Manuka, Devonport

By JAN CORBETT for canvas

It has to be a good sign for a cafe when large tables have reserved signs attached to them in the middle of Saturday morning. Probably that's because at Manuka, on Devonport's main street, the corner window booth has to be one of Auckland's best people-watching positions and is at the same time cosy and intimate.

It's taken me a long time to venture into Manuka because my mind was poisoned by the poor service of its previous incarnation - Carpe Diem. Plus the stacks of white takeaway pizza boxes on the counter attest to its core business, which is hardly an appetising thought at breakfast.

But there is more to this joint than pizza. It's a fully fledged restaurant and bar with a fabulously bohemian ambience, where patrons happily sit back reading newspapers and magazines. It bills itself as: "an intimate venue suitable for all occasions". Well, maybe not all.

Jane enthused about her generous plate of wonderfully shiny black field mushrooms on toast ($11.50), while I gluttonously waded into the big breakfast ($16) with sausage, bacon, poached eggs, mushrooms and hash browns. Unfair though it might be to burden Manuka with this complaint, because numerous cafes are guilty, it disappoints me to be served manufactured hash browns. If any of you readers know of a brunch menu that includes hash browns made by the fair hands of the kitchen staff out back who have painstakingly grated the potato and added secret extra flavours themselves, then please advise.

The service, I'm relieved to say, was friendly and efficient, the coffee smooth and appealing. At last I feel there is somewhere in Devonport I can recommend.

Ambience: Casual

Service: Friendly and fast

Parking: Take your chances on the street or take the ferry

Licensed: Yes

Open: Weekends from 9am, weekdays from 11am, till late.

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.