Zeki's Mediterranean Bakehouse Cafe & Bread Market is an artisan Turkish bakery and café at 2/21 Catherine Street in Henderson, renowned across Auckland for authentic pide bread baked fresh every day in a woodfired oven. Nothing contains preservatives — the bread is handmade daily, and much of it heads out the back door as wholesale supply to cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels throughout the city.
Walk in the front door and it's a café and bread market: many types of Turkish bread and delicacies to enjoy on the spot or take home, Turkish pide pizza by the half or whole, börek pastries, gözlemé stuffed flatbreads, sandwiches, a Mediterranean lunch plate of dips, olives and sigara börek, and sweets ranging from classic baklava to lemon revani and halva tart. Loaves for the pantry or a picnic are a given, and the bakery also turns up at local markets.
Beyond the counter, Zeki's caters Turkish food for private events — from office morning teas and parties through to weddings — and runs an online store. A second café operates at 543 Karangahape Road in the city.
There's a particular smell that drifts around Catherine Street in Henderson when the ovens are working: warm, smoky and yeasty — the unmistakable scent of Turkish bread fresh from a woodfired oven. That's Zeki's Mediterranean Bakehouse Cafe & Bread Market, an artisan Turkish bakery and café renowned across Auckland for its authentic pide bread. Everything is handmade and baked daily in the woodfired oven, and none of it contains preservatives.
Zeki's roots show in its wholesale operation: fresh handmade, wood-fired Turkish bread still goes out daily to cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels throughout Auckland, with traditional pide also reaching select retailers. But Henderson locals know the café side best. Pop in to enjoy many types of Turkish bread and delicacies on the spot, or pick up a loaf to take home or on a picnic — the bakery also attends local markets.
The set-up is part bakery, part café, part bread market. That means you can just as easily stop in for coffee and something to eat as load up on loaves for the week — the team promises exceptional food, coffee and service at both of its cafés.
The woodfired oven does more than bake pide. It turns out Turkish pide pizzas in half or whole sizes — spinach with onion, feta and broken egg; mince with onion and black pepper; or Turkish beef sausage with green pepper and cheese. From the pastry bench come börek in the Turkish and Balkan tradition: a spinach and feta pie, mince and onion scroll pastry, and sigara börek cigar rolls filled with parsley, spring onion and potato. There are gözlemé too — Anatolian stuffed flatbreads — with fillings like eggplant, tomato and capsicum; mince, onion and black pepper; or leek, feta and spring onion.
Lunch leans Mediterranean. The sandwich list runs from a smoked salmon simit bagel with cream cheese, red onion and capers to roast lamb pidé with hummus, a chicken sammie with avocado and rocket, a Mediterranean vegetable bap with sundried tomato hummus and tzatziki, and a sujuk sandwich stacked with Turkish beef sausage. The Mediterranean lunch plate gathers homemade dips, mixed olives, sigara börek and woodfired pide on one plate, and Turkish deli dips and olives round out the savoury side.
Save room for the sweet stuff: baklava layered with filo, nuts and syrup; a chocolate hazelnut version; lemon revani semolina syrup cake; halva tart with figs and pinenuts; chocolate brownie with pistachios and walnuts; sesame caramel tahini crumble; a Turkish bazaar sultana nut slice; and lokum — Turkish delight.
Zeki's also caters. The chefs will prepare Turkish food for private functions and events — milestone birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, staff morning teas, office shouts and corporate functions are all on the list. Woodfired bread is the speciality, but orders can draw on the whole menu, from pide pizzas to börek, dips and sweets. The team will guide you on quantities so your group has enough to eat, and for larger orders two days' notice is appreciated.
The Henderson bakehouse opens 7am to 6pm, seven days a week — call 09 835 2010. In the city, the sister café sits at 543 Karangahape Road on K Road, reachable on 09 369 5356. If you can't make it to either, Zeki's runs an online store for ordering traditional Turkish food and fresh bread. Whether you're after a single loaf, a lunch plate or catering for a wedding, it all starts with the same thing — bread from the woodfired oven.