Where to Find the Best Sweet Treats in Dunedin

Self-titled as Dunedin's only dessert bar, Blue Cockatoo brings gelato, house-made desserts and cocktails together under one roof in the iconic Octagon. Refined yet a little cheeky, everything is made on-site, flavours are forever changing, and you’re just as well suited to settle in for the evening or grab a scoop to go.

Down in the warehouse precinct, a fluorescent lime-green doorway marks the entrance to carb heaven. From the team behind the much-missed Side On, Big Lizard is best known for its sandwiches, but arrive on a weekday (bar Monday) between 8am and sold out for a cabinet that is all about the sweet: glistening laminated croissants, seasonal fruit tarts and Basque cheesecake. Morning light through the window, green checkerboard floor underfoot with a Grey Roasting Co. brew in hand? Perfection.

George Street's brunch favourite has been championing fresh, nourishing plates since 2019. With an in-house baker and a kitchen that makes nearly everything from scratch (sauces, pickles, and all), you'd better turn up to Buster Greens with an empty stomach. Though their savoury menu often gets the glory, the sweet-toothed among us should beeline for the brioche french toast - currently a Mont Blanc number piled with orange mascarpone, orange curd and cold brew syrup. Wash it down with a made-to-order cold-pressed juice or an Otis Bay smoothie that blends local Bay Rd peanut butter with oat milk, dates, banana and cinnamon.

A few doors up from Buster’s sits a true hit of Kiwi nostalgia. Dunedin institution Rob Roy Dairy deals in the classics: soft serve bedazzled with hundreds and thousands, real fruit ice cream, and Tip Top cones stacked to structurally questionable heights. No reinvention, no fuss, just the dairy counter of your childhood, honest, sticky and sweet as ever.

Up the hill in Roslyn, the Big Lizard team are back to feed you by way of perhaps the least romantic name for a bakery, ever. Roslyn Bread Technology & O.A.A (that's Other Associated Activities) specialises in sourdough, pies and pastries, alongside refined takes on the Kiwi classics. Open Tuesday to Saturday with coffee to wash your baked goods down. Though be aware Saturday runs till sold out (no dawdling!).

For six years, a 1984 Bedford named Betty (former paddy wagon, mind you) dished out some of the best scoops in the country through her service window. Betty has since earned her retirement, and Patti's & Cream scoops from The Scoop Shop in Mornington, where the counter also deals in shakes, sodas and take-home tubs. Owner Olive still crafts everything in small batches, waffle cones included, using local milk and flavours from Dunedin's growers, producers and brewers. Past batches have paired local stout with pecans, Blue Cheese and Pear proved strangely moreish, and the strawberry comes courtesy of Mosgiel berries. Thick, creamy, and prone to selling out.

Down at St Clair, Sorella Gelato (Italian for sister, and part of the Esplanade's little family of Italian-inspired spots) channels a Florentine gelateria by the beach. Pass beneath the striped awning and you'll find tubs of artisanal flavours lining a speckled terrazzo counter backed by dark marble mosaics, while beyond the glass at the back, the resident maestro handmakes every small batch using traditional methods. Biscoff, tiramisu, pistachio and black doris plum lead a cast of decadent classics, joined by sorbetto, dairy-free scoops, rotating seasonal specials and gelato cakes. Arrive with sand between your toes; everyone else does.

End the trail the scenic way: 20 minutes along the peninsula and a short wander through the shrubbery, you'll find a farm store where the sweets come with birdsong. Augustines of Portobello began as chef Gus Hayden's award-winning Central Otago preserves - plump apricots, Black Doris plums, tart rhubarb - and grew into a farm-to-table kitchen at the family's Fat Weka Farm. The counter is where you're headed: cakes, ready-to-eat treats and pastries crowned in glistening fruit, all made on-site. Open Friday to Sunday. Book ahead for a table, or simply swing by for coffee and something from the cabinet.