Ciabatta Cafe & Bakery is a family-run bakery and cafe on White Street, on Rotorua's Fenton Park/Glenholme side of the city. The business is run by Alex and Sue Bürge, with Nathan and Katie Tidey on board as part owners, and the name is formally protected — Ciabatta Bakery is a registered trademark.
The lunch board is the heart of the cafe: a dozen playfully named items including The Reuben, The Longdog, Hammie, Lammie, Chookie, Smashie, Smokie, Veggie, Brekkie, Brekkie Bap, Teenie Weenie and Chicken Salad. Hours run Tuesday to Friday from 8:00am to 3:00pm — with the kitchen closing at 2:30pm — and Saturday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.
Recognition includes Restaurant Guru's Best Cafe award for 2025 and an Excellent atmosphere award in 2023, alongside Facebook and Google 'Honest Reviews' badges. A Google Maps indoor view lets you look right inside the shop before visiting, and the website doubles as an online store with account logins and a cart.
Ciabatta Cafe & Bakery on White Street — in Rotorua's Fenton Park/Glenholme pocket — is one of those places that does exactly what its name promises: a proper bakery and a neighbourhood cafe sharing the same doors. It has also quietly collected the kind of recognition most eateries chase for years. Restaurant Guru awarded it Best Cafe in 2025 and, back in 2023, handed it an award for Excellent atmosphere — two different years, two different criteria, one consistent signal.
Behind the counter are Alex and Sue Bürge, who run the business, with Nathan and Katie Tidey on board as part owners. It is a family-shaped operation through and through, and the name is protected accordingly: Ciabatta Bakery is a registered trademark. On the website, those honours sit alongside Facebook and Google 'Honest Reviews' badges — a quiet stack of third-party endorsement.
Rotorua is not short of places to eat, which makes the awards mean something: diners here have options, and Restaurant Guru's Best Cafe tag reflects a business keeping its standard up year after year. The 2023 Excellent atmosphere award points at the other half of the equation — a room people enjoy spending time in, not just a counter they grab food from. For anyone weighing up where to spend a lunch hour in Rotorua, that combination of craft and welcome is the pitch.
Ask a regular what they're getting and you'll hear names, not descriptions: a Hammie, a Lammie, a Chookie, a Smashie, a Smokie, a Veggie. The 2026 lunch board is a dozen-deep cast of characters, spanning breakfast-style options through to salads: The Longdog, Teenie Weenie, Brekkie, Brekkie Bap, Chicken Salad and The Reuben among them, covering meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.
It is a small detail, but ordering by nickname rather than menu number says a lot about a place. The food here is designed to be talked about, not just eaten, and the playful board hands first-timers an instant conversation with the counter.
The single most useful thing to know is the clock. The cafe and bakery open Tuesday to Friday from 8:00am to 3:00pm, but the kitchen closes at 2:30pm on those days — arrive after that and the lunch window has shut. Saturday runs shorter still, from 8:00am to 2:00pm, and on Sundays and Mondays the doors stay closed altogether.
The practical read: weekdays are your best bet for a proper lunch, ideally ordered before 2:00pm; Saturday mornings suit a Brekkie or a Brekkie Bap; and if you find yourself on White Street on a Sunday or Monday, you'll be admiring a closed sign.
Not sure what you're walking into? The team links directly to a Google Maps view right inside the shop and cafe, so you can scope out the room and the counter before you commit. It is an unusually transparent move for a small food business, and it takes the guesswork out of a first visit. The website itself runs as a full online store, complete with account logins and a shopping cart, for anyone who wants to arrange products ahead of time.
Contact is straightforward: phone (07) 348 3332, email [email protected], or follow the Facebook page for news. The address is 38 White Street, Rotorua 3015. Whether you come for a Reuben, a chicken salad or a breakfast bap, the formula holds — get there between Tuesday and Saturday, mind the weekday kitchen cut-off, and enjoy one of Rotorua's most recognised cafes, one that has never taken its own menu too seriously.