Petit Bocal

Great selection of interesting food with professional service. We had been gardening all morning and devoured our croque madam and warm croissant with ham and cheese. The stand out items were the coffees.
Great taste and how about the decorative milk tops?

Fabulous place to eat! Scrumptious food that is filled with flavour. Satisfies the palette and leaves you wanting more! ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend.

Gorgeous little French café, great pastries and fab coffee. Really immaculate café with great selection of freshly baked sweet and savory snacks as well as a full brunch/​lunch/​dinner menu. Great spot for dine in or take out!

Popped in here for a coffee because, let’s be honest, I wanted to see their amazing latte art! I got a cappuccino with a rose, and husband was lucky and got a kitty on his flat white! We also shared an almond croissant, which was very good. The reason I’m giving it 3 stars only though is because of the slightly unfriendly service we got. Perhaps it’s just the French way, but the waitress was quite abrupt with us, which soured the experience a little. That said, I can’t see any other complaints about this in other reviews, so will give them another go and see if it was just an anomaly.

We finally decided to pop in to this charming little restaurant after hearing so many great reviews and we weren’t disappointed. We shared to platers one an arrangement of cheese, meets, pickles, dips and bread and the other was a perfectly cooked fillet with the most Devine blue cheese sauce. For dessert we shared a chocolate dessert which was very similar to a lava cake. The food and service was wonderful I fully recommend this spot for a romantic date night.

Always a good choice for a quick lunch, parking’s easy, service fast and food always top notch. They are still just as creative with their coffee art and there’s always the chance of hearing a French accent or two amongst the staff. I really like this place, they continue to deliver.

Been here for breakfast a few times and is always excellent (breakfast bruschetta is a must try) so thought we’d give dinner a go.
Well it’s just as good! Limited options but very good ones, french themed with good wine and good desserts. What more!

The décor and atmosphere was full of character and they have great, friendly service. The food was really good although the selection for those who don’t eat animal products was not specifically stated so I’m not sure of the options. We will return often as my family had a very enjoyable breakfast while I had a very nice coffee.

Petit Bocal has to be one of my favourite cafes at the moment. With its french inspired menu, it showcases items such as croque monsieur and sourdough tartines.
I think I have come here 3 times now for lunch. Once ordering the Croque Monsieur, the Pulled Chicken Sour dough Tartine and the Salmon Gravlax Sour dough Tartine. With the sour dough tartines ranging from $ 16 – 20, its very good value for size and is really up there for flavour. The food is delicious. From the pics of my food you can see the thought that goes into the presentation…“You eat with your eyes”.
The food and service is efficient, and I would recommend this café anytime. I believe the café is open for dinner, which one of my foodie friends has said the platters are average. However for breakfast and lunch its delicious and affordable.
The décor follows todays trends with small wooden tables, and hanging lights. The place is ideal for most diners as there are a range of table options e. g couch seats, sharing tables and 2−4man tables; all of which are comfortable.
P.S you know a place is always good when they can serve really yummy hot chips!
Rating
Food: 8.5÷10
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Value for Money: Very Good
177 Sandringham road, Sandringham
Opening Hours: 7am-​10pm

Loathed to give anything a five on first visit, but I get the feeling that this place would be a consistent performer. Staff spoke French to kids and were really engaging and attentive. Food was as good as any I’ve eaten in Auckland. A 20 minute trek, but oh so worth it.

I don’t know how i’ve never come here before! It’s divine! Very cute Parisian style café with an extensive breakfast menu, gorgeous fresh pastries for a traditional french breakfast and a range of egg dishes. Mine was the breakfast bruschetta — fresh avo, tomatoes, red onion and basil chopped finely atop french baguette with perfect poached eggs, citrus hollandaise and two strips of streaky bacon. SUCH a great combo, filling, could do without the bacon but can’t wait to have it again.
Lovely service, cute accents and reasonable prices.
I’ve had their famous filled baguettes before with that delicious emmental cheese. Keen to come back for drink and try their evening menu which is more traditional french.

Petit Bocal is charming neighbourhood café with French inspired fare. We popped in for brunch today and struggled to choose from their rather extensive menu — everything sounding delicious. In the end I opted for eggs florentine which came with portobello mushrooms topped with pesto and of course, the obligatory spinach and hollandaise. It was good but not outstanding. The hollandaise was creamy but a bit lumpy and the eggs were cooked well but the yolk was a dull yellow rather than the bright orange you come to expect with free range eggs these days.
The coffee on the other hand was outstanding and our French waiter was delightful! The crepes were sold out on our last visit but I am looking forward to returning to try these soon!

I wanted to try somewhere new — and the reviews for Petit Bocal were pretty good so I gave it a go.
The parking was easy and the place was humming when I arrived just before 1pm.
The Berry juice with echinacea was delicious as well as being good for me.
The tarte of the day was a version of a cottage pie — the pastry base is the best pastry I have tasted for a long while. The mince filling and potato top was plentiful and was beautifully seasoned — a good choice.
My friend had a baguette with goat cheese, which was presented wrapped in paper and tied with string. She said it was delicious.
The coffee to finish was smooth — would have been perfect with a small sweet treat but I left those for the next time.
I will be back to try the brunch menu

One of the cutest cafés I’ve been to in Auckland. Really good breakfast beautifully plated. We had the eggs Benedict with a side of black pudding, crepes with real Canadian maple syrup and the mushrooms. Everything was perfectly cooked.

This place is cute! Lovely French staff, cute wee spot in between a dairy and some other local shops, yummy breakfast and big portions. Coffee is delicious, and will definitely be recommending others to come here. The kronuts are also dangerously good.

Ahhhhhhhh. Was out west heading central so quickly Unilocaled for something with a good rating with «plenty» reviews and found this place.
Coffee: Long black. Yes!
Eggs Benedict: Awesome hollandaise sauce. Yes!
Banh Mi: Not really authentic vietnamese food (which I was a little sad). But Chicken + Pâté. Yes! Didn’t regret my choice!
Service: Good.
Atmosphere: Great! Really simple set up but still classy and elegant. Clean table décor.
Prices: Reasonable!

A buzzing French café with brilliant food and beautiful waitresses! I loves their breakfast bruschetta with citrus hollandaise sauce! The citrus in the sauce takes away the creaminess of the usual hollandaise dressed eggs benny! Btw the coffee is amazing and certainly one of the best I have had in Auckland for a long time! Awesome place must try!

It’s our second time here (previously for breakfast) and we wanted to try their dinner service. We decided on the plats du jour: ribs on mash for me, and veal on rice for her, both paired with an Otago pinot noir. The names sound better in French, bien sûr.
I was told the veal was good, but for my ribs — unfortunately, I had the USA-​style barbecue ribs as my reference. Quite a world away from French cuisine. I was hoping for moist, falling-​off-​the-​bone type of experience. It wasn’t that.
I was left wondering whether I should have just ordered a platter off the menu and nibbled through my dinner. With more wine, of course.
But I’m not put off. We’ll come back again and try something else. The place is still adorable, especially now that summer is here.

Petit Bocal comes to you from the same owners as the La Boulange coffee/​sandwich eateries that are scattered about Auckland nowadays. A very welcome addition to the Sandringham neighbourhood, and the croissants are just as good as the ones that are freshly baked at La Boulange.
The menu features other traditional French dishes like tartines, omelettes (the filling changes daily), baked eggs, sweet crepes and of course, oodles of French coffee.
The décor is pared back and quite industrial, which is a common look in Auckland cafes these days, but brings with it a fresh feel.
Come for breakfast and stay for lunch, avec une bouteille de rosé!

When my eagle eye spied this new place at the Eden Park end of Sandringham Road I thought I’d best get in there sharpish. So we did, late on a Saturday afternoon.
I think it used to be a shoe shop and it’s smallish but the refit has been done really well with rustic vintage jars as lightshades and a simple black and white with wood theme featuring French photos and a vaguely vintage vibe. I would say though that the white painted floor is not the best idea and if it’s too hard to keep clean it’s just not a good look.
So I was excited by the French wines and tried both the Sancerre and Pinot Blanc — they were great and really well priced. We also ordered one of the «sharing plates» (they are open until 10pm here but don’t do dinner as such), which consisted of a selection of French cheeses, walnuts, quince paste, dried grapes and slices of baguette. It came with dried apricots as apparently the grapes were still drying in the oven. Which is a shame because I’m imagining dried grapes are… homemade raisins?
Anyway the only other problem with our «Xavier» sharing plate was that the five small rounds of baguette were never going to cut it so we just asked for some more. Ratios — so often neglected. We weren’t charged for the extra bread so that’s ok.
I like Petit Bocal and you can tell they are trying hard and apparently doing well. I would say though that privacy is a bit lacking here and in such a small room with three staff members, I did feel like our conversations were being observed more than is necessarily polite. I guess this is not a problem when it’s full. Anyway I am keen to get back to sample the breakfast and lunch offerings — four kinds of sweet crepes, filled croissants, filled baguettes… yum.