Brunch at the Big Dog

 22 September 2021

 

BIG DOG TERBODORE CAFÉ 

29A Huguenot Street, Franschhoek

 

(There is also a Big Dog Café in Kloof Street.)

 

The wife, our two Yorkies and I fled to Franschhoek this week to escape the general unpleasantness of living in a house that’s undergoing maintenance and renovation and had the opportunity for a late brunch / early lunch today because the wife took a morning’s break from working remotely as hard, if not harder, as she’d ever done at the office.

 

The restaurant, in a renovated older building, situated at just about the beginning of the stretch of Huguenot Street where the town proper starts, is set on expansive grounds with plenty of parking and a large lawn dotted with trees and bordered on one side by a small stream, still happily burbling along, no doubt fed by water from the recently snow-capped mountains.  The restaurant is dog friendly and this lawn is a lovely green space for the furry four-feet to ramble about on. 

 

The interior of the restaurant is cool and open, furnished in a quite minimalist style  with a mixture of large and small wooden tables, and there’s a deli corner on one side. There is also an eclectic variety of tables outside under the umbrellas that were vital today, as the temperature soared to a wind free 31 C after a few relatively cool days.

 

We chose to sit outside because we brought Lucy and Prinses. The former is generally quiet except for barking her curt demands to be fed, whereas latter is a noisy terror when other people are around us and she feels compelled to scare them off to protect the wife. 

 

The joint was very busy and most outside tables were taken by the time we arrived, though there was plenty seating available inside. The only downside of the outside seating is that it’s a tad close to a very busy, somewhat noisy Huguenot Street.

 

A rather rude guy chased us away from the first available table we saw and had almost sat down at, claiming that he’d “booked it inside.” He then occupied a four-seater all on his lonesome self. Fortunately, the couple at a larger, adjoining table were just leaving and, as karma would have it, our table had better shade than the other one where our truculent friend ate his solitary meal in morose sullenness in the sun before he trundled off.

 

The menu is quite interesting, slightly off the beaten track and tends towards healthy eating. As an example of the quirkiness, there’s no specific eggs Benedict dish, but it seems to me, under the rubric of “design your own,” that you can in effect compile this dish from the elements on offer. There’s a granola bowl, a vegan and gluten free breakfast waffle (which looks like just a sweet treat), savoury polenta bowl, zucchini pancake and smoked trout, the mushrooms on toast a contributor to this group had enjoyed, avo toast, grilled cheese and savoury croissants.

 

The dedicated lunch items are beef rib chilli, fried chicken and waffle and the Big Dog Burger.

 

We started with respectively a flat white (R30) and single shot espresso (R22), which were not exactly generous, though the coffee is excellent. 

 

The wife designed her own breakfast by adding bacon (R45) and avocado (R28) to the basic premise of two slices of toasted sourdough bread and two soft poached eggs (R44.)

 

At a place I’ve never been to before, I usually look for the most unconventional dish on the menu. Today it was the savoury polenta porridge bowl (R100) with a hard poached egg, bacon rashers (though the menu mentions bacon bits), sweetcorn, spring onion, sesame sprinkle, maple syrup and broccoli sprouts. 

 

In effect, I was eating “mieliepap” on steroids for brunch and it was kinda strange, with the flavour profile of French toast given the combination of sweet porridge and savoury bacon, apparently Terbadore coffee cured.  The dish was well prepared, quite tasty and filling but I don’t think, having ticked it off on the bucket list, that I’ll ever order it again. 

 

The wife thoroughly enjoyed her more conventional breakfast. 

 

We generously shared slivers of bacon with the Yorkies.

 

When I’d first interrogated the menu, my eye was caught by the pecan pie sweet waffle (R80), comprising a buttermilk waffle, pecan nut praline crumble, vanilla ice cream, salted miso caramel, and fresh and dehydrated green apple. I had it with my final, tall cappuccino (R64 for two) and was rewarded by a thick, soft, excellent waffle topped with elements of crunchy sweetness, delightfully sour apple bits and a smooth ice cream. This is a hugely satisfactory dish I’d return for and would highly recommend to waffle aficionados.

 

The bill came to R453, including two pasteis de nata for later at R18,00 each.  The pasteis were very yummy with superb, crisp, flaky crust and smooth, creamy custard.

 

So, for little dogs and big dogs, and humans, the Big Dog Café is a lovely venue for al fresco brunch  provided you get decent shade to sit under, as, I believe, Franschhoek can get fiercely hot at the height of summer. The food is good, the service is good and the bucolic, parklike landscape around the building truly feels like the countryside.