Ozone Coffee Roasters

Overview

The first thing that strikes you when walking into Ozone Coffee Roasters is the space. Found in Grey Lynn's new The Scrap Yard development down Westmoreland Street West, a lot of hard work has paid off to renovate this former demolition yard and they've used this building beautifully. The light, the design and functionality — all of it works. The space blends a 100-seat eatery with a wholesale roastery.  Behind a wall of glass in the warehouse-style venue sits a reconditioned coffee roaster framed by a world-class barista training facility and specialist quality control lab. We chose to sit at the bar which almost totally surrounds the open bustling kitchen, but there are plenty of bigger tables and booths for groups.

The eatery operates from 7am until late with the kitchen promising a sustainable and whole-cycle style of cooking. It took us a while to choose what to eat with the diverse offering. There are some good vegetarian choices and what generally feels like an honest focus on vegetables, and not just because they're hot right now.

We started with a couple of the small plates — aged cheddar cornbread with a chilli butter ($10.50), and Waitakere tomatoes with pickled onions, fennel, crème fraiche and hot-smoked salmon ($22). Both were executed very well but the cornbread became a bit stodgy towards the end and couldn't compete with the strong flavours of pickled onions and salmon.

For the main course, I ordered the Capricciosa pizza with ham, smoked mushroom, artichoke, kalamata olives and egg ($24), while my dining buddy had the rare hanger steak with chimichurri, jus and hand-cut chips ($32). Both were delicious and the pizza was even better the next morning — it totally works as a breakfast pizza.

Most importantly, Ozone has a cracking drink list. We started with the tasty tap beers (a Yakima Monster pale ale and a Divine Wind Japanese lager both by Liberty Brewing Co.), which were good and cold, before heading onto the wines where we sampled two reds and two whites — there wasn't a dud one among them. There's damn good coffee, too.

Ozone is a lovely local space to hang out in. While it has only been around since February, there's something very permanent about it already, not least because of the giant coffee roasting machinery at the back of the restaurant. The owners invite you to use space as your living room, office, studio, and a place to eat.