Simple Sunday lunch at Deerpark Café

 4 June 2023

 

DEERPARK CAFÉ

2 Deer Park Drive West, Highlands Estate, Cape Town 

 

When the waitress returned to our table to discuss my order in more depth, I had the sinking feeling she was going to tell me my choice wasn’t available anymore, but it turned out she merely corrected her original description of “aloo palak” as a potato and pork curry, by explaining that it was, in truth, a potato and spinach curry. 

 

Life is full of crushing but meaningless blows, as Bob Dylan once quipped.

 

The wife and I came to Deerpark Café as an impromptu Sunday lunch date thing and it as a good thing I phoned at about 12h30 to secure a table. The joint was, metaphorically, jumping when we arrived. It was cold and wet out. Almost no customers sat outside and I doubt that any kids were running about in the park next door.

 

Inside, though, it was abuzz with happy patrons. 

 

Deerpark Café and The Woodlands Eatery once sat cheek by jowl in a building that was torn down a replaced by a large condominium building that looms over the neighbourhood, and Deerpark Café is back where it used to be whereas Woodlands Eatery has relocated to a space around the corner from our abode.

 

The previous iteration of Deerpark Café was, to put it mildly, downmarket and the interior always looked half-finished to me.  The best tables were outside.

 

The current version has been upscaled and upskilled into a progressive, modern bistro and just feels so on trend and much more homely, especially on a cold, wet day like today.

 

The menu card contains a selection of light meals and pizzas. The substantial dishes of the day are displayed on black boards.

 

A second curry option was chicken jalfrezi, and other options were a beef burger, warm roasted cauliflower and chickpea salad, lamb pita and babaganoush, pork kakuni, Mexican beef short ribs and butternut panzerotti.

A brief caveat: the coffee was too acidic for our taste and the Earl Grey tea is by Twining. In my book, Lipton’s is the superior brand.

 

On the other hand, the food was superb.

 

The wife ordered the avocado, bacon and Feta pizza (R135)

and my choice was the spinach version of aloo palak, with paratha and sambal (R135).

 

The pizza  was a gorgeous thing indeed, with a delicate, thin, crisp crust and sumptuous toppings. The wife couldn’t finish all of it and I had some, which was, how shall I put it delicately, the best damn pizza I’d had in a while . Okay, so I don’t eat a lot of pizza anymore but this one was seriously good and if all of them are this tasty, Deerpark Café is worth visiting just for that.

 

My curry was splendid too, with just a subtle hint of chilli heat. My only issue is that  I prefer my paratha crisper than this one, which although properly flaky, seemed to have been steamed to heat it up.

 

Yet again, my sweat treat was a disappointing slice of carrot cake (R58)  that lacked deep carrot taste or flavour and was just moist enough on the sharp end of the slice but decidedly dry on the outer, thicker edge. 

 

The wife’s sweet was a wonderful glass of hot chocolate (R38) that, she says, was redolent of Nutella.

 

The restaurant was very busy, with kids and dogs too, and quite comforting on this kind of proper winter’s day. The service was friendly and efficient.

 

The bill came to R448 before tip.

 

We used to come to the old Deerpark Café with our Yorkies and therefore always sat outside and the low rent interior wasn’t too irksome. The new, improved establishment is much more inviting.