Le Café de Paris is a French café in the heart of Rotorua's CBD, established in 2005 by French owners and serving a taste of France for close to 20 years. Staff greet locals and visitors with a warm Bonjour, and regulars say the room feels like the middle of a Parisian café — no jet lag required.
The menu covers breakfast and lunch inspired by classic French dishes, alongside Kiwi favourites reinvented with French flair and savoir-faire. Standouts include the organic, gluten free French crêpes — sweet and savoury — plus fresh croissants and an assortment of pastries, with baguettes, sandwiches, toasted sandwiches, soups and salads rounding out lunch, and coffees, tea and cold drinks to match.
A fixture on Hinemoa Street, the café is a Saturday-morning ritual for many locals, when the French community gathers for lessons and friendly conversation, and a favourite first stop for visitors, who come for croissants and leave with local tips — mountain bike trails included. The team describes its ethos as sharing French culture with visitors and practising manaakitanga with the community.
On Hinemoa Street, in the very heart of Rotorua's CBD, a small piece of France has been trading for close to twenty years. Le Café de Paris was established in 2005 by French owners, and it has welcomed locals and visitors with a warm *Bonjour* ever since. Regulars will tell you that stepping inside feels like finding yourself in the middle of a Parisian café — no jet lag required.
That longevity has made the café a genuine Rotorua staple. Locals love the selection of authentic crêpes and the assortment of pastries; visitors love the fresh croissants and the easygoing slice of French culture that comes with them. The menu covers breakfast and lunch inspired by classic French dishes, alongside a few Kiwi favourites that have been reinvented with French flair and savoir-faire.
If one thing has put Le Café de Paris on Rotorua's map, it is the crêpes. They are made the French way and, unusually for a crêpe menu, they are both organic and gluten free — so the whole table can order without checking the fine print. Sweet crêpes sit alongside savoury ones, which makes the menu just as sensible for a relaxed lunch as it is for a mid-morning treat.
Around the crêpes sits a full café line-up. Mornings run on coffees and tea, with a breakfast menu inspired by classic French cooking. Lunch brings soups, salads, sandwiches and baguette sandwiches, toasted sandwiches for something warm, and cakes and danishes for anyone with a sweet tooth left over. It is the sort of menu where a quick coffee and pastry is every bit as at home as a long, unhurried lunch.
The pastries deserve their own mention: the assortment is a big part of the draw for locals, while fresh croissants are how many visitors start their day. Pair them with a coffee, take a seat, and it becomes easy to see why people talk about the café's Parisian feel — the greeting, the food and the unhurried rhythm all point in the same direction.
Ask any regular and they will tell you: Saturday mornings here are a coveted time, the week's social highlight. It is not unusual to overhear the local French community engaged in French lessons and friendly conversation with Rotorua locals — part language class, part neighbourhood catch-up, all of it fuelled by coffee and crêpes.
Visitors have adopted the ritual too. Le Café de Paris is a favourite starting point for people visiting the city: collect fresh croissants, gather local tips, and ask after the best mountain bike trails before heading out for the day. The owners describe their ethos simply — sharing French culture with visitors and practising manaakitanga with the community — and it shows in how the room behaves on a busy Saturday.
You will find the café at 1206 Hinemoa Street in Rotorua's CBD. Doors open Tuesday to Friday from 7:30am to 3:00pm, and on Saturday from 8:00am to 3:00pm. The café is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so plan the weekend crêpe run for Saturday morning — which, as the locals will confirm, is the best seat in the house anyway.
Ordering ahead is easy. The website takes online orders across the full menu — crêpes, breakfast, baguettes, soups and more — and the team asks one small favour: give them a quick call on (07) 348 1210 after you have ordered online so they can double-check everything. Questions and after-hours messages can go by email instead.
Nearly twenty years on, Le Café de Paris remains what it set out to be in 2005: a genuinely French café, run by French owners, in the middle of New Zealand's North Island. Whether you are a longtime local or a visitor plotting a day on the trails, the invitation is the same. Walk in, order a crêpe, and say *Bonjour* — they will say it right back.