A patisserie is not an obvious lunch destination. Fair enough. But the people who make the pastry should probably be the people making anything wrapped in pastry, and you get lunch and dessert in one sitting without moving chairs.
Here is the savoury half of the menu. It gets far less attention than it earns.
The quiche, and the thing nobody expects about it
Quiche Lorraine is the benchmark, and it lives or dies on the crust. Dhi's pastry shatters under the fork instead of going damp and slack beneath the filling. Inside, a rich savoury custard, premium bacon and melted cheese, still warm enough to pull.
Two more sit alongside it. A mushroom and blue cheese for anyone who wants a sharper, muskier lunch, and a caramelised onion that goes almost jammy against the salt. The onion is the best of the three.
Now the part worth knowing: all three quiches are made with no added gluten. Not one token option bolted onto the end of a menu. The whole range. If you have spent years being handed a salad while everyone else has lunch, read that twice. Our guide to eating gluten free in Christchurch covers the rest.
The Brazilian corner
Sfiha is the one to order if you want something you have probably never eaten: soft golden dough filled with melted cheese, juicy tomato and aromatic pesto. It arrived in Brazil with Levantine migration and was adopted wholesale.
Brazilian cheese scones, or pão de queijo, are what the regulars order without looking up. Crisp golden shell, then a chew inside that pulls back against your teeth. Served warm with hand-whipped butter and sweet guava jam. Cassava stands in for wheat, so they are made with no added gluten, and the savoury-sweet business of butter and jam on hot cheese bread is hard to stop doing.
Want something heavier? The cheese and spring onion potato bread does that job.
Made fresh to order
Our Croque Monsieur is built when you order it, on a choice of two bases. Soft buttery brioche for comfort, or our croissant, whose layers go brittle and shatter against the filling. Then it bakes until the top is golden and bubbling and the cheese has caught at the edge. The most substantial thing we make, and worth the wait.
Everything else sits in the artisan savouries range, including a sausage scroll baked into a brioche roll with mozzarella, plus the made-to-order savouries we cook fresh.
One honest note on the no-added-gluten items above. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
What to drink
All of this was designed around our espresso bar. Coffee not your thing? Organic New Zealand-grown Zealong tea, an authentic masala chai made from real leaves and whole spices, or New Zealand-made juices in the fridge.
Then, obviously, dessert
You are in a patisserie. Order a slice, or something out of the mini dessert cabinet. Much of that cabinet is made with no added gluten too, including the Ferrari Rocher, all hazelnut grit and dark chocolate, and the lemon tart under its scorched meringue. Cold outside? Our made-to-order dessert menu is the better call, and our guide to warm desserts runs through it.
A note on wording: New Zealand labelling rules mean we say "no added gluten" and never "gluten free". Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
Making a proper occasion of it
For something more structured, bring someone and book our Full High Tea Experience. Ninety minutes to two hours at $65 per person, savoury through to patisserie, with bottomless Zealong tea. Book 48 hours ahead, and a no-added-gluten menu is selectable at booking. Details live on the high tea page. Otherwise just walk in. Our patisserie sits inside The Welder on Welles Street, pickup and eat-in only, open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday.
