Alleluya - CLOSED

Overview

Home to indie artist EP releases, a broken-down arcade game and delicious cinnamon rolls, Alleluya embodies the lusciously diverse Karangahape road it lives on.

Forget about chic interiors, perfectly co-ordinated colour schemes, the 'industrial romantic' look or any of those other general acceptable cafe presentation styles. Alleluya does not look like any other cafe in Auckland. It's a cafe that's not actually trying to look good, but it just looks good anyway. Imagine the type of knick-knacks you usually find in your granddad's attic, mixed with some of your nana's knitting, and you've got the general idea - minus the actual elderly part. Most patrons are probably around the 18-30 mark, and reflect the general type of humans you'll find on K Rd itself - the beautifully bearded and tattoo-decked, the moss-haired girls with the drawn-on eyebrows etc.

Alleluya's also pretty unique in terms of its layout as well. Instead of the general four-wall confinement that most cafes adhere to, most of Alleluya's tables and chairs are actually arranged outside in St Kevin's Arcade. It provides for a cool little semi-Italian piazza effect, where you can sip on your beverage of choice while people watching to your heart's content.

Being an eggs benedict-addict I was excited to try out what Alleluya had to offer in terms of the affable benedict. Unfortunately, when you've had as much eggs benedict as I have, little deviations and flaws become ragingly apparent, which made my benedict experience this time a little bit dull. Sort out your texture Alleluya, I don't want my egg to have a little pool party on top of my english muffin. Although, I want to admit, again, that I am a really big fan of eggs benedict, and to most common folk this benedict would've probably been fine. Oh and on the bright side, my friend who had a parsnip and mint fritters really liked her meal.

Onto better things: the cinnamon rolls. These guys were great. And so was the coffee. And so are the people who work at Alleluya. They're guaranteed to give you A-class banter, and have an impeccable taste in music.

Alleluya's the quintessence of K Rd, and worth a visit at least once.