Kirara cafe and Japanese kitchen sits at 139 Main Rd in Takapu Valley, on the rural edge of Porirua, pairing cafe staples with Japanese home cooking, and it holds a 4.8 Google rating.
A Japanese kitchen attached to a cafe usually means a short menu done properly: rice cooked with care, fresh onigiri and katsu rolls, sweets leaning on matcha and red bean. The best of them cook small and sell out early, so late morning beats mid-afternoon. Cafes set well off the shopping strip tend to run on word of mouth, and it pays to check opening hours before making the drive. In a country that takes its flat whites seriously, the coffee needs to stand alongside the kitchen, and the good ones treat both with equal care.
With a 4.8 rating and a valley address, Kirara is the sort of place worth the drive out of Porirua.