meei / Pastries

Clockwise from top left - blackcurrant & violet, pear & ginger, sticky date, manuka honey & hazelnut, licorice & milk chocolate, bitter chocolate. personal favourites are the bitter chocolate (only perennial offering out of the six we chose) and sticky date. probably the only macarons in nz that are good enough to compete with the ones at la renaissance of the rocks, sydney (which are the best i've ever personally tried).

they make some mean-as carrot cake too. one of the best - texturally - carrot cakes i've had in a cafe, bar none. so crumbly.

light, delicate and fluffed pastry encasing a perfectly balanced (flavour-wise) apple puree.

just look at the flaky layers and tell me it won't be any good - i'll simply brand you an outright liar. on a somewhat related note, the macaron you spot in the background also happens to be one of the better ones in town.

aah still the best. in the most random of places (amongst the mass of AUT buildings) lies a food cart that only makes churros; churros with a crisp exterior you wouldn't find anywhere else in the city.

the now overly-hyped ma cherie macarons are just that - all hype. the insides of the shell felt too gummy to me and it wasn't particularly crisp on the outside either. certainly had better ones. flavours tried are cherry, green tea and mocha, with the intense ganache flavour of the mocha one making it our definite favourite of the three. the green tea was a little too mild, flavour-wise.

newest cafe in the cbd with a frenchie flair - the owner bustling about isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty - getting involved in the serving and even coming to check on patrons to see if everything is okay, which is an absolute rarity (and very welcome addition) in the humble cafe setting. not excelling very much in the pastry dept, though, i'm afraid. croissant was gummy, not very buttery and hardly flaky at all at about midday.

from the hummus stall in the market. the crispness is appreciated, but there are way too little nuts.

they've got the fluffiness of the texture right, but the crust yields a little too much to pressure and wouldn't stay crisp for as long as turo churros' would. doesn't have the rich egginess of turo churros' too (sigh). not too bad a choice if you're having a late night churros craving, though.

ridiculously good. crisp, buttery puff pastry that isn't at all soggy and a tastefully thin layer of frangipane nestling a smattering of tangy blueberries.