious puff pastry. If you fancy a traditional Devonshire tea with crumbly scones, homemade jam and thick mascarpone cream, you’re in for a treat.

Elspeth Bakery2A Terrace Avenue, Mount Maunganui

Breadhead

BREADHEAD

The former owners of Tauranga’s ever-popular Love Rosie Bakery have done it again – creating Breadhead in 2018 to produce the ultimate bread and pastries that customers will crave. They produce no less than 10 different types of sourdough loaves including olive walnut, miso tahini and ancient grain porridge. These long-lasting loaves are light and soft on the inside and beautifully crusty on the outside. Croissants, ‘cruffins’, bagels and amazing Danish pastries (with decadent fillings like butterscotch, cream cheese and feijoa jam, or blueberries and blackcurrants), are also available. They’re open six days a week on St John Street and we recommend you get there early as their bread often sells out.

Breadhead, 2A Saint John Street, Tauranga

Spongedrop MT 2

SPONGEDROP CAKERY

Melt-in-your mouth cupcakes topped with the perfect dollop of creamy icing is what this sweet Mount Maunganui bakery is best known for. The café itself sits right on the edge of Coronation Park and is a lovely place to relax in the sun with a cupcake, macaroon or slice and a hot drink. Popular cupcake flavours include salted caramel, lemon cheesecake, raspberry, Heilala vanilla and chocolate. If you’re lucky there might also be coconut passionfruit, mint or pumpkin spice cupcakes on offer! Spongedrop’s cheese scones are also legendary, as are their celebration cakes which can be ordered for special occasions.

Spongedrop Cakery, 10 Salisbury Avenue, Mount Maunganui

LEpicerie 2

L'ÉPICERIE LARDER

Further down the way in Whakatāne you'll find L'Épicerie Larder. This French bakery is renowned for its delicious almond croissants and its ham and cheese baguettes. Owner Guilhem is proud to bake sourdough bread, pastries, bagels and brioche fresh every weekday and also to roast organic coffee onsite. Open Monday to Friday 9:30am-1:30pm.

L'Épicerie Larder, 128 Commerce Street, Whakatāne

The Whipped Baker

THE WHIPPED BAKER

This café at Tauranga’s Historic Village is famous across the Bay for its incredible donuts. Their cabinet is bursting with every flavour imaginable – cream-filled raspberry, lemon curd, salted caramel and snickers donuts as well an enormous array of iced donuts which you can literally “inject” with flavour thanks to the giant plastic syringes sticking out of them. So much love goes into decorating these donuts your eyes will probably pop out of your head, and you’ll have to brace yourself for the sugar rush. Of course, a wide range of scrummy savoury items are available here too. Good luck choosing what you want!

The Whipped Baker, 17th Avenue, Tauranga South

Flaveur

FLAVEUR BREADS

Baking bread is an artform and Flaveur specialises in slow-fermented artisan sourdough, gluten-free, multigrain and raisin breads that are packed full of goodness and easy to digest. These loaves contain probiotics, are low in sugar, and high in minerals and fibre so they are as good for you as they taste! A loaf of sourdough is left to ferment for 24 hours and this ‘slow-rise’ technique helps to harness all the nutrition. You can also buy soft pretzels, gorgeous fruit tarts, croissants and baguettes. At their bakery café in Mount Maunganui you can watch the breads being made, and their 2nd Ave café sells a great range of sandwiches and salads.

Flaveur Breads, 31 Totara St, Mount Maunganui & 94 2nd Ave, Tauranga

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PATRICK'S PIES

Patrick Lam does indeed love his pies, and there’s no-one better at making them! This bakery has won over 70 awards including the Bakers Supreme Pie Award an unprecedented SEVEN times. Their classic mince and cheese won the top award in 2019 but you’ll find all sorts of creative flavours here including sweet lamb curry; roast pork, apple sauce and cheese; and Cajun chicken, bacon and spinach. “To make a pie is easy,” Patrick says. “To make a perfect pie is really, really hard.” You can judge the results for yourself at his Bethlehem and Tauranga Crossing stores. His sausage rolls are pretty exceptional too.

Patrick's Pies, Bethlehem Town Centre & Tauranga Crossing

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