Lunching at Parks Café in Wynberg

We don't get out much. No ser­i­ously, doing lunch is tan­tamount to a social occa­sion we man­age it so sel­dom. When one works from home, lunch hour is some­thing you snatch on the run whilst pick­ing up the wee one and sprint­ing into the local bakery  double time for fresh bread!

But yes­ter­day we man­aged to have what def­in­itely qual­i­fies as a civ­il­ised lunch time inter­lude at Parks Café, Wynberg. The address is a little mis­lead­ing, as Parks Café actu­ally rests on Constantia Main Road, more-or-less across the road from Norman Henshilwood High School, in a simply beau­ti­ful restored Victorian villa (you prob­ably drive past here on numer­ous occa­sions, but next time, swing inside – you'll not be disappointed) ...

I was inter­ested to read fel­low blog­ger Fred Roed's write up on the Parks Café's cof­fee. Whilst I am far from a cof­fee afi­cion­ado (I sadly drink mine decaf­fein­ated, do not gasp!) Fred is per­petu­ally on the hunt for the Great South African Cup of Coffee. Fred was more than impressed with Park Café's cap­pucci­nos. He waxed lyr­ical about well-balanced foam and rich aroma. He also men­tions the hemp bis­cotti treat that comes as an extra and like­wise accom­pan­ied my herbal tea, so I can attest to agree­ing with his take on its num­mi­ness (although Fred would never stoop to using such inan­it­ies to describe a biscuit).

Coffee aside, the build­ing itself deserves more men­tion. It was built at the turn of the cen­tury by a doc­tor, who used to con­sult from home in what is now described as the 'cloak­room' and which I've taken to mean the loo. Head off there to wash your hands and you'll see a par­tic­u­larly beau­ti­ful floor. In 1906 the prop­erty, which must have been a bit big­ger than it is today, was sold to the Retief broth­ers who ran a for­age and grain store to feed passing trade, much the same as today except that then it was horses on the way to Constantia val­ley from Cape Town, not south­ern sub­urbs' cli­entèle in need of a cof­fee fix.

The house then passed on to black­smith Paulse in 1938 who, as his title sug­gests, shod horses and fixed carts until the smoke he pro­duced from his forge was deemed 'undesir­able' and closed in 1948 (it appears we wor­ried more then about car­bon emis­sions than now).

The house finally ended up as part of Zonnestraal Farm, set a little higher up the hill behind the house, and not only is the res­taur­ant run from here but Hemporium shares the space and sells a selec­tion of accessor­ies, clothes, paper and cos­met­ics all made from hemp. Interestingly all the seats in Parks Café are covered in hemp fab­ric (should you be inter­ested in this fab­ric as an envir­on­ment­ally altern­at­ive to cotton).

We had excel­lent meals, but before I launch into a descrip­tion of our food, let me just inter­ject and tell you that you can design your own break­fast here, which they serve until 11.45am. And you can enjoy all of the items on the break­fast menu accom­pan­ied with hemp nut toast. Otherwise settle for one of their omelettes or crois­sants served in vari­ous ways, all of them mouth water­ingly tempting.

But we were too late for break­fast. And besides, once I'd read the lunch menu, I was all in favour of try­ing their roas­ted but­ter­nut and baby leaf salad with cucum­ber, cherry toma­toes, goats cheese and soya sauce roas­ted nuts! It was as good as it sounds.

It isn't often that one eats a salad where you don't have to squint to find at least two of the ingredi­ents. And in this case, there were gen­er­ous help­ings of goats cheese, but­ter­nut and roas­ted nuts, and the salad leaves were really fresh baby leaf, which I love. And what an amaz­ing com­bin­a­tion for a salad, which the owner, Michelle, appar­ently designed her­self, for her­self. Enough said.

My part­ner opted for the veget­arian health bur­ger (made with pulses, seeds, hempnuts, but­ter­nut and onion) with red pep­per pesto, lettuce and tomato. This all arrived accom­pan­ied by chunky potato wedges. I settled for just one taste as my part­ner, upon tast­ing his first mouth­ful, was very quick to point out the meas­ure of his appet­ite and the deli­cious­ness of the burger.

Choose from homemade veget­able soup with homemade hemp bread, potato with avo­cado dip, veget­arian pasta pock­ets, beef bur­ger (in much the same vein as the vege bur­ger but with a wal­nut pesto), chicken bur­ger with brie etc. and any num­ber of filled ciabat­tas. There are also other salad options that include a smoked or char-grilled chicken salad, and a smoked sal­mon salad with avo­cado (when in season).

There is a lot to please and little to dis­please at Parks Café, espe­cially as the weather has improved and sit­ting in the inner court­yard is an option. For those after cof­fee or tea, don't leave without sampling the baked cheese­cake or car­rot cake, or if you just want a little some­thing to nibble, then the chocol­ate chip and hemp nut cookie is a less robust option.

An extra note:
You can use the venue for a meet­ing, but book the meet­ing room ahead of time.

Address and Contact Details:
Parks Café, 114 Main Road, Constantia, Cape Town
Telephone: +27 (0)21 797‑8202.

Photographs of Parks Café — Click thumb­nails to view the gallery:

Useful Links:
Wynberg Attractions
Things to Do in Wynberg
Wynberg Accommodation
Cape Town Accommodation