Bellevue Café

Bellevue Café in Kloof is something of a local favourite, with its beautifully designed spaces, indoor/outdoor appeal and double volume interior. Popular with families, it’s a great place to sit back and relax while enjoying the dappled shade under the trees on the patio. After a meal, there is also a shop next door which is full of interesting gifts, and a gallery above the restaurant, both of which add to the arty, hipster vibe of the place.

The café is open all day, but we were there on a mission for brunch. The breakfast menu is available until 11.30, and features a pitcher of orange juice paired with a bottle of champagne, so you know that they take mornings seriously.

There is a fairly extensive menu that takes in all of the usual suspects, as well as offering some more interesting choices. I opted for the Bellevue Billionaire’s Club (with that name, how could you not?) which involves truffled scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato chutney and parmesan on rye. The rest of the brunching party each went their separate ways; one choosing an exotic poached eggs, avocado hummus, bacon and dukka on rye creation; another going with classic French toast and bacon, and the last with the spicy chicken livers on toast, topped with a fried egg.

The Billionaires Club was pretty good, with creamy scrambled eggs, albeit without any detectable hint of truffle, making it maybe more of a Millionaires Club. The poached egg creation had eggs that were perfectly done, soft and golden – although the hummus seemed to have disappeared, and the dukka, which was such an interesting sounding addition, was simply a sprinkled garnish, rather than an integral part of the dish.

The French toast and bacon proved something of a winner, with a generous heap of moist, fluffy French toast, piles of bacon and plenty of maple syrup. The chicken livers were also well received, being spicy as advertised and served in a rich sauce which soaked nicely into the toast.

Coffee was good – try the sweet and strong Turkish coffee, and orange juice arrives in enormous glasses (seriously, you could share if you were so inclined). We stayed on, lingering in the winter sun, and eventually left before we were tempted to move on to lunch…