Shaky Isles, Newmarket (NZ) by Bilby Blue

My favourite go-to place for lunch on my regular visits to Auckland – or more specifically, Newmarket – is Shaky Isles. I love their house-baked bread in all its many varieties – crusty, seeded or unseeded, and incredibly flavoursome. Just like bread should be.

With the office just around the corner and time typically being quite tight, I generally grab one of the pre-prepared rolls to eat at the desk (oh, the glamour of business travel).

Over several days on a recent Auckland visit, I munched my way through a number of the takeaway options. Any of these represent a substantial lunch – every bread roll was quite sizable and generously packed with fillings. The serving staff offered to toast the rolls, but with bread that good and fresh, I think toasting is unnecessary.

Day 1 was a brioche-style bun with luscious pulled pork and coleslaw. The pork was juicy and meaty, with a fantastic sticky-sweet sauce– the whole thing was just divinely scrumptious.

Day 2 was a ham baguette. Wonderful crispy crust on the French-style baguette. Huge thick slabs of leg ham, with cheddar-style cheese and rocket. Plus a liberal spreading of hot English mustard – yowzah! Enough to bring tears to my eyes. I know many people like hot mustard, but my preference would have been for a less intense French-style grain mustard – for me that would have better enhanced the flavour of the wonderful ham.

Day 3 was a Reuben – a long oval roll filled with pastrami, dill pickle, crunchy sweet/sour sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. Absolute perfection.

Of course, a good bakery does more than just bread – and who could resist those cakes? All baked in the same Newmarket kitchen. My favourite was the gluten-free orange and almond cake – moist and flavourful, topped with a light frosting and a slice of semi-dried blood orange for extra zing.

The brownie was dense and fudgy, studded with nuts and with a light dusting of cocoa on top. Very, very rich and very, very chocolatey.

The carrot cake was a substantial slab of beautifully moist and flavoursome cake. There was a sprinkling of poppy seeds on the frosting – not something I have seen on other carrot cakes I have tried.

I also dropped in early one day to grab an almond croissant for breakfast. So good… moist on the inside with a strong almond flavour.

For those wanting a sit-down brekky/brunch there is a menu with a range of freshly prepared dishes – granolas, eggs in all sorts of guises, fritters, bruschetta and pikelets. And for lunch there is a selection of Shaky Burgers – beef, pork, chicken and falafel.

All the bread and cakes are baked on the premises at Newmarket and distributed to other Shaky Isles cafés around Auckland – Britomart, Kingsland and New Lynn – as well as to an outlet inside the international terminal at Auckland airport, just past the security (keep that in mind next time you are passing through).

The chicken and eggs are free range, the pork is free farmed and Shaky Isles aims for as much organic and local produce as possible. Coffee beans are ethically sourced and the Kerikeri Organic Teas are also Fair Trade Certified. You can also buy loaves of Shaky Isles bread to make your own sandwiches.

Verdict

We loved it.

Overall

Great bread, tasty fillings and luscious cakes and pastries. Try to get there before 1pm as the most popular goodies tend to disappear quickly. And if you visit the Newmarket café in the morning an added attraction is watching the bakers at work in the huge glass-walled kitchen.

Find it at

27 Kingdon Street
Newmarket
Auckland
New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 524 8253