La Cloche (Wellington CBD, Wellington, New Zealand)

They said Wellington have the best cafe’s and every Wellingtonian knows that the capital has some of the best coffee in the world, that is a big title to claim but it is true since Wellington has been in the list of “World’s best coffee: 8 cities to visit for a great cup of java” from CNN. It even mentions “Top shops: It’s tough to find a bad coffee in New Zealand”. The café scene and culture that surrounds the Wellington dates back to the 1950s where it became a focal point for many creatives and academics to meetup, share ideas and socialise. Today this culture is deeply ingrained to many Kiwis not just in Wellington but also with the rest of New Zealand, where a cuppa is a big part of life where it shares the same intention of what a cafe was during the 50’s, where office meetings are held as well as an excuse to socialise with families and friends over the Weekend.

When we visited Wellington a couple of months ago, we did not have a cafe in mind merely becuase the recommendations that we got were different places and no one said the same thing which really concluded to one thing, no one cafe stand’s up as everyone was doing really good. So, we just picked a random cafe on our way to our travel itinerary during that day.

We were in Wellington CBD after a short ride from the top of Wellington Botanical Gardens via the Wellington Cable Car. It was in the afternoon probably around 2:30 PM, we were searching for cafes with pastries where you can sit and relax, there were several hole in the walls and most ones that have indoor seating were already closed, luckily the last one we found, La Cloche was open.

There were still few pastries left when we came in so we grabbed items that looked really good, from Le Russe (hazelnut butter cream with dacquoise), Coffee & Chocolate Opera and croissants, they all look amazing. Prices of pastries varied, if I can remember correctly most of them were around NZ$8.90 per piece. Coffee on the other hand was NZ$4.70 for a long black and NZ$5.70 for a flat white.

As expected, the food was very nice specially the Le Russe and Coffee & Chocolate Opera, this reminds me of the pastries you get in France and in Russia. The coffee was tremendous, the long black was strong which I really loved, the flat white even comes with a chocolate fish. Very fast and friendly service and didn’t have to wait for our food very long. We definitely had a good time here, most definitely I will come back here once there is another opportunity to do so.

La Cloche – Central
Address: Corner of Featherston and, Ballance Street, Wellington Central, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Phone: +644 979 6698
Website: https://www.lacloche.co.nz/