Artisan by Rangiora Bakery — Restaurant in South Island

I would not recommend driving 24 km just to try their pie unless you are in Rangiora for another reason. The food cabinet was reasonably stocked for a Saturday mid-morning, and the café had a pleasant atmosphere, with a few people in the queue at the counter.

I ordered the $9.40 Sumatra beef pie, which won the 2024 NZ Supreme Pie Award. Unfortunately, the pastry top was too thick, and dense, reminds me of a Coupland pie but with a slightly flaky layer on top. I did enjoy the spicy filling, which was made with real spices instead of curry powder. However, it might not be suitable for those with milder palate. It took four bites before I could even taste the filling; by then the pie shell had started to fall apart.

I would rank the Sumatra beef pie third. The chicken asparagus cashew pie from Copenhagen Bakery is my top choice, followed by a steak pie from Fairlie Bakehouse ranking second. If you enjoy pies and have some cooking skills, plus a group of people willing to try your experiments, you might want to try making your own pies (I recommend Anna Olson's pie dough recipe).

The almond croissant here is better than those at Copenhagen Bakery, the one from Copenhagen tasted more like thick bread. The Rangiora Bakery version is had the softer texture. The almond paste filling is a bit sweet and runny. The pain au chocolate was comparable to those at Copenhagen Bakery—nothing particularly special about them.

I also bought four mixed frozen pies for $15 to heat up in the air fryer at home. The peppery steak pie could easily be mistaken for a spicy mince pie if I hadn’t known that bakeries typically don’t make peppery mince pies. A good steak pie should have chunky pieces of steak, if the meat is cut too small; it ends up resembling a mince pie after being...

I’ve long been going to the artisan, like most people in rangiora, and I have to say i’m quite disappointed.

Today I went in and grabbed two iced drinks(without cream) and a few baked goods. The baked goods are fine , but my main issue was the drinks.

I got an iced chocolate and an iced coffee. I was given two drinks that looked like the below picture. To be clear I hadn’t drank from either yet and when I inquired as to why there wasnt much in the drink , I was told because they had no cream. I’m confused to see why cream should be 50% of the drink. But I left it there and left. I don’t want to give the staff a hard time , especially on a public holiday when they dont need to be open.

As we were heading home, the reason I even picked up and wrote this review, was because the drinks (especially the iced chocolate) tasted like water. The iced coffee was watery, but tolerable. But, the iced chocolate tasted like someone turned on the tap water and put a bit of chocolate power in it. I’m really disappointed in the cafe and urge people not to buy any iced drinks. If you do black and white and coffee cultere are a far better choice.

Again I would like to clarify the bakery does an amazing job. I’m only disappointed in the way that these...

I was here today for my birthday with my sister in law. I ordered the big breakfast and swapped out the beans for the hollandaise sauce. Bad decision. I am a hollandaise sauce queen and that just did not taste good. Hence why I left most of it in the ramekin. The tomatoes were delicious aswell as the eggs and bacon, sausages and rosti. I would have preferred two slices of toast instead of the one I received. The reason I rated this two was for the revolting, dirty table we sat at with smears on it and a long yak blonde hair - and no it wasn’t one of ours as we are both brunette. Also the cutlery (my knife that I swapped) was filthy. I did check the mug I got my flat white in for lipstick marks but it was clean. Probably to be fair Artisan - I will not be back. I expect cleanliness every when I go to eat and I have an eagle eye for things that are just obviously dirty. The only reason I did not go up to the counter when I encountered the filth was because I have extremely bad flare up of polymyalgia at the moment and walking is a struggle so otherwise I would have let...