(St James)
We stopped in here on our way to Tintswalo at Boulders for a weekend getaway. This place is a bit of a mixed bag but delightful all the same.
We went there on a Friday afternoon. They didn’t have waiter service – you still get to choose from a very tempting menu and the staff bring everything to your table, but I just found the order at the counter thing a bit weird. Anyway, that made me apprehensive but what the hell, we’d driven around looking for a place we hadn’t been before and we’d settled on this one, so in for a penny, in for a kilogram, we ordered a few small plates and a glass of wine, and I held my breath holding on to the fact that whatever lunch was like, there was still a weekend of good food and wine ahead of us at Tintswalo. (The Tintswalo review will follow. One thing at a time…patience…)
I was very pleasantly surprised. We ordered calamari and squid heads, tempura cauliflower, and soup & quesadilla. Everything was superb. The Tempura Cauliflower was the star of the show by a long stretch of coastal railway. If the help-yourself start to the restaurant experience was a 1 star, the food was 4 stars. Really unexpectedly top notch.
Then on the way out, I ogled at the confectionery counter – the cakes and croissants looked absolutely scrumptious. I saw a cup of coffee and a biscuit go past to another table and the biscuit looked big enough to stop a truck from rolling down a St James hill.
Definitely worth a visit if you’re looking for something different from the usual Kalk Bay offerings. Just a little further upstream and away from the crowds. I’d go back just for the Tempura Cauliflower and another shot at that confectionery counter.
Links: Folk Cafe
