Mulberry & Prince

19 May 2019

MULBERRY & PRINCE

12 Pepper Street, Cape Town

M & P has been one of those places we’d idly wanted to go to for some time without actually ever making the effort. The wife was a bit iffy about the online dinner menu. It seemed that Sunday brunch would be an ideal opportunity to check out the joint without the significant emotional and financial investment dinner can be.

They have two seatings, at 10h00 (way too early for the likes of us who enjoy sleeping in) and at 12h00, which I’d think of as lunch more than brunch.

The beautiful old Cape building is just off the corner with Bree Street, and a block away from Jason Bakery, with dramatically dark frontage and a minimalist, modern interior of polished cement floor, a variety of plain tables and abstract art works against the walls. The room is L-shaped with some of the patrons sitting along the kitchen and some, like us, around the corner in a small space with exposed roof beams and a bare brick “feature” wall.  It’s not exactly cosy and intimate but it’s bright and cheerful and rather elegant.

The brunch options are mostly priced at either R130 or R150, with the brioche French toast at R140, and the various sides are R35 each.  Six of the ten dishes are based around eggs, and there are also a chicken and waffle item, a pancake stack, French toast and a mixed berry waffle.

The wife chose the buttermilk biscuit sandwich, with scrambled eggs, melted cheddar, roasted tomatoes and hash brown (R130.)

I was torn between the fried chicken and waffle dish or the house chorizo scramble, with scrambled eggs, chorizo, caramelised onion, peppers, melted cheddar and hash brown (R150) because both looked good. My final choice was the latter, principally for the chorizo. Both of us ordered a side of a pork sausage (R35) and a mimosa (R85) with the meal.

Our coffees came out quickly enough but then there was a material lull between the ordering and the delivery of food. Waiting 50 minutes for your food is very trying when you haven’t had breakfast. Hey, wait, we’re here for brunch. Well, by the time we could eat, it WAS lunch in breakfast guise.

Each of us got a generous plateful, with the pork sausage oddly, literally on the side, two of them plonked on a side plate, like a forlorn afterthought. It would have made far more sense, aesthetically and conceptually, to plate then with the other elements.

The scrambled eggs were soft and lovely with gooey melted cheese, the chopped chorizo bits were succulent with a good hit of chilli and the hash brown had a lightly crisp crust yet was creamy inside, easily the best of its type I’ve ever eaten. The thin slice of toasted sourdough was okay.

The wife was equally impressed with her dish, but she thought the biscuit, except where the egg had soaked into it, was too dry and crisp.

We were divided on the pork sausage, which was the size of your standard banger though with a dry, loose texture. I didn’t care for it and somewhat lacked in flavour. The wife liked it. Call me a peasant but I like the traditional pork banger.

The coffee here is proudly single origin Ethiopian (from Rosetta Roastery, if that means anything to you) and it was excellent though not on the generous side.  The pricing is puzzling. An espresso is R30 and a cappuccino or flat white is R34.

When you get down to it, the brunch dishes, and especially if you add sides, are not much cheaper than a dinner main course in most restaurants and if you have the appetite to go full on here, brunch is not a more budget friendly meal than dinner at all.  The total cost for the two of us was just over R679 and it included the 10% gratuity, they already added to the bill for the convenience of the patron who can’t be bothered to calculate the tip.

Would I recommend M & P for Sunday brunch? Well, if time is not of the essence and you are feeling flush, why the hell not. The nosh was nice.