Down in St Kevin’s Arcade on the infamous K Rd is a little cafe called Honeytrap. Offering their signature meaty BBQ sandwiches, soups, salads and their popular “shake of the day”, their food always packs a flavour punch. Honeytrap use free range meat and eggs and their sauces and pickles are made in house.

I’ve mentioned foodie web-series Club Sandwich a couple of times. What I haven’t mentioned is that Honeytrap are responsible for this sweet little look into the Auckland culinary landscape. You can check out the entire collection of films here on Vimeo.

Leisha Jones is the is the owner of Honeytrap and below are her answers to the tasty questions I cooked up for your enjoyment.

Describe your restaurant’s food:

Comforting. Flavourful. Creative.

What is your restaurant’s signature dish?

Our BBQ beef brisket sandwich. The beef is braised in the oven for around 8 hours, before being shredded and tossed with our house made BBQ sauce. Then served on a toasted bun, with zucchini pickles (also made in house), and red cabbage slaw with ranch dressing. It has been on the menu since the day we opened the doors, and I think there would be a lot of upset people if we ever took it off.

Name your favourite comfort food:

Definitely pizza. Pizza is a Friday night tradition in my family and I couldn’t live without it.

What did you have for breakfast?

Bacon and eggs, with half an avocado, wilted spinach and zucchini. Everything drizzled with chilli oil.

What is the most delicious thing you’ve eaten this week?

I went up to visit my parents who have rented a house for the week in Matakana. They had been at the markets on Saturday and had a fridge full of local produce: buffalo cheese; locally made sausages and dips; veges from some lady’s garden. I cooked such a simple dinner, but it was so delicious because the produce was so good.

What is an underrated ingredient?

I’m going to say tea. I think most people don’t really go beyond drinking it, but recently I made some cookies with Thai tea leaves in them and they were really interesting. Now I have all sorts of crazy ideas to make Thai tea ice cream, or even infuse it in to icing for a cake.

What are 3 sources of inspiration to you?

The Internet. The food of other countries, cities and cultures. My cookbooks (I have many, many).

Favourite restaurant?

I have so many that I love for all different reasons and occasions. Can I pick one for each day of the week?…If I really have to choose, in Auckland I would have to say Ponsonby Road Bistro. The menu changes often, but whatever is on it is consistently amazing.

There’s a potluck dinner tomorrow night (and you’re not working) what are you bringing?

I find cooking very therapeutic and relaxing. So if I had the day off I would probably take my time and spend the afternoon making something really labour intensive, like an Eggplant Parmigiana (and would probably drink a couple of glasses of red wine while I was making it).