Tell the Truth Coffee Roasting.

 26 June 2024

 

TRUTH COFFEE ROASTING

36 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

 

I’ve heard of people applauding the sunset at Santorini and at the end of movies but until a woman went “Steampunk!” and clapped her hands, I’d never heard of anyone applauding a coffee shop. Tourists, eh?

 

The wife and I were doing the “tourist in our own city” thing by popping down to Truth for breakfast for the first time since pre-Covid. It’s shocking to think that we date so many of our experiences by referring to “pre-Covid” but it’s true; there seems to be a blank gap of two years in-between then and now.

 

Other than the covered outside seating on the pavement, I’ve no idea whether there’ve been any changes to the place since our previous visit. In the dimly lit interior, it all seemed the same.

 

I guess the semi-darkness is great for steampunk atmosphere (and if there’s loadshedding, non-one would notice the difference) but it makes it challenging for me, for example, to read the menu and, if like today, the wife sat with her back to the windows, I couldn’t see her face at all and I felt as if I were chatting to person who didn’t; want to reveal her identity.

 

The menu is in the form of a four-page faux newspaper on very thin, almost translucent, paper which is difficult to read not only because there’s so little light but there’s also the strike through of whatever is printed on the back of the page.

 

The coffee is eye-wateringly expensive. An espresso, admittedly a full small cup, costs R41, a flat white is R51 and a cortado is R48. Allegedly, the truth shall set you free but Truth sets a high fee.  

The wife ordered the bacon eggs Benedict (R145) and my choice was the slow cooked beef on baguette (R130.)

 

The Benedict was very good, with thick cut bacon and eggs that weren’t exactly runny but still kind of oozing-jammy, though without a satisfactory quantity of the good Hollandaise sauce, and the delicate sweetness of the roasted tomatoes made her palate dance an exhilarated fandango.  The sauce issue aside, it was the best Benedict the wife’d had for a while.

My choice was not the best dish to attempt to eat with a knife and fork. The chewy baguette was difficult to cut, even with the serrated knife the server kindly exchanged for the standard knife, and the toppings simply fell off.  I should’ve made a baguette sub, grabbed it with both hands and eaten it like that.  There was a good quantity of well-cooked beef, with plenty pickles, horse radish and schmaltz for unctuousness.  There aren’t any bold flavours but it’s tasty. 

We shared a slice of Opera cake (R95) with our closing coffees. The cake had a good crumb, wasn’t overly sweet and the balance of cake and cream was perfect.

 

There was one niggle with the service. The wife asked for some hot milk on the side when she ordered her cortado. When the latter came to the table, there was no additional hot milk and she repeated her request to the server who clearly either promptly forgot about it or ignored it and never brought the milk.

 

The bill came to R561 before tip.

 

About 40 minutes after our arrival, groups of tourists (the applauding person was one) started coming in and that and the pricing confirm that the joint, which was once voted or acclaimed as “the best coffee shop in Cape Town/the world” is very much your local tourist trap, even if the service and food is quite good. I wouldn’t rush here for the coffee though; it’s not as amazing as the prices might suggest.

 

We like the get up of Truth; it’s certainly one of kind in this town and the buzz is entertaining.   There were some people with MacBooks but I doubt that it’s truly the right place for people who want to work in coffee shops.  Truth is far more appealing for people watching and basking in the steampunk vibe.