Pickle & Plum is a café on Alexandra Street in Te Awamutu serving delicious food and great coffee, with an all-day breakfast and lunch menu that specialises in café favourites as well as traditional Southeast Asian cuisine. It's a spot built around choice — one kitchen, two culinary traditions, and options for everyone who walks in.
Dietary needs are treated as a given rather than an afterthought: gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian and keto options are all available, matching the café's promise of food options for everyone in Te Awamutu.
Pickle & Plum isn't only about daytime dining. Weekly pop-up dinner dates are posted monthly, adding an evening dimension to the café, and catering services are available on enquiry for events and gatherings.
You'll find the café at 50 Alexandra Street. It opens Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 2pm, and is closed on weekends. Enquiries can be made by phone on 07 870 6353 or 021 075 1053, by email at pickleandplum@yahoo.com, or through the café's Facebook page, where updates and pop-up announcements are shared.
Pickle & Plum has set up shop on Alexandra Street in Te Awamutu with a simple formula: delicious food and great coffee, with options for everyone. What sets it apart from the average small-town café is its menu — an all-day breakfast and lunch line-up that specialises in café favourites and traditional Southeast Asian cuisine, side by side.
At Pickle & Plum, the clock doesn't dictate what you can order. Breakfast and lunch are served all day, from the moment the café opens at 8.30am until it closes at 2pm, Monday to Friday. Whether it's a late-morning plate or a proper sit-down lunch, the full menu stays on the table for the whole service.
That format suits a working town. Weekday visitors can order what they actually feel like, not what the time of day allows. And with a menu spanning café classics and Southeast Asian dishes, a table with very different appetites will still find common ground.
The Southeast Asian thread is the menu's signature twist. Rather than treating it as a novelty, Pickle & Plum gives traditional Southeast Asian cooking equal billing with the café staples — a combination that keeps an all-day menu genuinely interesting, and gives regulars a reason to work their way through it.
The coffee matters, too. "Great coffee" is written into the café's own introduction, and it's what turns a food stop into a habit — the kind of place a town's weekday rhythm is built around.
Pickle & Plum flags its inclusivity upfront: gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian and keto options are all available. For anyone who has scanned a café menu and come up empty, that breadth is a real drawcard. It's a kitchen that plans for different needs rather than treating them as an afterthought.
It also matches the café's stated aim of offering food options for everyone in Te Awamutu. Families, friends and workmates with mixed diets can order together without anyone settling — and without the kitchen treating an alternative request as a problem to be solved on the fly.
Pickle & Plum isn't only a daytime proposition. The team hosts weekly pop-up dinner dates, announced monthly, which turn the café into an evening destination. Dates are posted on the café's channels, so it pays to keep an eye out each month for what's coming up next.
Catering is another service on offer. The café invites customers to get in touch about catering — a handy option for workplace functions, celebrations and gatherings around Te Awamutu where you'd rather leave the food to someone else.
You'll find Pickle & Plum at 50 Alexandra Street, Te Awamutu. Doors are open Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 2pm, with the café closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Weekdays are the window, so plan breakfast or lunch rather than a weekend brunch — and if you're making a special trip, a quick check of the café's Facebook page is a sensible move, as updates and any temporary closure notices are posted there.
Contact is easy: phone 07 870 6353 or 021 075 1053, or email pickleandplum@yahoo.com. The team can also help with catering enquiries through the same channels.
In a town with no shortage of places to eat, Pickle & Plum does a few things its own way: one all-day menu, two culinary traditions, options for nearly every diet, and coffee to match. If you're in Te Awamutu on a weekday with an appetite, it's a straightforward choice.