We were having a mooch in the Kilbirnie neighbourhood of Wellington yesterday; looking for a physical branch of Kiwibank, seeking out the Aquatic Centre for Wellington region, snoopin in a few op shops, ethnic food stores etc. etc.
Happened upon a purely LOCAL lookin hangout for a coffee / snack.
Cupcake Bakery, 18 Rongatai Road was the venue.
Could well be a mom n pop shop?
'front of house' staffers spoke languages exclusive to any of ours, so in depth communication was unlikely....
We did find ourselves a reasonably clean table not in need of bussing and waited for our coffee orders to come up.
Cupcake bakery is OLD school, no airs n graces here.
Over in the refrigerated glass cabinets, Wife spied a CUSTARD SQUARE!
Not having enjoyed this time honoured delicacy for years....
and able to resist anything EXCEPT temptation...
she took the plunge.....
3 to 4 bucks approx...a solid mass o kiwiana sweet lovliness masquerading as DIET KILLER, heart attack on a plate.
For those not familiar with the genre of Kiwi 'morning tea', a custard square is a confection come baked item beloved by yer grandmother's generation:
Made in gargantuan baking tins, then sliced into large SQUARES...
Often described as a delicious, semi sweet custardy filling, sweet icing topping encased in two layers of puff 'type' heavy on the lard / butter pastry = an all in one hunger buster say 3-4 inches square, a heavyweight champion from a bygone age when calorie / carb counting was unknown, and anything worth doing was worth OVERDOING !
The writer stuck to his guns and enjoyed a decent cuppa Bruno Rossi de caf coffee served in a lidded cup to stay hot...
and didn't assist with the demolition of the aforementioned CUSTARD SQUARE.
(other than a quality control excursion into the puff pastry...a tiny fragment which bore some resemblence to a heavy gluey stodge from my arts n crafts classes in the 50-s 60's, when younguns would ...if they could....try and eat anything )
She said it took her back to her youth......1st one she dared in a decade possibly....
It lived up to expectations, but wouldn't be having another anytime soon !
Lots of menu choices at Cupcake bakery, we observed that chicken n chips was popular with the locals.
No WiFi, we have DATA,
no newspapers, we had a book of our own,
No chit chat, staff had their own Asian languages amongst themselves happening,
QUALITY
my coffee was a 3.5, drinkable, hot reasonable flavour.
UNTIDY:
Table behind us remained unbussed...we cleared OUR OWN table and placed cups n plates in recycling washing trays on our way out.
Floor coulda used a sweep, we never ventured into the loos, smooth surfaces, windows in need of a 'wipe', clearly sanitation not 'high on the list' subtract a star and a half.
VALUE
coffees were 5 bucks each no refill but flavour was there.
Custard square was inexpensive, this not being haute cuisine probably a 2.5 yelp rating all things considered.
Not a destination dining establishment, but not horrible either
Round up to a THREE star for their FIRST YELP appearance.
pics will follow read more