The Ultimate Custard Square Hunt - Hollywood Bakery, K Road, Auckland

Otherwise entitled "CS for ya blog, holla holla" - that was the somewhat cryptic title of the email that landed in my inbox last night, from my friend Belinda, who lives in Auckand and is, it would seem, more committed to the search for New Zealand's best custard square than I am. Good that someone's on the job! ;-)

Belinda (right) and her flatmate

This morning my flatmate and I woke up feeling hungus (I was surprised at the magnitude of my hungusness seeing as it was only 6 hours since I had been gorging myself at Denny's). We walked up to the Hollywood Bakery on Karangahape Road for some breakfast. I was walking to the counter to order a bagel when I got distracted by the custard squares.. :-P I thought 'why not?' and put one on my plate :-D 

I also ordered a toasted bagel with bacon, avocado and cream cheese (yum yum yum!!!) 

Technically the custard square was labelled 'Vanilla Slice, $2.50', but for the purposes of this survey let's call it a custard square. Or let's not, as I am going to award it a.... 

The custard was dry around the outside, nice enough to eat but not very custardy tasting. The pastry was quite nice, I enjoyed having an extra layer through the middle as I am a pastry fan. The icing was okay, just plain white icing, quite dense. The redeeming features were 1. my bagel :-D 2. the friendly staff and clean comfortable dining area and 3. watching the hookers and drunks sobering up in the sun on the notoriously seedy KRd ;-)


.... 4/10.

No endorsements, then, for the custard squares of Hollywood Bakery - but perhaps if it's a bagel you're after it's a good spot?

Thanks Belinda, for the entertaining review! I'll overlook the use of 'hungus' as if it's actually a word. ;-p




Hollywood Bakery is located at 246-254 Karangahape Road, Auckland