Deus Café, Hout Bay

 19 January 2024

 

DEUS CAFÉ

140 Main Road, Hout Bay, Cape Town

 

Fun fact about Quentin at Oakhurst: despite a claim on the website that it’s open for breakfast every day during the summer, it’s in fact only open for breakfast if they have bookings. If you’re a walk-in patron and there’s been no other bookings, you ain’t breaking your fast there.

 

That’s how we ended up at Deus Café today, as closest second choice after schlepping all the way to Hout Bay on  a blazing hot morning.

 

It was our first visit to the venue for probably 10 years or perhaps longer; the last time was when Kitima occupied the premises.

 

We got a table at the L-shaped banquette booth at the rear of the main room, with the long bar, but there’s also a  lounge type front room and tables outside at the rear.  There are three or four high tables opposite the bar.

 

Our server gave us a menu each but when there was a discussion about certain offerings, we realised that the dishes on my menu were considerably cheaper than the dishes on the other menu. My menu clearly no longer applied and should’ve been destroyed. Sadly, we couldn’t take advantage of this anomaly.

 

The main breakfast items are pretty standard, with the shakshuka and enchilada omlet(sic) being the most exotic offerings, and there are breakfast sandwiches and four health bowls. You can add several “optional extras” if you wish at between R7 (toast) and R25 (mushrooms or wilted spinach).

 

The wife tried the stacked burger (R145) with beef patty, grilled mushroom, grilled cheese and fried egg on a zucchini fritter with romesco sauce.

 

She said the taste was good though the patty wasn’t medium rare as requested and a bit overcooked, the fritter was stodgy and under seasoned and there wasn’t enough romesco sauce to grease a somewhat dry dish.

 

My choice was the Deus Monte Cristo French toast (R145) with bacon, Brie, berry compote and maple syrup.  It was quite tasty with a nice balance of the bacon and sweetness and had just enough syrup and compote to keep the bread from being dry. It’s not the best French toast ever but it was enjoyable.

 

The wife had a small, good lemon meringue tart  and I had a chocolate éclair with dry, brittle choux pastry and very sweet chocolate.  This was a disappointment.

 

The bill, including coffee, came to R544,00 before tip.

 

The coffee was excellent, the service efficient end friendly and I liked the ambience, though, as was the case with Folk Café in St James, Deus Café isn’t so exceptional that we’re likely to make the long journey again just to breakfast there.