The Pink Shop Kaiaua is a small, much-loved seaside shop on East Coast Road in Kaiaua, serving the kind of simple food a coastal drive demands: yummy toasties, sandwiches and slices from the cabinet, a delicious range of ice creams in various flavours, and coffee its owners are happy to call the best in Kaiaua. Tucked into what many call a little oasis, it's the perfect spot to take a break — settle in by the seaside, relax, and enjoy it properly.
The shop's calling card is the bacon and egg roll. "If you know, you know… the bacon and egg rolls are a must," the site says — local shorthand for a roll worth building a trip around. Pair one with a coffee, or grab an ice cream for the road; raspberry is among the flavours on offer.
Getting there is part of the pleasure: come the scenic way through Clevedon or head up SH1. The shop opens six days a week, 6:30am to 5:00pm, closed Fridays, and can be reached on 092322824 or thepinkshopkaiaua@gmail.com.
On the coast road at Kaiaua, The Pink Shop is the kind of place that rewards the detour. From the outside it's a small, cheerful shop; from the cabinet comes a short, well-loved list: yummy toasties, sandwiches and slices, a delicious range of ice creams in various flavours, and coffee the owners are happy to call the best in Kaiaua. It's simple food, made for a break by the seaside — and for plenty of drivers on East Coast Road, it's the reason to pull over.
The shop's own description is hard to beat: tucked into what many call a little oasis, it's the perfect spot to take a break. Part of the appeal is the drive itself. You can come the scenic way through Clevedon, letting the countryside roll by before the coast opens out, or head up SH1 and peel off for the last stretch. Either route delivers you to the same place — a seaside stop where the standing instruction is to settle in, relax, and enjoy it properly.
That combination of a proper road trip and a proper feed is the whole formula. Kaiaua isn't a place most people pass through by accident, and The Pink Shop leans into that: this is a destination stop, the coffee-and-ice-cream reward at the end — or the middle — of a scenic loop.
The menu is short and confident. Toasties and sandwiches cover the savoury side, made for eating straight away or wrapping up for the road. Slices take care of the sweet tooth and pair naturally with a flat white. And the ice cream runs to a delicious range of flavours — raspberry appears front and centre on the shop's own imagery — which on a warm day becomes the obvious companion to a stroll by the seaside.
The headline act, though, is the bacon and egg roll. The homepage doesn't hedge on this one: "If you know, you know… the bacon and egg rolls are a must." That's local shorthand for a roll worth building a morning around. Order it with a coffee and you've done The Pink Shop the way regulars do.
Two things keep people talking long after the drive home. The first is the ice cream: a genuinely varied flavour range, served in a spot where an ice cream in the sea air simply tastes better. The second is the coffee, which the shop claims outright is "the best coffee in Kaiaua". It's a bold line for a small seaside shop — and exactly the kind of claim regulars return week after week to verify.
The Pink Shop opens six days a week, from 6:30am to 5:00pm, and closes on Fridays — worth noting when you're plotting a coastal drive. The early open makes it a natural first stop: a bacon and egg roll and a coffee at half past six is a very good way to start a day out, and the 5pm close leaves room for a later ice cream run too.
You'll find the shop at 999 East Coast Road, Kaiaua 2473. Questions ahead of a visit can go to thepinkshopkaiaua@gmail.com or 092322824, and the shop posts updates on its Facebook page. The site's copyright line dates to 2017 — a quiet hint at how long the pink shop has been part of the Kaiaua landscape.
There's no mystery to the shop's appeal. It does a handful of things — toasties, sandwiches, slices, ice cream, coffee and that bacon and egg roll — and does them in a spot that invites you to slow down. For locals it's the daily coffee stop; for travellers it's the excuse to leave the highway and come the scenic way. Either way the formula holds: good, unfussy food, a scoop or two of ice cream, and the seaside out front. If you know, you know.