Life's a beach: Budget Breakfast Review

CaffeNeo

There are parts of Cape Town which I don't see very often. Actually there are quite a few places which I never visit, but this one is strange in the sense that it really has a nice touristy vibe and I love to hang out in Cape Town where I can feel like I am on vacation myself. I have been there recently though when I had a kiddies party at the Blue Train which is in the same vicinity close to the Mouille Point Lighthouse. Just opposite the ligthouse along Beach Road are quite a few trendy restaurants and coffee shops, much in the same fashion as Carlucci's. Only without the surfers and kite surfers. The people here seems to be a bit more classy. Not that I want to say that surfers cannot have class, but you will know what I mean when you see the sand on surfer's feet which they carry into Carlucci's.

Mouille Point Lighthouse

Outside on the deck

So, I was passing through Green Point when a sudden hunger struck me and I knew this was another opportunity for a quick budget breakfast review. I was sure that "budget" would be difficult to find here, but if you can get that in Bloubergstrand then you might be lucky here as well. I stopped at CaffeNeo which had a lovely deck outside facing the Mouille Point lighthouse. The weather was nice and I was not the least bit surprized to find all the tables on the ouside already occupied. I jumped for a table closer to the side when a lady put her cup down after her last sip of coffee. I think she is still in shock thinking that she was about to be mugged, but the outside tables seems to be much more popular than at Carlucci's where the wind cools down your breakfast before you have even reached for the salt grinder. One point in favour of CaffeNeo.

The Breakfast Sandwich

Hot Greek Breakfast

I also wasn't really surprized to see that they didn't have "budget" breakfasts. The cheapest was a "Milky breakfast with berries" for R36, but that my wife can make for me at home for R5. Besides, if I am not doing bacon and eggs at home then I am on Oats, and that is starting to get to me. Why would I have it now? The menu is written on a black board, which compared to restaurants which have printed menus means that they can change the prices whenever they feel like it. Looking at the board I could see that there has been some wiping off where the prices were written and I am sure that the prices were altered for the tourist season. But whatever it may be, the breakfast I was looking for was rather on the expensive side as could be expected. I settled for the "Hot Greek Breakfast" with the normal stuff you usually find in the English breakfast, so I couldn't figure out why they call it "Greek". Maybe the Haloumi cheese had something to do with it because I have never seen that on my English breakfast plates before. Well, for R55 I wasn't disappointed. The breakfast was really nice and there was quite a lot of bacon which is obviously the more expensive item on the plate. I guess the setting and the mushrooms accounted for the rest of the R55. The "Breakfast Sandwich" for R50 also looked very good. You actually get two sandwiches and I really think that if they give you a one-for-R25 option then this would've been a really good "budget breakfast" item on the menu.

So, the staff was very friendly and the service was good. The food was also good as well as the atmosphere. If CaffeNeo had a budget option, had been closer to where I live and maybe had some surfers hanging out there it could've easily toppled Carlucci's from its number one spot in Cape Town. If I had to choose though I would still go to Carlucci's, so I guess based on my criteria it would only be fair to rate it just below Carlucci's. It gets an 8. Definitely a place you can go check out of you feel trendy, drive a nice car and carry a laptop (it also has WiFi). I had none of those and didn't feel like an intruder.