Hoghouse Bakery Café

 10 February 2024

 

HOGHOUSE BAKERY CAFÉ

42 Morningside Street, Ndabeni, Cape Town 

 

I can hardly think of a less enticing exterior environment, an industrial park with a campus of fugly face brick buildings, for one of the best café experiences in Cape Town. The site suited the original Hoghouse Brewing Company and even, to a degree, the beer & meat eatery the owners started many years ago, and that seems to be a Friday night afterthought now.  

 

Then followed the bakery, with the absolute best pasteis de nata in town, expanded to a sizable restaurant, still serving excellent baked goods but also all-day breakfast (including three bun based dishes), tartines, toasties, things in bowls, stuff on buns  and sides.  The latter three are available only from 11h00, though.

 

The dining space is a wonderful combination of the original industrial setting softened with delicate design touches that subtly change the feel to comfort yet reminds one of the less glamorous past. It’s large yet somehow cosy. It should feel like a works canteen but instead the feel and vibe is upmarket cool.

 

There’s lots of banquette seating and a variety of tables sizes with simple, elegant wooden tops, and low key decoration on the walls. 

 

There is also covered bench seating outside, at the side of the  parking area, which might be for smokers. A garden setting it ain’t although it does remind me of some desperately sad beer gardens I’ve seen, and avoided, in the UK.

 

This was the wife’s third visit (she gets around) and my first, so she already knew what she wanted, which was the H.O.G. (brioche) bun with scrambled eggs, gammon, Emmenthaler cheese, tomato chutney and salsa verde. (R130) After her previous visit, just last weekend, she came home raving about the bountiful beauty of this bun.

 

Life is full of crushing but meaningless blows (said Bob Dylan once) and today one such cruelty smote the wife. There was no gammon.

 

Her Plan B was the BBQ brekkie bun with scrambled eggs, spiced pork belly,  avo and a coriander sauce.(R120)

Seeing as how it was well past 11h00, it was the organic, smoked pulled pork bun with red cabbage slaw, b & b pickles and Dijon aioli (R140) for me.

 

The two dishes were indistinguishable on their respective buns and it’s not a visual treat by any means but, as they say, taste trumps looks.

 

Sadly, the BBQ pork bun did not make the wife a happy bunny. She didn’t care for the spicy sauce with the belly, which looked like and had the texture of bacon.

 

I was chowing down with deep satisfaction on the sublimely smoky pulled pork but we did a fair exchange. She took half of my food and gave me most of hers, retaining only some of the egg.  As you might think, I had belly full and she looked and felt like a starving waif.

 

The wife tried to restore balance in her life by ordering a bowl of twice fried hand cut chips and truffle aioli (R60).  For some unaccountable reason, and though I certainly wasn’t hungry anymore, I ended up eating most of the most beautifully crisp fries dipped in the delectable aioli.

 

The wife consoled herself with the pasteis de nata of the month, a cheesecake concoction, which she adored. 

Me, I’m a traditionalist and prefer the simple, old-fashioned custard version.  We ordered two pasteis and two custard and apple Danishes to take home. It’s advisable to order such take aways early; they go fast.

 

The pasteis’ casing is flaky and crisp and the smooth, creamy, intensely sublime custard is perfectly caramelised.  It is a supreme act of will power to have only one at a time. The substantial Danish, likewise, has beautifully light, crisp pastry, an abundance of light, creamy custard and almost sweet apples that retain some firmness.  In this instance, it would be a brave person, or a pro glutton, to attempt to eat more than one at a time. 

 

The bill, including coffees, came to R602,00 before tip.

 

The service was friendly (even with some banter) and efficient, the coffee was good and the food was, I thought, excellent  even if the pork belly wasn’t to the wife’s taste.

 

The Hoghouse Bakery Café is clearly hugely popular on a Saturday.  Who would’ve thought that Ndabeni would be a desirable brunch destination?  However, if one thinks about it, it’s only about an easy 15 minute drive from the City Bowl, and I suppose as easily from other parts of the city. Well worth a visit and definitely on the “must return soon” list (we’ll call ahead to confirm the availability of the gammon).