Between on K Road. Photo / Getty Images
Address: 82 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
Phone: (09) 302 3020
Websites: Facebook
Open: Friday 7am-4pm, Saturday 8.30am - 5pm, Sunday9am-3.30pm
Cost: $49 for two.
SET UP & SITE
Down the Symonds St end of K Rd, Between is appropriately named-flanked by the Rock Shop, nestled between its DRUMS and ACOUSTIC GUITARS.
The inside is classic Auckland cafe - slightly industrial, exposed piping and all the rest, nothing too special but nothing wrong with it either.
SUSTENANCE & SWILL
"If you don't like eggs you're kind of screwed," my friend aptly notes as we peruse the menu. Of the two little pages of menu dedicated to brunch food, a solid 75 per cent is egg-based, starting with a long make-your-own-eggs-on-toast list (starting at $9.50) followed by various iterations of eggs benedict ($18-$20 if you spring for salmon). Luckily, I love eggs.
I chose the Special BB ($23), Between's version of a big brekkie with chorizo, bacon, a hash brown, toast of your choice with herbed butter, eggs how you like, tomato, relish and mushroom. When the waitress brings it over it sounds like she's saying "one special baby". Yeah, that's me.
Something I often find when I order a big brekkie is that as much as I enjoy all the bits, they don't create a whole more than the sum of those parts. But it's not Between's fault I never learn my lesson, and all their parts were perfectly well executed. The chorizo was particularly good, with a smoky, spicy flavour and a nice crispy skin.
My friend had fried eggs, sunny side up, on toast with avocado and a hash brown ($18); he declared the eggs perfectly cooked. Our coffees were fine but my flat white ($4.50) needed to be hotter.
SERVICE & OTHER STUFF
Between's Facebook presence is immediately endearing. One post shows two staff members looking straight down the camera with twin deadpan expressions, one of them cradling an enormous, deformed daikon radish, which looks like a very pale, freaky baby.
Another is a slow-mo video of a guy flipping milk so it lands right-way-up on the counter - again with the deadpan thousand-yard-stare.
The cafe scene in Auckland can feel unbearably earnest and twee at times so it was nice to see a team of staff not taking themselves too seriously.
In the cafe itself, the crew were all impeccably dressed and friendly, but there's no table service - my pet peeve at brunch spots (I know how that makes me sound but I really do hate it). Luckily we got in before the rush, about 10am, and I was able to go right up and order without waiting in line.
‘Mum had lived and died with this secret,’ says writer Mary Garden.