Wild Wheat Mt Albert is the New North Road outpost of Wild Wheat, the Auckland bakery that describes itself as the city's leading producer of artisan, specialty breads. Across six locations, the team turns out a varied range of sourdough and European-style breads, along with rustic pastries and savoury items — all made without preservatives. Instead of additives, they rely on what they call time and effort: long fermentation and naturally made starters that build flavour and make bread that is also good for you.
The Mt Albert shop opens at 7am every day and closes at 4pm, and because the loaves are free of preservatives, an early visit is the surest way to catch the fullest shelves. The range spans a deep sourdough bench — from the classic White Sourdough to Kumara, Potato, Rosemary, Caraway Rye and Spelt — plus international bakes like Turkish Pide, Ciabatta, Focaccia and Bagels, and specialty loaves from Heavy Rye to Fruit and Walnut.
Wild Wheat also runs a rotating monthly special that lands at all six bakeries; the current featured bake is a Fenugreek Sourdough made with New Zealand-grown wheat flour. Whether you're after a sandwich loaf, a dinner-party miche or a pastry to go with coffee, this Mount Albert bakery covers the table.
On New North Road in Mount Albert, Wild Wheat turns out some of Auckland's most respected artisan bread. It is one of six Wild Wheat bakeries across the city, run by a team that calls itself Auckland's leading producer of artisan, specialty breads — a reputation built on sourdough, European-style loaves, rustic pastries and savoury items, all made without preservatives. The Mt Albert shop opens at 7am every day of the week and closes at 4pm, and an early visit is the best way to catch the full range.
The philosophy here is summed up on the bakery's own banner: simple ingredients, sophisticated process. Instead of preservatives, Wild Wheat leans on time and effort — long fermentation and naturally made starters — to develop flavour and create bread that is also good for you. That approach shapes everything on the shelf, from a sandwich tin to a showpiece miche.
The sourdough bench is the heart of the range. Alongside the classic White Sourdough you'll find a Sourdough Baguette, Wholemeal and Country Sourdoughs, and more characterful bakes like Kumara Sourdough, Potato Sourdough, Rosemary Sourdough, Caraway Rye, Seeded Sourdough, Kibbled Wholewheat, the large-format Sourdough Miche and a Spelt Sourdough.
Beyond the starters sits the international cabinet: French Stick, Turkish Pide, Ciabatta, Focaccia, the Italian-inspired Puglia, Brioche Loaf and Brioche Buns, Bagels, the Corda, Turkish Baps and Turkish Foldovers, English Muffins and Croissants. The specialty shelf covers the everyday and the celebratory — Mixed Grain and White Tin Loaves, Fruit Loaf, Walnut Loaf, Rice Flour Loaf, Wholemeal and Light Grain Rolls, Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns, and a properly dense Heavy Rye.
Bread is only half the story. Wild Wheat also bakes a range of rustic, delicious pastries — the pain au chocolat is a signature of that side of the cabinet — along with savoury items.
The bakery also runs a monthly special that lands across all six locations. Recent featured bakes have included a Smoked Rye Sourdough, September's Sprouted Lentil Sourdough and the Ecoloaf, pitched as "a sourdough with a conscience". This month's sourdough special is a Fenugreek Sourdough: a New Zealand-grown wheat flour base studded with fenugreek seeds, giving the loaf a warm, gently nutty, almost maple-like aroma as it bakes. The bakers suggest it is lovely toasted with butter — and it makes a very good sandwich loaf too.
There's history behind the ovens as well. The bakery's blog has been telling the Wild Wheat story in instalments, including "Andrew's Story – The Cook", published as Wild Wheat turned 21, tracing the people behind the loaves.
Because the breads contain no preservatives, they won't keep the way commercial loaves do — but the long fermenting techniques and naturally made starters mean they still keep well for at least two to four days. The bakery's advice is simple: keep bread wrapped in a tea towel or a cotton bag, or wrap it in foil or glad wrap and freeze it for upwards of a month. Reheated or toasted, it will be as good as fresh. Thawed bread should definitely be reheated; a whole loaf wrapped in foil can go back into a 200-degree oven for roughly 15 to 20 minutes, depending on size, then be unwrapped and served.
One practical note: by law, Wild Wheat's products made with flour contain folic acid, something the bakery states plainly on its bread page.
For Mount Albert locals, the essentials are easy. The shop sits at 849 New North Road, the phone number is (09) 815-0538, and doors open 7am to 4pm, seven days a week. If you're elsewhere in Auckland, sibling bakeries operate in Mt Eden, Howick, Belmont, Mangere and Birkenhead — but for this part of the city, fresh sourdough, international loaves and a rotating special are waiting on New North Road.