Cape Town Life Style
Coffee, Cafes and Bakeries in Cape Town
Cape Town takes coffee more seriously than almost anywhere else in the country, and the morning here is a real meal rather than something you do standing up. The city roasts its own beans, bakes its own bread and builds whole neighbourhoods around the hour between eight and eleven.
This is the shorter list: the roasters worth crossing town for, the rooms to sit in for a long breakfast, the bakeries with queues, and the two in Stellenbosch worth the drive.
01
The roasters
Truth Coffee on Buitenkant Street is the one everybody has heard of, and the steampunk room is genuinely worth seeing once even if the queue is a nuisance. It roasts on site. Kamili on Long Street is the quieter, more serious version and the one locals go back to. Anthony’s Golden Cup is the small operation that takes the bean more seriously than the furniture.
Shift Espresso Bar on the Atlantic Seaboard is the specialist option on that side of the mountain, and Dos-Tea in the city is the one to know if somebody in the party does not drink coffee.
02
The long breakfast
Hemelhuijs on Waterkant Street is the most beautiful room in the city to eat breakfast in and the cooking matches it. The Power and The Glory is the Kloof Nek institution that has been doing the same thing for years and does not need to change. Loading Bay Eatery and Labotessa are the De Waterkant and Church Square versions of the same instinct.
Our Local on Kloof Street and Our Local in Sea Point split the difference between a cafe and a restaurant. Arthur’s Mini Super in Sea Point is the neighbourhood counter the neighbourhood actually uses.
03
Bread and sweet things
Jason Bakery is the one with the queue, and the queue is justified. Butter has branches in the City Bowl and Sea Point and does the pastry version of the same idea. New York Bagels does what it says and is the answer to a specific kind of homesickness.
Honest Chocolate on Wale Street makes its own chocolate in small batches and the cafe behind the shop is a better mid-afternoon stop than most coffee bars. Mozart on Church and Kleinsky’s Delicatessen in Sea Point cover the deli end, and Giovanni’s Deli World in Green Point is the Italian institution that has outlasted most of its competition.
04
Worth the drive to Stellenbosch
SCHOON on Church Street in Stellenbosch is a bakery first and a cafe second, and the bread is the best argument in this guide for getting in a car. Meraki is a few minutes away and does the long-breakfast version.
Both are easy to fold into a Winelands day rather than making a trip of their own, which is how most people end up at them.
A note on timing
Almost everything here is a morning business. Most of these close by three and several close by two, and weekends are busier than weekdays in the City Bowl but quieter in Sea Point.
Bread sells out. Jason Bakery in particular is a mid-morning proposition rather than a lunchtime one, and the same is true of Butter at both branches.
If you want the wider food picture, Where to Eat in Cape Town is the gateway, and The Best Markets in Cape Town covers the weekend version of the same hour.