BRUNCH Kind
Welcoming vibes and hung coconuts tick the boxes
SET UP & SITE
It’s only a couple of weeks since Kind and the surrounding Morningside precinct opened. For a Monday morning, it’s humming. The eatery is both modern and homely, a light open space with plenty of glass and plenty of greenery. Hanging flowers create a great indoor-outdoor flow and the space is doing its best to capture the few rays of sun Auckland is offering up. Side note — I had been here the weekend before for coffee and the deck out the front of the cafe proved a glorious spot to enjoy some weekend sun. As a resident of neighbouring suburb Sandringham, I’m a long-time fan of Crave, the cafe just a stone’s throw away. The new joint is established and run by the collective, and like Crave, operates as a social enterprise. Kind certainly has the same welcoming vibes, we’re welcomed as we walk in and nab a table beside group of mums with bubs.
SUSTENANCE & SWILL
Kind’s menu is plant-based — but not to the extent it’ll alienate the meat-lovers or anyone suffering from a big night. The menu covers all of the basics while remaining interesting enough to hold a place in Auckland’s highly competitive brunch market. “Eggs any style” ($11.50) is jazzed up with za’atar, cultured butter and herbs, while pancakes ($18) come with blueberry and apple, custard, white chocolate crumble and a delectable sounding butterscotch mascarpone. They sound dreamy but I’m after something with a little more sustenance. After some umming and ahh-ing and after a few questions — “What is ‘hung coconut?”’ — I settle on the avocado ($17.50). It’s not smashed — freeing me of any stigma related to being
SERVICE & STUFF
a millennial, right? Instead it comes with smoked chilli peanut butter, pistachio dukkah, Midnight Baker toast and macerated heirloom tomatoes. The combination is unexpectedly great, and I’m left wondering where I can nab a jar of the peanut butter for myself. My companion goes for the whipped goat’s cheese, a hearty dish piled with beetroot “three ways”, a poached egg, edamame, hung coconut and hazelnuts. The poach is good and the beetroot, which comes salt baked, cured and smoked, is labelled “dope” by my companion. That’s a tick.
The service at Kind is faultless — we’re watered and caffeinated very quickly after our arrival. Our waitress helps us through our dithering stage by offering suggestions and answering questions, though she doesn’t seem to know exactly what “hung coconut” is either. That aside, the eatery is a delightful addition to a suburb that’s rapidly upping its game. A return trip for an evening meal is surely on the cards — if for nothing else but to try the delightfully named “morning cider” tipple.