Cutie Pie Pizza Workshop is a small, characterful pizza shop on Waitoa Road in the heart of Hataitai, Wellington. True to its name, it is part pizzeria, part workshop: for most of the week the team is busy making pizza and pies for the neighbourhood, while Wednesdays are reserved for pizza-making workshops where you can learn to make your own.
The weekly rhythm is easy once you know it. Thursday is dinner night, running from 4pm to 8.30pm, and from Friday to Sunday the shop runs two services — lunch from 11.30am to 3pm, a short afternoon break, then dinner from 4pm, wrapping up at 8.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 8pm on Sunday. Mondays and Tuesdays are quiet days. Ordering is refreshingly direct: the team's instruction is simply to call 04 979 0420.
There is more to Cutie Pie than the counter, too. The team runs pizza-making workshops, caters for big groups, and sells merch and gift vouchers online, with a mailing list for anyone who wants all the Cutie Pie news. It is the kind of place a suburb builds a routine around — a pick-up dinner on the way home, a weekend lunch, or the occasional Wednesday spent flour-dusted and proud of a pizza you made yourself.
Cutie Pie Pizza Workshop sits at 31A Waitoa Road in Hataitai, one of Wellington's easy-going bayside suburbs, and the name tells you almost everything. It is a pizza shop — pizza and pies, a phone number, the neighbourhood routine — but it is also, genuinely, a workshop: a place that does not just make pizza, but teaches other people to make it too. That two-sided personality shapes everything about how the place runs, from its unusual weekly hours to the way you order. It is the kind of spot a suburb builds a routine around: a pick-up dinner on the way home, a weekend lunch, and the occasional Wednesday spent flour-dusted and proud of a pizza you made yourself.
Cutie Pie keeps hours that follow its own logic rather than a standard template. Thursdays are dinner-only, from 4pm until 8.30pm. From Friday through Sunday the day splits in two: a lunch service from 11.30am to 3pm, a short afternoon pause, then dinner again from 4pm — running to 8.30pm on Friday and Saturday, and 8pm on Sunday. Mondays and Tuesdays are quiet days, and Wednesday belongs entirely to the workshop side of the business rather than regular counter service.
That split-day rhythm matters if you are planning a visit. Turn up mid-afternoon at the weekend and you will find the doors shut for the break; arrive at 11.30am or 4pm instead and you will catch the shop at full steam. For a suburb like Hataitai, a local pizza shop with hours like these slots neatly into the weekly routine.
There is no app-based mystery to ordering here. The team's instruction is printed in plain type on the website: just call. The number is 04 979 0420, and whether you are after a Thursday-night dinner or a weekend lunch, a quick ring to Hataitai is how it is done. It is a suitably personal system for a small suburban pizza shop, and it suggests a customer base that has the number saved in their phones.
The workshop half of the name is what sets Cutie Pie apart from every other pizza shop in the phone book. On Wednesdays the space switches modes and plays host to pizza-making workshops — sessions where, in the team's own words, you can 'learn to make your own pizza'. For anyone who has ever admired a properly made pizza and wondered how it comes together, it is a chance to step behind the counter and have a go yourself.
The site does not spell out the fine print of each session — timings, group sizes and the rest — because that is exactly what the workshops page is for. If you are keen, get in touch with the team there and they will point you in the right direction.
Workshops are only half of the extra offering. The same page asks a second question — 'Need to feed a big group?' — and the answer is that Cutie Pie does catering too. For birthdays, work dos or family gatherings, the route is the same: get in touch and talk it through. It is a natural fit for a shop that already thinks in terms of groups and gatherings.
Beyond the food there is a small ecosystem of Cutie Pie extras. The online shop's collection is, fittingly, called 'Pizza & Pies', and alongside it sits a merch range for people who want to wear the logo, plus gift vouchers for anyone who would rather let someone else choose. A mailing list promises 'all the Cutie Pie news' for those who want to keep up with what the team is doing next.
Cutie Pie Pizza Workshop is a small Hataitai pizza and pie shop with a hands-on streak: dinner on Thursdays, lunch and dinner Friday through Sunday, pizza-making workshops on Wednesdays, catering for big groups, and a phone number that actually gets answered. Call ahead on 04 979 0420, mind the 3pm-to-4pm break at weekends, and if you have always fancied making your own, Wednesday is your day.