Honey Bones
This will neither be a long or detailed post about Honey Bones, because I feel I don’t need to tell you much except that you must go if you care about brunch at all . I’ve been a long time fan since its opening way back when but made a rediscovery of sorts after lockdown last year. It’s pretty good location wise too if you’re coming back from a night shift across the Bridge as you can get off at Shelly Beach Road. Just saying.
The owners of Honey Bones also started sister restaurant Lilian and Hotel Ponsonby; these three are a testament that the team behind them can do no wrong. Maybe almost no wrong.
There is a distinct Middle Eastern flair in the dishes that grace Honey Bones’ menu, which suits me just fine. I constantly yearn for a brunch-less-ordinary and my shoulders often droop at the offerings I find elsewhere. The scrambled eggs at Honey Bones is one of the best egg dishes you’ll find in this city: the ‘Istanbul scramble’ is beautifully delicate and buttery; only the use of witchcraft could have made eggs this good. The dish is warm with spices of curried roasted cauliflower and za’atar and foiled by salty tangy feta.
My other go to on the menu currently is the merguez, a perfectly grilled coil of spicy sausage on a bed of moreish crispy fenugreek potato (forget hash browns, this is so much better) with slow-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth baharat eggplant and refreshing tzatziki. A liberal shower of dukkah adds a delicious layer of texture and flavour whose warmth is balanced with a mixture of fragrant soft herbs. This is the kind of fry-up I can get behind.
The only blip in an otherwise perfect repertoire was the anchovy toast with whipped brie, zhug, pickled shallots and boiled egg. When Honey Bones first opened I fell in love with their smoked sardines on toast with manchego and orange, an unusual combination that worked really well together. Unfortunately this time around the anchovy toast featured too many funky elements that fought with each other in unpleasant ways. I love anchovies. I love brie. But I do not like the aroma of a sweating brie coming off hot toast in combination with anchovies; it is a bitter cloying mushroomy funk that gets in your nose and hits the back of your throat in an unenjoyable way.
Don’t let the anchovies however dissuade you from visiting Honey Bones. This is a cafe with imagination and spunk; from the beautiful handmade crockery to the excellent coffee and black magic eggs there are few other places in Auckland I’d rather eat at.
Honey Bones
480 Richmond Road
Grey Lynn
Auckland 1021