Olaf’s Artisan Bakery and Cafe

Olafs Café got amazing ambience, nice comfortable seating and great location.
Coffee at Olaf was not good. The coffee was a bit burnt and it tasted horribly. After mixing for several minutes, I managed to get it a bring it to a drinking standard but it was still of very low quality.
The food was over priced and its quantity and size was very small. Comparing to cafes such as Melba, Kreem, Frasers, Dizenoff, Salta, Bambina cafes etc.
I personally won’t be going here again.

This bakery café is known to be busy as this is where some of the best breads, pastries and baked goods in Auckland were found but now there is a lot of competition with other French bakeries.
My friend and I went here for a coffee /​relax after we shifted house.
There was so much sweet buttery goodness to choose from, I got the Savoury scone which was good, I still like my homemade ones — they have more bacon. I had the lemon tart and it was light, tart and wonderful.
The coffee is also good and the service cheerful. It’s the place to go to get your weekend lunch and grab fresh bread that’s not right in the city.

Very expensive, which is not a bad thing if the food and service was comensurate… it isn’t.
I had eggs benedict and coffee and my partner had the gourmet breakfast and coffee.
Our coffees came after our meal, and i had to send mine back as it was wrongly made.
They brought our food out without cutlery, forcing us to salivate over our eggs as they went cold. The cutlery is very blunt as a side note.
I really wanted to like this place but the price combined with poor service and small food portions won’t have me returning. Which is a shame as the food looks and tastes great.

They serve very good coffee here — that is a plus.
I tried the pastries the last time I was here and was very disappointed — the cherry danish had that weird gooey fruit gelatin you get with fruit desserts sometimes (a stabilizer?) and early on a Saturday morning I found the pastry to be a bit stale (!!!) not what I would expect for a bakery.
That said, I’ve been here a few times for café lunch and their salads from the cabinet are always nice, and they do lovely soups. Their bread seems nice and I’m always tempted to buy a whole loaf to take home (they sell them like a proper bakery). Though, I must say there’s always a bit of a ticketed shock with the prices — getting up there for a café.
Nice atmosphere… Get the coffee… Think twice about the pastries.

I’ve been contemplating giving it a 5 star review. You see, when I love the particular food I had that day I seem to ignore everything else, then a few more visits later my enthusiasm subsides and I found myself often disappointed. So for some of my past reviews I’ve even considered to deduct stars off.
Now that is not to say I didn’t enjoy my meal here, I’ve loved the food every single time, it’s just that there are a few bits and pieces that made me reluctant to give a full 5 stars.
I’ve always enjoyed their sandwiches. While they come in quite on the expensive side, I find them worth the price.
My French toast this morning was $ 19.50 (or $ 19), probably not for the faint of heart. The raspberry/​custard was gorgeous, which to me more than justifies the price, it is winter after all.
Here’s why there’s no five stars. First off, please please please get your cutleries sorted!!! I think I can cut my French toast better if I used the handle of the knife. The first knife I got was super obviously bent at the tip, about 45 degrees bent! Service, just as others pointed out, needs some quality control. I can try to justify your price as much as I can but dining in just isn’t that great, and while your food is great, everything else is, well, meh.
So on the basis of «I value good food more than anything», it’s a 4 stars
UPDATE: Service has improved since my last visit. It was a busy lunch but we still got taken care of :)

I’ve been here a few times & while the atmosphere is nice, the tables are cleaned away quickly once patrons leave & the food is tasty; I have found the service when I order my food to be borderline rude. On one visit I was ignored while the lady taking orders was having a lovely chat with a friend about hairdressers & I’ve also been mocked by her & a waitress on a separate occasion when I asked for the burger without a bun but extra salads.
Although the food is great, I don’t think I’ll be going back purely due to the interactions I have had with staff which is sad :(Might go back next year & see if anything is different… stay tuned!

For a Gluten Free Gal such as myself it’s a strange kind of torture as you smell the bread baking knowing you’ll never have so much as a kibble.
But I keep a tight rein on the will to live enjoying the homemade hot chocolate.
They don’t have a lot in the huge range of goodie for my tummy but the bunt cake with raspberries and the chocolate and beetroot cake are rather delightful.
I here the coffee is great too.
Not cheap but great quality and I know what I prefer.

Olaf’s is an amazing bakery. I feel so lucky to live just around the corner from it, although my waistline probably wishes I didn’t. My particular favourite treat is the Copenhagener danish — crispy, buttery iced pastry filled with a delicious cherry custard in the middle. Heaven. Their coffee is fantastic, too. Definitely one of my favourite places for a baked treat in Mt Eden.

This place was humming for lunch when I arrived. Luckily, we nabbed a table outside, with a fleece blankets for the cool Auckland wind (insert Frozen joke).
The menu is quite straightforward with sandwiches and salad displayed inside from tuna, chicken, lamb, ham and other cold meets. There is an array of sweet pastries on offer and heaps of grainy German bread.
My lamb shoulder sandwich cost me a big old $ 15 and hit the stop, but nothing to write home about. The Reuben was packed with cold meats, cabbage and cheese and resembled bang for buck, but by the end I opted for an open sandwich. There are lots of homemade drinks, including ice teas, chai and smoothies. Ordering at the counter is fast and a bit snappy but meh.
Remember to bring your credit card or a wad of cash, due to the marked up prices. I live in the city and don’t mind paying top dollar for crusty, grainy bread but that a side the price of the meals should up the quality or reduce the price.

Lots of bread options but the coffee is only average. Nice enough place to have breakfast/​brunch.

This is my go-​to café. whenever no one can decide where to go i always suggest this place because it can accommodate for all people but mainly me haha.
Every time i go i order their soups and my favourite so far was this blue cheese potato soup they made once and i never saw again. it was AMAZING. if not i order my next favourite which is the pulled lamb shoulder sandwich, best sandwich ever especially that sauce (yoghurt? or tzatziki? not too sure). and they always have such appetizing desserts too. Their french toast was really yum too!
Overall i’m really happy with these guys, they haven’t disappointed me yet.

I’ve been to Olaf long time ago just for a coffee. So I wanted to revisit this place to try their food. It was pretty busy for a Sunday late afternoon. My stomach was growling, so I quickly ordered even before my friend’s arrival!
Spaghetti carbonara (19.5) was interesting, but not to my likings. The spaghetti had a touch too much lemon flavour and the bacon was too sweet. I guess I was expecting a savoury flavour. However the Milanese pizza (22) was absolutely amazing. Heavy toppings of mozzarella and salami was heavenly. The waiter was happy to give us both Tabasco sauce and chilli powder to accommodate. Coffee was burnt so I’ve asked for another one and the second one was perfect.
After a week, I couldn’t resist thinking about their pizza so I was at Olaf again. A friend and I ordered the same pizza, but something was different. It was dribbling with too much olive oil that the slices were wet as well as being salty. I actually got a bit sick afterwards. Coffee was warm and under extracted this time but I couldn’t be bothered to ask for a new one again. We also shared a blueberry tart and a raspberry & mint tea which was just okay, maybe because the blueberry is not in season. Better to come back for this in summer?

This is my favourite place to get bread, and it’s the only place I know of that does cherry danishes. It is pretty pricey though. If your planning to dine in I recommend getting the spelt pancakes which is my personal favourite. Apparently they are now serving dinner as well, which I find a little strange considering their a bakery, but might be worth a try.

YES! Situated off Mt Eden road so its a little away from the traffic rush. This place is almost always busy.
Being an Artisan Bakery, you HAVE to try one of their sandwiches toasted. My faaave is the Reuben. Their barista does an awesome job with the coffees. They also have menu items including pizzas. One of my friends ALWAYS gets their soup cause she’s convinced they always do an awesome job. I’m not that much of a soup person myself.
My dad used to be a baker and he was pretty impressed with the bread (which doesn’t happen a lot!)
The only thing I disliked is that they don’t have table service. Everything is ordered and paid for at the counter, which is a little inconvenient for large groups and results in long lines all the time.

Myself, hubby and 4 friends (all ex-​pat New Yorker’s) stopped in here on the weekend and were all super satisfied with what they had to offer. One of my friends ate a ‘Rueban’ sandwich which I am now educated upon as being a traditional New York staple — and damn it looked good! — they didn’t use rye bread but did have the swiss cheese, a traditional element. I ate a super seeded roll with tuna and salad, which was quite tasty despite my sore throat… actually, there wasn’t a huge variety of choices left for lunch, which was probably a good thing as we were in a hurry and I had to choose quickly!
We all commented on how fresh and delicious the bread was, living up to their claim of ‘artisan bread’. Although the many sweet treats in the window cabinet looked very inviting we did end up passing them up to head to the gelati store up the road instead.
One more praise goes to their quick and friendly service, the venue was packed to the rafters and staff obviously under pressure, nonetheless the woman behind the counter kept her smile, all the staff looked out for each other working well as a team and the service surprisingly prompt. Am sure to be back again!

I popped in here to satisfy a coffee craving and indulge myself with a sweet cake. I was happy on both counts.
I got a mountain of a cake, which was sponge soaked in sugar syrup, custard layers and topped with meringue. It held together well and I had eaten most of it by the time my flat white arrived. The coffee tasted a little bit burnt, but on the whole it was fine.
A nice afternoon treat and I would recommend a visit if you are in the area.

Finally, a decent bakery in Mt Eden that stands up to it’s name.
Instead of just pies and overpriced panini, Olaf’s bakes delicious artisan breads just a behind a large kitchen window where you can watch the bakers ply their trade. Croissants and sweets that thankfully aren’t plastered in icing sugar. Tart and galette and linzer– I was too excited to order a coffee. Understandably there was a bit of a queue to enjoy this commodious bakery, it’s popularity evident even though it is situated off the main road.
Easily one of the best bakeries I’ve found in Auckland, with plenty of space to brunch and relax.

I love Olaf’s. Olaf and his bakers bake the most incredible bread, once you’ve had Olaf’s sourdough you can’t go back, There is bread but then there is Olaf’s bread. One of my favourites is the fig and walnut bread, this is amazing, I mean some of these breads we are talking, 20 hours of fermentation here. It is no wonder Olaf has won so many awards. But enough about the bread, just go buy some.
The café itself is a nice place to sit and relax, whether inside or out, they even have a water bowl outside for the dogs. The coffee is coffee supreme, always good coffee here, or that I have had anyway. As well as a fantastic kitchen menu of which they will adapt for you if your have dietary requirements (thankfully I am vegan, not gluten intolerant) There is also a stunning range of pastries and other wonderful things available in the cabinets. Take home some of Olaf’s preserves for your bread too, they are equally amazing.

Wow I’d heard about this place through the ‘Hood grapevine but really didn’t realise how special it was until I went myself. Unintentionally too — the car was in for a WOF and the kids I had time to kill in the village.
As soon as I walked in I wanted to eat even though it wasn’t eating time. This is gourmet cabinet food at its best — the Puy Lentil Salad with Haloumi is burned into my consciousness but sadly was all eaten up when I popped back in there today. Still tomorrow is another day.
Olaf’s is part bakery with one side of the room open so you can watch the bakers do their thing. I haven’t tried the bread yet but I can tell you the Iced Coffee is out of this world. The kids had smoothies which were also just so much MORE — sweet, unctious, tangy, creamy — pretty much a meal, a drink and a dessert all in the one glass.
But oh sweet Jesus the Iced Coffee. Served in a narrow vintage-​esque milk bottle, it comes unsweetened and poured from cofee machine jug contraption to glass bottle at your table by the very cool (in a fascinating I-​want-​to-​stare-​at-​you way) waitperson. The three of us couldn’t help but stare because I’ve never seen such table drama over cold coffee.
Anyway, she was maybe unnerved by the staring because I didn’t catch what she said as she set down a wee jug but I thought I’d heard one of my favourite words «vanilla». I was right. Next to my sleek glass bottle and my coffee cup was placed a small jug of vanilla syrup. Although the jug was small the amount of syrup was not and I actually got more than two big cups of the most intense brain-​zapping, rapture inducing iced coffee I’ve possibly ever had. I am so going back for more. And the salads. And probably the bread. And maybe the sweets…

Came here for a small bite to eat one afternoon when most of the other cafes had shut up shop. Their kitchen had closed but I still had plenty of choice from their cabinets and their freshly baked bread. The service was polite and thoughtful and the food came quickly. The coffee was great, nice and strong just how I like it. I sat inside because it was so lovely and quiet in there, but I noticed their outdoor seating offered blankets if you wanted them, which I thought was a nice touch. I took two loaves of their bread home with me which were so delicious and quite reasonably priced for artisan bread. The kitchen is fully open so you can watch the chefs cooking and preparing the bread for the next day, which I enjoyed whilst having my coffee.