BakeShack is a bakery on Hewletts Rd in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, holding a 4.3 rating from 185 Google reviews, with reviewers praising it as a quick pie stop that also has seating if you'd rather sit and enjoy it, and a well-stocked cabinet with plenty of flavour choices.
A pie shop lives or dies by its cabinet: pastry should be crisp and flaky, with filling right to the edges rather than a hollow of mostly gravy and air. Pies are usually at their freshest mid-morning once the first trays are out, and the popular flavours sell first, so regulars learn the rhythm of the day. In New Zealand, mince and cheese is the everyday benchmark and a bacon and egg pie the weekend classic — both fair tests of a bakery's standards.
With pies dominating the reviews here, BakeShack is a handy stop for anyone passing through Mount Maunganui.