Overview
A popular addition in 2012 to Auckland's growing dessert restaurant industry is an all-American milk and cookie bar, Moustache. The restaurant is cleverly named after the notorious milk-drinking lip stain and uses a moustache stamp as its emblem, proudly emblazoning it on cups, napkins, and even the shop sign.
The bar's homely feel might be thanks to the tiny space the restaurant occupies on Wellesley Street, but the interior definitely adds to the bar's overall vibe. Old fashioned glass milk bottles replace lamp shades, customers sit on recycled milk cartons and the menu is scrawled in chalk on a wall-hung blackboard. The bar always smells of baking chocolate and is toasty warm thanks to the ovens baking just across the countertop. The staff are always friendly and eager to help milk and cookie rookies decide on their best-suited purchase.
Cookie jars cover the counter, and range from a standard chocolate chunk ($4) to a decadent cinnamon ($4), with new flavours constantly being introduced. Moustache have perfected the undercooked, moist centre surrounded by a slightly crunchy exterior that bakers have been lusting after all their lives. What really enhances Moustache cookies though, is adding a cup of dunking milk ($1.50) so that diners can soak their cookies to their heart's content.
Even though Moustache is famous for their cookies, I would feel as though I were selling the place short if I didn't mention the shakes ($7.50). Take the best milkshake you've had and times it by a jillion. The drinks are full of authentic flavour and range from chocolate to peanut butter, to banana, to Aero peppermint. Also, a little bird told me that Lorde drinks a 'peanutella' (peanut butter and nutella combined). I tried one. Apparently Lorde is not only a musical genius, but also a shake and cookie connoisseur.