Affogato Café is a bright and bustling cafe and coffee house at 919 Colombo Street, on the edge of inner-city Christchurch. The team bill it as Christchurch's favourite little café, and the promise is a simple one: picky eaters, adventurous eaters, whatever your taste — there is something here for you.
Breakfast and brunch sit at the heart of the menu, fresh and seasonal, with ingredients carefully selected by the chefs. Expect everything from a full manuka smoked bacon breakfast and shakshuka baked eggs to cinnamon French toast and fluffy blueberry pancakes, alongside eggs Benedict with homemade hollandaise. Next to the à la carte menu is a delectable selection of cabinet food that changes daily, and gluten free options are available across the menu.
For special occasions and business events, Affogato Café also offers affordable catering — talk to the team on (03) 377 0443 or at [email protected]. Reservations are recommended, weekend hours run a little shorter than weekdays, and the café closes on public holidays.
Affogato Café sits at 919 Colombo Street, on the edge of inner-city Christchurch — a bright and bustling cafe and coffee house that the team introduce as Christchurch's favourite little café. The welcome is deliberately broad. Picky eaters, adventurous eaters, whatever your taste: the promise is that there will be something on the table for you.
The kitchen works from a fresh, seasonal breakfast and brunch menu, with all the ingredients selected carefully by the chefs, alongside a delectable selection of cabinet food that changes daily. It is the sort of café that slots into the day at any hour — a 7am coffee before work on a weekday, a long weekend brunch, or a plate from the cabinet grabbed between appointments in the central city.
The à la carte breakfast menu is where Affogato Café does most of its talking. At the hearty end sits the Full Breakfast: manuka smoked bacon, sausage, sautéed mushrooms and breakfast potatoes, served with seeded sourdough and your choice of free range eggs. Eggs Your Way strips it back to manuka smoked bacon and free range eggs on seeded sourdough, while the shakshuka bakes its eggs in shakshuka sauce with roast pepper ricotta and dhukka-spice roasted nuts.
Sweet options hold their own. Cinnamon French Toast pairs cinnamon brioche with mixed berry compote, vanilla mascarpone, bacon and maple syrup, and the Blueberry Pancakes arrive light and fluffy with lemon curd, mascarpone and maple. For something in between, there are cheesy scrambled free range eggs with feta, cheddar and spring onion, or creamy mushrooms slow cooked in herb sauce — both served on seeded sourdough, both with the option to add bacon or chorizo.
Then there are the smashes: a chorizo and bacon smash over herbed smashed potatoes with red onion, wilted spinach and mushroom tossed in relish, topped with a poached egg, and a gluten free salmon smash built on refried potatoes, feta, red onion and Akaroa salmon tossed in pesto, finished with a poached egg and hollandaise. Corned beef cheek hash cakes come topped with poached free range eggs, hollandaise and chimichurri.
Eggs Benedict deserves its own mention — served on ciabatta with homemade hollandaise sauce and a choice of bacon, Akaroa salmon or spinach. Lighter appetites are looked after too, with homemade granola toasted in orange juice and maple syrup served with yogurt and fruit, or a breakfast bread basket with assorted spreads. Sides — bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomato, breakfast potatoes, avocado, extra eggs, smoked salmon and toast — let you build the plate you actually want.
Alongside the printed menu, the cabinet changes daily, which gives regulars a reason to keep checking what's new. Gluten free options are available across the menu, and several dishes are vegetarian as standard. It is a menu designed to flex — which is exactly the point of a café that promises something for everyone.
If you are feeding a crowd rather than a table, Affogato Café also does catering for special occasions and business events, with affordable options — a phone call or email to the team is all it takes to talk it through.
Hours run Monday to Friday from 7.00am to 4.00pm, Saturday from 8.00am to 3.30pm and Sunday from 9.00am to 3.30pm, with weekends opening later and closing a little earlier than weekdays. The café closes on public holidays, so it is worth calling ahead if your visit falls near one.
Reservations are encouraged — the team suggest booking a table in advance as soon as you can. You can book online, call (03) 377 0443 or email [email protected]. You will find the café at 919 Colombo Street, Christchurch 8013, and you can follow what is coming out of the kitchen on Instagram at @affogatocafechch.