Harvest Cafe and Deli

23 November 2019

HARVEST CAFÉ AND DELI

102 Wale Street, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town

Apropos the burning question of where the best eggs Benedict in Cape Town may be preening itself, the elder goddaughter’s view is that this dish at Harvest Café, on zucchini fritters for that GF thrill, is pretty good and has an excellent Hollandaise sauce, so often the weakest link of the dish in Cape Town where hardly anyone does it proper-like.

She invited me to join her for herb and spice shopping at Atlas Trading in the building next door and offered to buy me breakfast (“You can have anything on the menu.”) to boot.

I didn’t really need anything from Atlas (my spice jars are still well stocked) yet I did manage to do some impulse shopping. It’s that kind of place. The spice of life is full of variety, and all that.

The shopping experience was slightly challenging because a group of tourists barged in, desperate for “bobotie spice,” whatever that may be, and clogged up the narrow aisles. For the life of me, I will never get why any out of towner would want to come here, much less take photographs. There’s a lot of enticing product (fetchingly packaged in plastic) on the shelves, but the interior is hardly photogenic and nothing like, say, the Egyptian (a.k.a. Spice) Bazaar in Istanbul. The best one can say for Atlas Trading is that it’s not a tourist trap.

Harvest Café was also buzzing at around 10h00, with tourists and some locals. Not only is there a hotel a block below the restaurant but groups are bused in to wander around the colourfully painted neighbourhood.

This was my third visit and I still very much like the look and style of the place, with its well-lit front section with mountain views and the more cosy rear, with its discreet corners hidden by foliage, and that’s where we sat.  Great spot for staring at the other patrons.

There’s a roof terrace too, which I’ve yet to see.

My breakfast choice was the avocado rose, with dukkah spice, on sourdough, with an additional poached egg. At, if I understand the menu correctly, R72 (including the egg) my rather insubstantial dish, though tasty, is not particularly budget friendly for the hungry critter. 

Neither of us were fully replete but we were out of luck regarding the Malay koesisters mentioned on the menu. They’d run out.  Perhaps just as well. At Harvest Café they’re R8 a pop and at the corner café across the street,  one can buy them from half that, which is what we did.

The coffee at Harvest Café is decent and is served in beautiful ceramic goblets. The quantity of espresso is much more substantial than what Shift in Roeland Street offers.

The buddha bowl here verges on the awesome, and I suppose everything else is good too. Just don’t go looking for meat; Harvest Café’s not super vegan but it’s close. It’s also, on reflection, not cheap and I can’t guarantee that you’ll leave with a full belly but you should leave with a happy palate and a sense of well-being from hanging out in a great spot.