Today is Worker's Day and having a day off in the middle of the week is something our forefathers should have fought for as a right and not only left for public holidays to decide. A perfect opportunity to test a new restaurant and this time with a bit of pre-investigation. The idea was to spend the day at Muizenberg and incorporate it with another breakfast review. Checking the internet before venturing out makes it actually simpler than driving around and not knowing where to stop. I had three restaurants lined up in the area of Surfer's Corner, but the menu of two of those made me feel like I will be ripped off again, so I went for the Gaslight Café right on the beachfront situated in between the Surf Shack and Lifestyle Surf shops.
What convinced on this restaurant was the fact that they had a breakfast called "Surfer's Choice" and the fact that they did not have a web site or pictures of their food on the internet. The pictures of the food from the other two restaurants were those typical arty-farty concoctions styles where you pay for what you see and not what you eat. Secondly it looked to be a very normal no-frills hangout for people with sandy feet and wet hair. My kind of place. The prices on the menu was also very reasonable. There are very few places in Cape Town where you can still find a coffee for under ten bucks and a Latté for thirteen bucks. Usually a Latté ranges from R18 to R25 and sometimes even up to R30. The menu I found on the internet was a bit outdated, but the prices were still acceptable. Anchovy Toast for R16 and the breakfast of my choice for the day, The Gaslight Breakfast, a mere R33. For this exact breakfast you will pay R45 bucks at the Wimpy. My wife pointed out that everything was served with chips, even the omelettes. That actually made me feel even more convinced that I was at the right place. To me that is in line with what I would like to see at a restaurant that I believe caters for surfers. After a good surf session you want a breakfast that can fill your stomach and not empty your pockets at the same time. The Gaslight Café seemed to be such a place where that is indeed not going to happen.
I always wonder how a restaurant situated on a prime spot keep its prices so low, but when you look at their interior decorations you might get a clue. Basic and simple, nothing exorbitant or over the top. The restaurant has a smoking side with a bar and some couches which obviously makes more money than the other side where the table is. Obviously more money and time has been spend on the bar area, but when people come in with wet feet to grab a snack you don't want fancy chairs and expensive carpets.
This will definitely be a regular breakfast spot for me in the future, seeing that I will have regular surfing weekends at Muizenberg. I will just try and do the surfing BEFORE the breakfast and not the other way around like I did on Worker's Day. In all fairness it was a rather flat day and did not take much effort to get onto the board, even after the huge meal...
