The first coffee in Martinborough is poured at 5am, by the café that is closed all weekend. That is the kind of thing worth knowing before you set out, because the Martinborough cafes keep short, particular hours: most open early, almost all close by mid-afternoon, and most take a day off in the week.
They are all within about 200 metres of Memorial Square. This is what each one is for, the first coffee before the bikes, a proper sit-down breakfast, coffee by the playground, a pie for the road, and which days each is open.
Where to get coffee in Martinborough
For coffee every day of the week, go to In The Neighbourhood on the Square, open from 7am to 2.30pm seven days. For breakfast, Cafe Medici on Kitchener Street and Nara on the Square are the sit-down choices. For the earliest coffee on a weekday, Kitchener's opens at 5am.
The pattern to plan around is the afternoon. Almost every café in town closes between 1pm and 3.30pm, so an afternoon coffee after a day of tastings means finding one of the few still open, or making it at your accommodation. Plan the late-morning coffee and lunch, and let the vineyards and restaurants take the afternoon.
First coffee before the bikes
Three places on and next to the Square serve the early coffee: In The Neighbourhood, Kitchener's and the Martinborough Coffee Company roastery behind them both.
In The Neighbourhood, at 4 Memorial Square, is the town's everyday coffee, open from 7am to 2.30pm every day of the week. It pours beans roasted next door by the Martinborough Coffee Company and fills its cabinet with danishes, muffins, frittatas and toasted bagels. If you want something to carry on the vineyard loop, this is where to get it.
Kitchener's, at 5 Kitchener Street, is the longest-running café in town, a small tea-room of a place with a big local following. It opens at 5am, which makes it the only coffee for anyone starting before dawn, and it closes at 1pm. It is open Monday to Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. The bacon butty is the order, and the peppered steak pies and sausage rolls are there for anyone on the way to work.
The Martinborough Coffee Company at 4a Memorial Square is the roastery. It roasts small batches of Fair Trade and organic beans for its own shop and for wholesale customers, In The Neighbourhood among them, including a coffee aged in pinot noir barrels that is the obvious thing to take home. The shop is open on weekdays from 9am to 4pm and closed at the weekend.
A sit-down breakfast or brunch
For a full breakfast at a table, Cafe Medici, Nara and the Village Café are the three to choose from, all on or just off the Square.
Nara, at 14 Memorial Square, started out as a food truck at a vineyard and now cooks in a room on the Square. The team cooks everything from scratch, with a strong Middle Eastern influence and a jalapeño cornbread on the menu. It opens from 8.30am to 2.30pm on Monday, Thursday and Friday, until 3pm at the weekend, and is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Village Café and Bar, at 6 Kitchener Street, is the big, easy-going option, with a wide menu of Kiwi classics and room for groups, and a wine shop in the same building. It is open from 8.30am to 3.30pm Tuesday to Friday, from 8am at the weekend, stays open for dinner until 9pm on Saturday, and is closed on Monday.
With kids: coffee by the playground
Knucklebone Coffee Bar is inside the Waihinga Centre on the Square, next to the playground and the library, which makes it the café for anyone with children.
When it rains, the library next door is the other half of the plan, and the isite visitor centre in the same building has ideas for the rest of the day.
A day out with children in Martinborough can start here and move on to the town pool at Considine Park in summer.
Bakery, pies and picnic food
For a pie, a baguette or a picnic to take to a vineyard or the coast, the Martinborough Bakery, The Bach and The Grocer are all within a minute of the Square.
The Bach, at 1 Jellicoe Street by the Square, is the classic Kiwi takeaway bakery: pies, toasties, hot and crispy fried chicken and chips. It opens from 9.30am to 4pm on weekdays, 10.30am on Friday, until 2.30pm on Saturday, and is closed on Sunday.
The Grocer on Kitchener Street is the deli, with locally made and organic food, cheese, olive oil, honey, artisan baking and flowers. It is the place to put together a platter for a picnic among the vines or a lunch for the drive to the coast. It is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
If you are heading out to the rock columns at Putangirua or the coast at Cape Palliser, stock up here first.
It is a long day on a remote coast, and the Pinnacles alone are 32.3 kilometres away in a straight line. For hot food later in the day, the takeaway shops are around the corner.
Which cafés are open on which day?
Only In The Neighbourhood opens every day. Every other café in the village has at least one day off, and they are not the same day.
On a Saturday or Sunday morning, choose from In The Neighbourhood, Cafe Medici, Nara, the Village Café, Knucklebone, the Martinborough Bakery and, out of town, 3 Little Words. Kitchener's and the Coffee Company roastery are closed at the weekend, and The Bach is closed on Sunday.
On a Monday, In The Neighbourhood, Kitchener's, Cafe Medici, Nara, Knucklebone and The Bach are open. The Village Café is closed.
On a Tuesday, In The Neighbourhood, Kitchener's, the Village Café, Knucklebone and The Bach are open. Cafe Medici and Nara are closed.
On a Wednesday, In The Neighbourhood, Kitchener's, Cafe Medici, the Village Café and The Bach are open. Knucklebone and Nara are closed. The bakery opens only from Thursday.
These are the hours each café publishes on its Google listing in September 2026. Cafés change their days with the season, so check before you rely on one.
Coffee in the afternoon
By 3.30pm nearly every café in the village has closed, so an afternoon coffee takes a little planning.
For a good cup at your accommodation, buy a bag of beans from the Martinborough Coffee Company on a weekday, and the bakery's baguettes do the rest. When the cafés close, dinner on the Square is the next thing to plan.
Cafés for a group or a long table
For a group breakfast or a long table, Cafe Medici and the Village Café are the two with room, and Medici takes bookings for larger groups. Book on a weekend morning.
The smaller cafés, In The Neighbourhood, Kitchener's and Knucklebone among them, suit two or four better than a crowd. For a group lunch out of town, 3 Little Words on Dry River Road has a garden and a courtyard dining area under the vines, which suits a group with a driver on a fine weekend.
Out of town
3 Little Words, out on Dry River Road 6.3 kilometres from the Square, serves lunch among vines and farmland on Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 4pm, and doubles as a wedding venue. It is the one to drive to for a long weekend lunch in the country.
Greytown, 15.5 kilometres north, has a longer main street with more cafés, including a deli and a chocolatier, which makes a morning up the valley in Greytown an easy detour. Back in the village, the shops around the Square open from about 10am, just as the breakfast rush eases.
Frequently asked questions
Published August 16, 2026
