Brunch at the Red Chair Bistro & Deli, Rooiberg Winery

 15 October 2021

 

RED CHAIR BISTRO & DELI

Rooiberg Winery, off the R60 between Worcester and Robertson

 

There are currently quite a variety of excellent eateries in Robertson but the R60 between it and Worcester is hardly, say, the Klapmuts-Simondium road, passing by, among others, Backsberg and Babylonstoren. As far as I know, if one drives along that stretch of the R60 your options are either Nuy on the Hill or Rooiberg Winery. We ate at the former some years ago and weren’t impressed. Rooiberg was close to where we’d been staying for about 5 nights and, muy importante para mi esposa, is dog friendly, to the extent where we could bring the Yorkies into the venue, on leashes, given the cold conditions outside on the day.

 

The Red Chair Bistro, named for the gigantic red chair out front, allegedly the largest such object in Africa and suitable for touristic photo opportunities, is a sleek, elegant, modern roadside eatery separated from a wine tasting room by a lobby and wide open doorway.

 

Over the last three years the wife and I’ve passed by often but haven’t dropped in since our previous visit, when the restaurant possibly went by a different name, in late 2004 or perhaps during 2005, when the winery offered a rudimentary breakfast  experience in a much more, uh, rural setting. Today the joint is on par stylewise with the best the Cape Winelands can offer and the food need not stand back either.

 

There’s quite a bit of lawn outside with two gazebos housing comfortable seating and coffee tables for warm days, when you want to keep an eye on your kids gambolling on the climbing frame or hippity hopping on the jumping castle, but the real deal is the interior with its brick, dark wood and metal get up, a large, central coffee station, an equally substantial bar on the one end and a range of wooden, some painted, mostly six seater tables. Large sliding doors give access to the lawns and provide views.  

 

When we arrived for breakfast, a crew of young men in black (t-shirts) were building a stage in the lobby between restaurant and wine tasting room, for a performance later that day by the well-known Afrikaans singer, Ricus Nel, allegedly to be streamed to an optimal online audience of 80 000 Nel fans. (We didn’t connect with the stream, whenever it was broadcast, but FOMO wasn’t a thing for us.)

 

The place was quite busy anyway, with the numbers of patrons swelling from 11h00 onwards, building towards a lunch time peak, I guess. 

 

The wife chose the breakfast jaffle (R65) consisting of a fried egg cooked in a jaffle pan and flipped onto bread, covered in cheese and bacon and further roasted in the jaffle pan until done. A handful of sweet potato crisps are piled onto the jaffle and a spice tomato sauce is served on the side. She ordered a side of chips with it for only R15 extra, bonus!

 

It was a good amount of food and delicious, even if the wife is not a fan of the sweet potato fry.

 

My eye fell on the Red Chair sit down breakfast (R95), described as their take on the traditional farm breakfast, with two fried eggs served in a funky little skillet, bacon, a distressingly small, thin, rolled up (pinned by a toothpick)  “boerewors” (their parentheses; it’s not farmstyle at all), accompanied by two slices of toast,  spicy tomato relish and jam. 

 

I could add various additional items to the basic thing at R10 a pop. I was happy with the basics. The breakfast was good, if generally unspectacular, but special mention must go to the plumpest fried eggs I’ve ever seen, ever mind eaten, and proper, thick slices of white bread toast, with a lovely crust and softer interior. I haven’t had toast this good in possibly forty years.

 

We finished with, respectively, a lemon meringue tart in a small, potbellied glass

and a pain au chocolat, which was slightly underbaked.

I thought the lemon meringue was too sweet but the wife approved.

 

The coffee and service were good.

 

Our bill, with coffees, came to R350 before tip, which, in this day and age, is a good deal.

 

Almost forgot. There is a whole bunch of deli stuff on sale but I didn’t investigate and can’t report with confidence though I’d be willing to bet that the shelves are groaning under the weight of the usual kind of slightly overpriced  consumables upmarket delis purvey.