Putting in another Shift.

 13 April 2025

 

SHIFT ESPRESSO BAR 

2 Deer Park Drive, Highlands Estate, Cape Town

 

The Shift group has at least 13 outlets in the Cape Peninsula and probably aims at rivalling Bootlegger in the ubiquity stakes; the premium coffee shop one could, uh, shift to if Bootlegger becomes boring.

 

This Shift Espresso Bar is supremely dog friendly, is ideal for MacBook users and other Kaffee Klatschers, has good food, good coffee and cheerful and efficient service.  One can say much the same for Deer Park Café a few metres downslope but the advantage of Shift is that there’s a higher probability of getting a good table inside on a challenging weather day.

 

Von-Mari loves the cheesy chicken tramezzini and fries combo (R135)

and my “classic” eggs Benedict (R98) was tasty, filling and a  bargain at the price.

The eggs were perfectly poached and there was plenty of meaty bacon on the plump English muffins. The Hollandaise sauce was in rather short supply and lacked the tang I crave but that’s the typical issue with eggs Benedict in this City and Shift’s offering is superior to most.

 

Von-Mari prefers the coffee-heavy flat white (R38) and my jam is the milk-heavy cappuccino (R40 for the large cup)  but we agree that either coffee is excellent. Shift sells house brand coffee beans.

The one downside is that one can’t necessarily trust the pastries. Von-Mari wanted to try a slice of carrot cake but I warned her that the carrot cake I’d had at the Kloof Street outlet wasn’t very good, just on the cusp of dry, and remarked that I’ve learnt not to order cake in Cape Town in general, unless you are a risk taker.

 

Instead, I got a pasteis de nata (R35), which was also a disappointment from the crust, stodgy instead of  crisp and flaky,  and with an indifferent, blandly sweet custard filling. The Hoghouse’s pasteis de nata is still the star turn for me.

 

Von-Mari took an almond croissant (R45) home, as she did at our previous visit, and this time she was disappointed by a dry, obviously stale croissant.

 

The bill came to R469,00 before tip.

 

We like it at Shift, it’s a lovely space and hasn’t yet been too crowded and if the pastries are a tad dodgy, the food is excellent and good value for money. The coffee is life affirming.  

 

Best of all, we can bring the Yorkies inside on a less than pleasant day, the servers indulge their idiosyncrasies, though both were very subdued today, and  other patrons think that they’re cute.

 

It’s not mandatory to bring either a dog or a MacBook to gain entry and I’d highly recommend this Shift Espresso Bar  to anyone looking for a coffee and/or bite to eat in this part of the City Bowl.