MiCaffé is a "little bit of Italy in Cape Town."

 13 May 2022

 

MiCaffé

The Barracks, 80 Bree Street, Cape Town

 

The Barracks is a newish development on Bree Street, a commercial and residential hub, and houses two restaurants, MiCaffé and Balena Blu. The latter is, I guess, I lunch and dinner venue, where the former offers breakfast, my reason for visiting, and lunch.

 

I paid the bill to  an entity called Emporio Miland-Newla, so that, and the menu items, not to mention the smart, modern and stylish design of the restaurant, suggests that it’s “a little bit of Italy in Cape Town.”

 

The colour scheme is black and pale grey (only one shade) and the design style is chic, elegant simplicity. There’s an outside deck with a few tables, not so great on a wet, cold morning like today, and inside there’s banquette seating along two sides, with small square tables,  three tables in front of that and counter seating looking out at Bree Street, well, actually, the outside dining space.

 

It's by far one of the loveliest cafés I’ve eaten at recently.

 

The breakfast (served until 11h00) menu is available online as well as on paper and is not expansive.   One can have a coffee and muffin, a selection of smoothies, a continental breakfast (croissant, cheese, preserve, fruit), a muesli bowl, avo on toast, frittata with prosciutto, frittata with porcini and a banting breakfast.

 

When I left the joint, I walked past a blackboard on the pavement with more breakfast options, such as various bagels, signature paninis and a breakfast special of eggs, bacon and toast for R40.   

 

My choice was the frittata with prosciutto crudo and stracciatella and Parmesan (R125; incidentally, also what the Continental breakfast costs, which seems a tad extreme) and then googled what Stracciatella is, as I know it only as a gelato flavour. 

 

According to Google, the ice cream was inspired by stracciatella soup, made from egg and broth, and popular around Rome, Italy.  Okay, the latter makes sense in the context of my frittata, though there was no soupy element; perhaps it’s just the flavour?

 

The frittata was a like a large fried egg, sans yolk, with some melted cheese underneath and, though tasty enough, is  what I’d call a taste to acquire.  The prosciutto was good though a tad sparse. The dish was accompanied by a thick slice of yummy, crusty ciabatta, and butter.

 

I finished with a pain au chocolate (R30) and this was a bit of a let-down. It looked promising and the taste was good yet it wasn’t crusty and flaky, as it should be, but soft and pliant is if it’d been reheated in a microwave oven.

 

The quantities of espresso (R24) and Americano (R32) were generous and the coffee was lovely. There’s no sugar or sweetener on the table, and I didn’t ask for any, so I don’t know whether they have a “no sugar” policy.

 

The bill came to R211,00 before tip.

 

MiCaffé is a quite lovely place to hang out at with coffee and a pastry, for  a light breakfast or to whip out the MacBook for whatever you do with it in public places.  The service is friendly and efficient, the coffee is worth drinking and I suppose, in general, the quality of the food seems good.   

 

MiCaffé is so exquisitely chic, I felt  uneasy for not wearing a bespoke, slimline Italian suit.