At 30 Belgium Street in Ostend, this is the sort of bakery you build a Waiheke day around, with loaves, buns and pizza made from scratch and a cabinet full of sweet things. You'll find proper bread, thick pizza slabs, filled rolls and sandwiches, plus cakes, tarts and pastries, and the pizza is the main event, especially the thick focaccia-based slabs that make a lunch on the island feel easy. It's a bakery rather than a restaurant, so lunch is the main meal and the whole thing happens at the counter, which means you can eat in or take everything away for later. There's no website to check a menu on and no booking to make, so you turn up, see what's on the shelf and go with what looks good, and that help-yourself ease is exactly why the place slots so neatly into a day out here. Come hungry, and leave room for something sweet from the cabinet on the way out, because the cakes and tarts here are just as much the point as the bread.
Written from 64 Google reviews, every one we could get, on 12 November 2026. Rated 4.6 from 65 Google reviews.
Franco's La Panetteria is one of Waiheke's best bakery stops, and the bread, the pizza and the sweet cabinet are the reasons to go. You'll find a proper scratch bakery that's been part of island life for years, and it's the sort of place that earns a stop on the way to the beach or a lazy lunch in Ostend.
Order the pizza first, especially the thick focaccia-based slabs, because it's the thing that makes lunch here feel like a proper treat. The sandwiches and filled rolls are just as reliable, built on bread that's baked on site, and you should finish with a cake or pastry from the sweet end of the cabinet.
The service is polite and helpful, and the people behind the counter are genuinely nice, which is a big part of why the place feels so welcoming. Buy a single loaf or a full lunch and you get the same friendly treatment, and it's the kind of welcome that brings you back.
It's a small bakery with breads, pizzas and cakes on show, so most of your visit is spent looking along the cabinet and working out what to take away. The mood is casual and quick, which is why it slots into a day on the island rather than being a place you settle into for hours.
Value splits both ways here, because the pizza and a simple lunch come across as great value while the bread and cakes can feel steep for what they are. If you're watching the spend, make the focaccia pizza your lunch and treat the loaf or the cake as the extra.
Best for a casual lunch, a picnic on the beach or a sweet stop while you're making your way around Waiheke. It suits anyone who wants good bread and pizza without a long sit-down meal, and it's easy to fold into a day of island wandering.
The price is the thing to watch, because the bread and cakes sit on the expensive side and a bag of treats adds up faster than you'd expect. Stick to the pizza or a sandwich if you want lunch without the sting, and treat the rest as a splurge.
Every fact on this page was checked on 8 November 2026 against Google and 64 of its Google reviews. The photo is from the eatout library, not taken here, and no venue pays to be listed or ranked. Something out of date? Tell us
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