Shakshouka and cheesecake at Mila & Von

 6 June 2025

MILA & VON

7 Church Street, Stellenbosch

Another day, another excursion to Stellenbosch and the opportunity to explore more of the culinary smorgasbord the town offers.

On my previous visit to my old hometown, I ate brunch at Sofia, Mila & Von’s next door neighbour, and today I popped  in at the latter in  a different section of the repurposed Stellenbosch Distriksbank building. Their  front door on the corner of Church and Bird Streets, used to be the bank’s main entrance.

The space is a long room, with the service counter, kitchen and toilets neatly fitted into it. Going by die shelving dangling over the service counter, stocked with many, many bottles and glasses, the joint has a liquor licence.

The style is simple, modern bistro with the original floorboards echoed in the plain wooden tables. There is banquette seating at three different spots along the walls, some of which  are plastered and some bare brick walls and nicely decorated with mostly black and white prints.

It's a very comfy, welcoming vibe, and, while I was there, the clientele was a mix of young (local) women and tourists, plus three thirtysomething bros having rad discussions about running, hiking and cycling in the hills and valleys around Stellenbosch. I was incredibly happy to be too old for that shit.

The  breakfast menu consists of only  8 dishes. See menu herewith.

I hadn’t had shakshouka (R115) for a while and the addition of chorizo intrigued me.

The presentation was like no shakshouka I’d had before, with the slices of chorizo acting as tiny umbrellas covering the onion and pepper and with the two fried (not poached, as I’d expected) eggs hidden under the slices of toast and resting directly on the plate, at the edge of the vegetable mix that had pushed up to leave a Cornish pasty shaped empty space on the porcelain.

It's a good, spicy dish with eggs cooked to order.  The rather bland chorizo added little more than bulk. 

The pastries and cakes in the display were very enticing;

there were four different types of cheesecake and a carrot cake. I tried the alleged tiramisu cheesecake (R82), a good New York style baked cheesecake with a subtle lemon tartness running through it but, disappointingly, the tiramisu element seems to be merely the coffee flavoured top with none of the other characteristic tiramisu flavours. 

The bill, including espresso and cappuccino, came to R263,00 before tip.

Mila & Von is a lovely, comfy café and if the shakshouka is anything to go by, the other food offerings will be good, the coffee is excellent and the service is efficient. The entire Church Street, as one isolated part of town, is a-buzz with eateries, so the competition is possibly fierce but Mila & Von holds its own and then some.