Don't waffle at the Syrian Deli

 15 July 2024

 

SYRIAN DELI, previously French Tacos

Checkers Centre, Kloof Street, Cape Town

 

I’d always been intrigued by the concept of French tacos, though they seemed to be just crepes by another, trendy name, yet never got around to check out the joint. 

 

Now, despite a French Tacos sign on the exterior façade, this establishment has been rebranded and rebooted as Syrian Deli, though there seems to be hardly anything Syrian, never mind deli, about the place other than a selection of hookahs on a display shelf and small tagines (Moroccan, innit) used as sugar bowls. 

 

It's a sad-looking establishment with orange topped tables, both outside and inside and three booths inside, all of which look like items bought at the sale in execution of another, defunct, eatery’s assets. The service counter also looks kind of second hand.

 

The cold clear light of day isn’t kind to the décor.

 

The available meals consist of beef or chicken shwarmas, a falafel wrap, beef or chicken bowls, unidentified wings and three combos that combine a main course, fries and a cool drink. Fine dining it ain’t but it doesn’t seem inviting on a low budgie level either.

 

The wife and I popped in for coffee and a waffle, which we’d been craving for a while, after some business in the centre. Our choices of dessert were pancakes (flapjacks), waffles or crepes, each of them served with 3 toppings and 3 sauces and you can add more toppings for R15 a serving.

 

We ordered waffles (R110 each). Two of the sauces weren’t available and most of the possible toppings, none of which are listed on the menu, were available either (apparently because they ran out of these over the weekend). I prefer simplicity and wanted just Nutella sauce on my waffle.

The wife asked for the same sauce plus fruit, chocolate chips and Jelly Tots. 

 

Even though we were the only customers ordering eats (two others had been there since before we stepped inside and were just chatting and giggling by now), it seemed to take an extraordinarily long time to make the waffles. We’d speculated that they would’ve been taken ready made from a fridge and simply heated up but perhaps the delay was caused by the process of making waffles from scratch, well, from pre-prepared batter anyhow.

 

The square waffles resemble Belgian waffles and weren’t too shabby though they were too doughy and the crust wasn’t crisp at all. 

 

The wife didn’t get her chocolate chips or Jelly Tots; the server had indicated that they were available. She made a sad face and ate only half of her portion. She’d once lived in Belgium for a time, consuming many a waffle, and this offering did not hit Le Spot Belgique.

There is an Illy coffee bean feeder at the coffee machine but it would seem that it may not have been Illy in our cups, alternatively, it was a very weak version of a coffee brand we know and love.  Not exactly satisfactory.

 

The wife always granularly examines restaurant bills and her eagle eyes immediately spotted that we were being charged R40 for a cappuccino where the menu clearly specifies R30. The server blamed “the system” but did correct the error.

 

The bill came to R280,00 before tip.

 

The service was very friendly and one can’t blame the server for the issues, I guess, but this was an experience we “can’t wait to never speak of again”, to quote Deadpool, one of the wife’s absolute favourite movie characters (or is it really just Ryan Reynolds?)

 

The joint looks from poverty and the food offerings are barely at the level of the kind of thing you might crave when you’re wasted and emotionally exhausted after a hard night’s clubbing. If your significant other brings you here on what you thought would be a hot date, they clearly have no further use for the relationship.