Coffee Pen is a small café on 6 Basque Road in Eden Terrace, Auckland, open seven days a week from 7.30am until 2.00pm. Run by Yasuji Hisai (Yas), who first moved to Aotearoa in 2008, the café keeps a daily-rotating menu announced each morning on its Instagram story, so no two visits are quite the same. Favourites range from a wagyu beef & mozzarella pie to the classic matcha cheesecake — dishes loved enough to be written into the café's second cookbook, Pen2.
Coffee is central: Pen original blend is developed in partnership with and roasted by Be Specialty, the Auckland roaster founded by Ben Boyle in 2006, and is specialty grade — sustainably grown, transparently traded and fully traceable to the farm. Beyond the counter, Coffee Pen bakes whole cakes and tarts to order (48 hours' notice, pick-up only), bottles a three-variety yuzu kosho made with Gisborne yuzu and Wicked Hots chillies, and caters everything from morning tea and office lunches to weddings, including a charcoal barbecue finished on-site at your venue.
Community sits at the heart of it all: 5% of cookbook and bean sales is donated to causes including Auckland City Mission and Unicef, and the team freely shares knowledge through wholesale partnerships and mentorship — explicitly not aiming to franchise, just to share 'a good café lifestyle with sustainable quality and relationships at the centre'.
Coffee Pen keeps simple hours and a loyal rhythm: 7.30am to 2.00pm, seven days a week, at 6 Basque Road in Eden Terrace, just up the hill from central Auckland. It is the project of Yasuji Hisai — Yas — who arrived in Aotearoa in 2008 and has built the café around three things its website returns to again and again: good coffee, food made with care, and community.
There is no static menu to memorise. Coffee Pen's menu rotates daily, and each morning's line-up is posted to the café's Instagram story (@coffee_pen_) — the site itself directs you there for the latest updates. What is certain is the calibre of the favourites: the wagyu beef & mozzarella pie and the classic matcha cheesecake are both named among the café's best-loved items in Pen2, its second cookbook. Around those anchors, the kitchen's range shows up across the year — savoury bakes, sandwiches, focaccia pizza and hashbrown frittata in the catering repertoire, and a whole-cake list full of Japanese-leaning sweets.
The coffee is equally deliberate. Pen original blend is developed in partnership with, and roasted by, Be Specialty — the Auckland roaster Ben Boyle established in 2006. Yas and Ben met in 2008, and the friendship is credited on the site as foundational: advice on brewing, beans, roasting, cupping and fixing machines, even help with jobs and visas. The blend is specialty grade, scoring above 80 points on the 100-point scale used by certified coffee tasters, and it is sustainably grown, transparently traded and traceable to the farm.
With 48 hours' notice, the kitchen bakes whole cakes and tarts for pick-up from the café. The cake list spans ten flavours: NY, matcha, chocolate, spiced pumpkin, apple salted caramel, Earl Grey & honey, lemon & ricotta and rum & raisin, plus Basque and matcha Basque versions made with no added gluten. Tarts come in banoffee, tiramisu, creamy lemon, dark chocolate & raspberry, orange & chilli chocolate and pumpkin & ginger — and seasonal requests are welcome if you ask.
The online store extends the café's reach. Yuzu kosho, the Japanese citrus-and-chilli condiment, is made in three distinct varieties from Gisborne yuzu and Wicked Hots chillies — the site warns that even one small drop can be addictive. Pen2 itself, 138 pages published by Kichi Ltd with community profiles and illustrations by Fumi, was conceived and constructed entirely in New Zealand and printed on 100% recycled paper. It collects recipes based on favourite café menu items, plus more of Pen's story from Yas.
Coffee Pen's catering stretches well beyond café hours. Morning tea packages mix savoury and sweet — hashbrown frittata, sandwiches, wagyu or lamb rolls, focaccia pizza and baked treats — served ready to share or individually packed, for pick-up or local delivery. Lunch formats run from a hot main in share trays up through mains with salads and dessert platters of loaf slices and carrot cake, suited to gatherings, meetings, photoshoots and filming days. For intimate dinners, celebrations, gallery openings and weddings, there are seasonal shared plates with custom menus, wine pairings and small-event support. The signature move is the charcoal barbecue: food prepared in the Pen kitchen, brought to your venue, cooked gently for hours, then seared over fire for a crisp crust and smoky flavour.
Generosity is built into the numbers. Five percent of Pen2 book sales is donated — half to Auckland City Mission to support people experiencing homelessness, half to Unicef for people suffering in Ukraine — and five percent of Pen original blend bean sales goes to people who currently need support to live. The team also offers wholesale bean supply and genuine partnerships for like-minded businesses, sharing recipes, processes and mentorship. As the site puts it, they do not want to franchise or become a big company; they just want to share their ways.
Visit early — doors shut at 2.00pm sharp, seven days a week — check the Instagram story to see what today's menu holds, and if a whole cake or a charcoal barbecue for a wedding is in your future, the catering order form and [email protected] are the routes in.