Akaroa Corner Cafe is a takeaway-style cafe at 40E Rue Lavaud in Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula. It was previously known as the Peninsula General Store. Everything is made fresh and to order, and the cafe is run by Tracey, who sums up the promise as great taste, fresh as.
The baps are the main draw. The Chicken & Bacon Bap is chicken breast with bacon, salad and the special sauce, all made to order. The Spicy Beef & Bacon Bap uses a homemade beef patty with bacon, salad and the same sauce. For breakfast, the Bacon & Egg Chicmuffin is served on a soft English muffin and is available all day. The Chicken & Bacon Tortilla Boat is a loaded option with garlic ranch, spring onion, cheese, salsa and sour cream.
The cabinet holds homemade pies and sausage rolls, along with a range of home baking, including the sausage, bacon and egg and pork pies. Everything is baked in-house.
The coffee is Kawatiri, certified organic and fair trade Arabica roasted on the West Coast, and it is the drink to order with a bap or a pie.
The cafe is open every day from 7:30am to 3:30pm, which suits an early breakfast before a day out on the peninsula, or a takeaway lunch to eat by the water.
Our pick in Akaroa for a Chicken & Bacon Bap and a Kawatiri coffee to take outside.
Set at 40E Rue Lavaud, Akaroa Corner Cafe — previously known as the Peninsula General Store — is a small corner cafe that has built its reputation on one simple idea: fresh food, made to order, just the way you like it. Tracey, who runs the cafe, puts it plainly — always expect great taste, fresh as. It's a promise the menu keeps, from made-to-order baps and wraps to all-day bacon and egg muffins, homemade pies and a cabinet of home baking that smells good enough to stop you in the street.
The cafe pours a wide selection of hot and cold options, all made fresh daily, and keeps things easy for people on the go: it opens 7:30am to 3:30pm, seven days a week, and pre-orders are welcome — phone through your order and simply pick it up.
The heart of the menu is a lineup of baps, muffins and loaded hot food, assembled when you order them. The Chicken & Bacon Bap teams chicken breast with bacon, salad, special sauce and mayo, while the Spicy Beef & Bacon Bap is built on a homemade beef patty with the same fresh trimmings. Neither quite what you fancy? Choose your own ingredients — the kitchen is happy to build your bap your way. Wraps are made fresh to order from a wide range of fillings, and the Chicken & Bacon Tortilla Boat arrives loaded with cheese, salsa, sour cream, spring onion and a drizzle of garlic ranch.
Breakfast isn't confined to the morning here. The Bacon & Egg Chicmuffin — bacon, egg and sauce on a soft English muffin — is available all day long, alongside the Bacon Buddie. For something heartier there's the American Hot Dog, drizzled with cheese and onion and finished with mustard and sauce to taste, plus a savoury lineup of homemade sausage rolls, sausage pie, bacon & egg pie and pork pie.
There's a fuller sandwich range too: toasted sandwiches with two fillings (extras available), a Meat Lovers Sandwich, filled rolls and sandwiches made to order — everyday cafe food that works just as well for a quick lunch as a slow one.
The coffee has a story of its own. The cafe serves Kawatiri Coffee, a certified organic and fair-trade Arabica roasted on New Zealand's Wild West Coast — possibly the most remote coffee roaster in the country. From a roastery sitting above the bush overlooking the Tasman Sea, with the Paparoa Mountains as a backdrop, Kawatiri roasts its beans over an open flame in air the roaster describes as some of the world's cleanest: no industrial pollutants, no freaky chemicals, just fresh, delicious coffee. It's a cup worth lingering over — or taking away for the road.
Leave the baking to do the advertising. The cafe says the smell of home baking wafts down the street, and the cabinet backs it up with sweet muffins, a sweet slice of the day and whatever daily surprises have come out of the oven. If you're on the move and need a quick snack, it's set up perfectly for grab and go — and regulars know the daily surprise is half the fun.
Akaroa Corner Cafe is at 40E Rue Lavaud, Akaroa 7520, and opens 7:30am to 3:30pm, Monday to Sunday. Whether you're after a coffee, an all-day bacon and egg muffin, a loaded tortilla boat or a slice of whatever's fresh from the oven, expect it made fresh, on the spot. If you already know what you fancy, call ahead on 021 0843 8307 and it'll be ready when you are.