Rise and shine, Cape Town …

Brunch is, almost by defin­i­tion, a lazy meal. It usu­ally involves wak­ing up late on a week­end morn­ing and eas­ing ever-so-slowly into the day with a leis­urely, often dec­ad­ent break­fast. Which means it might just be the per­fect Capetonian meal­time, bow­ing only to the not-quite-late-afternoon cock­tail hour, and maybe not even then. Having picked up on this fact, more than a few Cape Town eat­er­ies cash in on the tra­di­tion by offer­ing a pleth­ora of scrump­tious break­fast spe­cials – most of them avail­able till some­time in the late afternoon ...

The idea for this blog actu­ally came about dur­ing just such a lux­uri­ously late break­fast on an unseason­ably sunny winter’s day in Kalk Bay. The place? Olympia Bakery (Find Olympia Cafe at 134 Main Road in Kalk Bay or phone: +27 (0)21 788‑6396).

Though a 20– to 30-minute drive from the city centre, Olympia is always busy. And small won­der — such mouth-watering con­fec­tion­ary as comes out of its ovens (to make no men­tion of the freshly baked bread) would be reason to drive a whole lot fur­ther. A sweet tooth like mine is over­whelmed by the col­lec­tion of bis­cuits, muffins, cakes, crois­sants, Danishes, brownies, and whatever else you care to name, but the café does ‘proper’ food as well of course, and no less deli­cious for not being sugar-filled. Add to this the feel­ing of well-being that hanging out in pic­tur­esque Kalk Bay always brings, and you’ve got your­self one great spot for a lazy breakfast.

Saturday and Sunday morn­ings in Cape Town see a large por­tion of (usu­ally hun­gover) loc­als mob­bing the street-side patio of Arnold’s in Kloof Street (Find Arnold's at 60 Kloof Street, Gardens or phone +27 (0)21 434‑4344). Its chilled vibe, cent­ral loc­a­tion, friendly staff and simple yet gen­er­ous fare score it points with fickle Capetonians, who hate any­thing that tries too hard.

Constantly win­ning it new con­verts, as well as keep­ing reg­u­lars return­ing, is Mike’s Breakfast – two eggs, bacon, grilled tomato, ostrich wors (that’s saus­age by the way) and toast, for R19. Variations come in the form of the cheaper Early Bird spe­cial (R9.50 for the same break­fast provided you’re there before 7am) and the Double Mike’s – self-explanatory, except you get potato wedges instead of doub­ling up on the tomato, and it’ll cost you R38. Breakfast, in true Mother City style, is served until 5pm.

A stone’s throw away from Arnold’s (lit­er­ally – the two are sep­ar­ated by the entrance to a block of flats), is Café Sofia (60 Kloof Street, Gardens or phone: 021 426‑0801), a more recent addi­tion to the Mother City eat­ery scene but one that’s settled in nicely and gained pop­ular­ity. Though Sofia is a fran­chise (with other branches in Camps Bay, Green Point, Rondebosch and Seapoint) it scores points for not hav­ing that chain-store feel. Decorated in an eclectic 70s style, the res­taur­ant spe­cial­ises in meze and tapas, but their break­fast spe­cials are good too: reg­u­lar English and cof­fee for twenty bucks, an omelette with toast and cof­fee for R25, or cof­fee and a muffin for R15.

Situated oppos­ite the wildly pop­u­lar Rafiki’s on Kloof Nek (Find Rafiki's at 13B Kloof Nek Road or phone +27 (0)21 426‑4731), you’d expect a small eat­ery like Beleza to struggle for cli­en­tele. You’d be wrong. An extens­ive (and I really mean extens­ive) brunch menu pulls crowds onto its wooden deck­ing, and at R12 for a reg­u­lar English, they’ve got the cheapest break­fast in town.

Budget break­fasts are huge with Capetonians, but if you can afford to blow the bank on this all-important first meal of the day, most of the Mother City’s hotels offer the pub­lic some ser­i­ously dec­ad­ent buf­fet break­fasts with all the frills. My per­sonal favour­ite has to be the Winchester Mansions Sunday Jazz Branch, an affair of epic pro­por­tions accom­pan­ied by easy-listening, live jazz, a glass of bub­bly and a com­pli­ment­ary morn­ing paper, all for R195 a head.

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For vis­it­ors to Cape Town these pages may be of use to help plan your trip:
Cape Town Attractions
Things to Do in Cape Town
Cape Town Hotels
Cape Town Accommodation