Breakfast at Vovo Telo in the Cape Town Waterfront

 25 November 2021

 

VOVO TELO

V & A Waterfront, Cape Town

 

If a “soggy bottom” is undesirable in a pie, it’s as unappealing in a waffle when the originally crisp item becomes so mushy in the middle from the stuff piled on top that it resembles Weetbix soaked too long in too much milk. Not in a good way.

 

Let’s drop into a wormhole and revisit the initiative that led to the squelchy repast.

 

I was in the Waterfront for the first time in ages to do some business and, having left home without breaking my fast, was extremely peckish. After wandering around looking for a breakfast spot that isn’t Tasha’s (been there, done that, use the T-shirt to clean greasy surfaces), and deciding against Mugg & Bean, I remembered Vovo Telo. I’d eaten many a breakfast at the original joint on Kloof Street, long since defunct, and thought highly of the food.

 

The Waterfront outlet is way outside the shopping centre, right next to the Big Wheel, and if one sits outside under the umbrellas, as I did, you can be entertained by watching the wheel in motion, humming “big wheel keep on turning / Proud Mary keep on burning …” under your breath.

 

The breakfast menu isn‘t excessively large, with 12 dishes, ranging from the usual health options to the fry up, to chicken livers to eggs Benetello (quirkily monickerd Benedict), and so on. No vegan option I could see. Prices are reasonable, with the  smoked salmon Benedict the most expensive at R105,00.

 

You can also order a variety of “sarmies.”

 

My choice was the breakfast waffle (R75),

featuring two poached eggs, bacon, caramelised onion, roasted roma tomatoes and basil pesto. The waiter didn’t ask me how I wanted my poached eggs cooked, and I assumed that their default was a soft poached egg, but what I received wasn’t so much runny as shuffly, with just the barest hint of liquid yolk. 

 

Nonetheless, the dish was tasty, flavourful and a tad too moist for the waffles underneath, about the thickness of two Dutch “siroopwafeln” on top of each other, and they disintegrated  disconcertingly quickly into the aforementioned mush, with only the non-load carrying edges remaining crisp. Good waffle though.

 

The breakfast was a good-sized portion but for the hell of it I also wanted to try the scone (R40) with jam, grated cheese, Mascarpone cream and butter. 

 

It was an excellent, substantive scone, with crisp crust and soft crumb, and I was particularly taken with the Mascarpone cream, the closest thing to clotted cream I’ve eaten in a while.

 

As mentioned, I sat outside under the umbrellas, where there’s a mix of small and large tables with painted legs and varnished wooden tops, and hard plastic chairs. This area was very popular indeed and almost fully occupied by happy folk at leisure by the time I left. The weather was perfect, the Big Wheel was hypnotically soothing, and it felt like holidays.

 

The bill, including an espresso and a latté, came to R167,00 before tip.

 

The breakfast was satisfying, barring the waffle marsh, and quite filling (the scone wasn’t intended to fill a gap), the coffee was good and the service friendly and highly efficient. Well worth the money.