Our Favourite Auckland Food Stops

Auckland is a big city to eat your way around, and the best of it is rarely in one place. The good brunch is in Ponsonby, the tacos are in Mt Albert, the Saturday market is an hour north, and the dinner you will still be talking about next week is tucked into a courtyard at Victoria Park Market.

These are the places we go back to ourselves, from a slow breakfast to a proper night out, with a couple of food day trips for when the city has been done. Most of them are an easy drive apart, which is where a car from Evolve Rentals turns a list of good addresses into a very good day.

Where is the best brunch in Auckland?

Our first pick is Sol's Place at 121 Ponsonby Road. It opened in 2021 to bring one of Ponsonby's oldest café spots back to life, and it still feels like somebody's front room: good coffee, generous plates and nobody hurrying you out. Order the bacon. You will not be disappointed.

Ponsonby Road is worth a wander afterwards, with shops, more cafés and enough people watching to justify a second coffee.

If you are heading east instead, Huddle Café on Morrin Road in St Johns is a proper local, the kind of place the neighbourhood comes to after the gym and on a lazy weekend. It is open every day until 3pm, so it suits an early start rather than a late one.

Which Auckland food markets are worth visiting?

La Cigale French Market in Parnell is the classic. It runs on Saturdays from 8am to 1.30pm and Sundays from 9am to 1.30pm on St Georges Bay Road, with fresh bread, pastries, produce and a coffee queue that is entirely worth joining. Go early, before the best of the baking has gone.

For something in the evening, the Auckland Night Markets are on seven nights a week, each night at a different location around the city, including Onehunga, Henderson and Pakuranga. They are loud, cheap, busy and exactly what you want after a long day, and because they move around the suburbs, a car is by far the easiest way to get to whichever one is on.

Tourism New Zealand keeps a good guide to Auckland's markets if you want to check days and times before you go.

Where should you go for dinner in Auckland?

If you only book one proper dinner, make it Milenta at Victoria Park Market. The cooking is smoky, bright and South American in spirit, the courtyard is one of the best places in the city to spend a warm evening, and it manages to feel special without ever feeling stiff. Book ahead, because everybody else has worked this out too.

For something livelier, Hazy Tiger on Durham Street West in the city centre does bold Korean food as small plates, with good cocktails, neon and booths. It is a sharing sort of place, so bring people and order more than you think you need.

Where can you find great cheap eats in Auckland?

Our favourite is Broke Boy Taco, which is all about birria tacos made with New Zealand beef that has been slow cooked for sixteen hours. The main spot is on New North Road in Mt Albert, with others in Birkenhead and Papakura. Get extra napkins. You will need them.

Beyond that, Auckland's best cheap food is by street rather than by name. Dominion Road is the place for noodles and dumplings, Karangahape Road is where to go when you want somewhere with a bit more noise, and the suburbs are full of family restaurants that never make it onto a list like this one.

What food day trips can you do from Auckland?

Head north to Matakana, about an hour from the city. The Matakana Market is on Saturday mornings from 8am, with local produce, food stalls and coffee, and the wineries and cafés around the village make it very easy to turn a market visit into a long lunch.

Or go west. Brunch in Ponsonby, then an hour's drive out to Piha for a walk on the black sand, is one of the best ways to spend a day in Auckland, and you will be back in town in time for dinner. Our Auckland day trips guide covers Piha, Kumeu, Matakana and the Hunua Ranges in more detail.

If a day is not enough, the best weekend road trips from Auckland takes you to Raglan, the Coromandel and the Kauri Coast, each with somewhere good to eat at the end of the drive.

Do you need a car to eat your way around Auckland?

For the city centre, not really. Hazy Tiger, Victoria Park Market and Ponsonby Road are all within reach on foot or by bus. The trouble starts when the plan includes more than one neighbourhood. St Johns, Mt Albert, a night market in Henderson and a Saturday in Matakana are all in completely different directions, and stringing them together on public transport takes most of the day.

A car turns it into an afternoon, and a hybrid is well suited to it, because short hops across town in traffic are exactly where a hybrid saves the most fuel. Our post on hiring a hybrid explains why.

Getting your car in Auckland

Our Auckland cars are collected from the Grand Millennium at 71 Mayoral Drive in the city centre, where a member of our team hands you the keys in the hotel lobby and walks you round the car. From hotel lobby to highway covers how it works, step by step.

Start with bacon at Sol's, end with tacos in Mt Albert, and fit a market in somewhere in between. Pick up your car with Evolve Rentals and you can do the lot in a day, loosen your belt, and go again tomorrow.

FAQs

When is La Cigale French Market open?
Saturdays from 8am to 1.30pm and Sundays from 9am to 1.30pm, on St Georges Bay Road in Parnell.

Where are the Auckland Night Markets?
They run seven nights a week, each night at a different location around the city, including Onehunga, Henderson and Pakuranga.

Where is Milenta in Auckland?
At Victoria Park Market on Victoria Street West, on the western edge of the city centre. Booking ahead is a good idea.

How far is Matakana from Auckland?
About an hour's drive north of the city. The Matakana Market is on Saturday mornings from 8am.

Where do you collect an Evolve car in Auckland?
From the Grand Millennium at 71 Mayoral Drive in the city centre, where our team hands over the keys in the hotel lobby.