{"id":17394,"date":"2011-03-01T11:04:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T09:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=17394"},"modified":"2011-09-26T12:52:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T10:52:14","slug":"restaurant-review-caffe-milano-pasticceria-bar-e-deliziosa-e-amichevole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/restaurant-review-caffe-milano-pasticceria-bar-e-deliziosa-e-amichevole\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Caffe Milano Pasticceria & Bar \u00e8 deliziosa e amichevole!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My first encounter\u00a0with Caffe Milano Pasticceria & Bar\u00a0on Kloof Street, next door to ex hot-spot Manna, for lunch last week made me undecided as to how I felt about it, something that doesn’t happen very often.\u00a0\u00a0 A return visit for breakfast on Saturday morning made me a firm supporter, enjoying the good food, the good service, and extreme friendliness.<\/p>\n

I could not help but compare the new restaurant, the fifth that restaurant mogul Giogio Nava has opened in Cape Town (his other restaurants\u00a0are 95 Keerom Street, Carne, Down South Food Bar<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, and Mozzarella Bar<\/a>,<\/span><\/strong> and he is soon to open an events and entertainment venue in the old Art Deco Land Bank building in Queen Victoria Street)\u00a0with Cassis Paris’ Salon de Th\u00e9<\/a><\/span><\/strong> in Newlands.\u00a0\u00a0Both restaurants focus on the patisserie side of their outlets, and both produce beautiful pastries.\u00a0 While they are freshly baked on the Caffe Milano premises from about 2h00 every morning, the Cassis Paris delicacies are baked at a central factory in Montague Gardens.\u00a0 The product display at Cassis Paris is more attractive, in that it has a larger pastry range, and they are neatly displayed in rows in the display cabinets, while those at Caffe Milano are placed on platters inside the display cabinet.\u00a0\u00a0 As I went to eat after lunchtime, a number of the Caffe Milano pastries on the platters had been sold, and were not replenished, probably waiting for\u00a0the fresh load\u00a0to be\u00a0baked the following day.\u00a0\u00a0 Caffe Milano’s pastry display is inside the restaurant, whereas it is in a\u00a0neighbouring shop at Cassis Paris, with no direct client connection.\u00a0\u00a0 The service is definitely far better at Caffe Milano, and the food, based only on two items at each, definitely was better at Caffe Milano.\u00a0\u00a0 Brand focus is far better at Cassis Paris.\u00a0 Cassis Paris has a marketing edge on Caffe Milano, in that it started brand building three years ago.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While I was well looked after by the waitress Zoe, I felt something was missing in the restaurant, especially given the rave reviews I had read by blogging colleagues.\u00a0 There is no music.\u00a0 There is perhaps too much open space inside the two restaurant sections, which does not create cohesion.\u00a0\u00a0 The tables have wooden tops and with the wooden chairs they did not give me the feeling of the latest elegant Milanese design\u00a0 (Nava’s partner in the Mozzarella Bar, Matteo Amatruda,\u00a0owns\u00a0a+1 in The Foundry, an interior design shop specialising in Italian furniture and lighting,\u00a0and I did not see his decor hand at Caffe Milano).\u00a0 The walls are painted a boring beige, and the staff tops are beige and branded, matched with brown aprons, a not very modern colour combination.\u00a0Downlighters and ordinary looking round lamp shades light up the\u00a0bar\u00a0section and display cabinet area.\u00a0\u00a0 I loved the large LavAzza wall poster (on the right), and would have liked to see more of this theme inside the restaurant – unfortunately the poster is hidden from the view of most clients sitting in the entrance section of the restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0I loved the cake displays in the windows.\u00a0 The menu (with winelist)\u00a0looks boring and old-fashioned with little brown illustrations of food items subtly printed on it, which initially made me think that it had coffee stains on it.\u00a0\u00a0 It also looks cheap, just being an A3 page which looks heavily used, given that the restaurant has only been open for a month.\u00a0 A white paper serviette is on the side plate and the knife and fork are pedestrian.\u00a0 The teaspoon is Italian designed, and looks far better quality.\u00a0\u00a0Zoe brought Morgenster olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the table, the latter bottle having only a last drop in it.\u00a0 A Robertson’s pepper grinder is on the table, as is an ordinary salt cellar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nava arrived and was active behind the counter for a while, but never appears to connect with his customers.\u00a0 Vanessa\u00a0Quellec is the co-owner of Caffe Milano, and the pastry chef, having previously worked at The Roundhouse.\u00a0\u00a0 She has worked in top restaurants in New York, and went to Germany and Italy before opening the restaurant, to learn more about bread baking.\u00a0 She\u00a0had left for the day, I was told, as she works with the baking staff in the early hours of the morning.\u00a0 The chef in the kitchen is\u00a0Brendon Stein, previously having worked at the River Caf\u00e9 at Constantia Uitsig. The manager is Charlene van Heerden, and she was very helpful in proactively opening the pastry display cabinet, so that\u00a0its glass door would not reflect in my photograph.<\/p>\n

Breakfast is served until midday, and offers five options: Kloof Street Breakfast (bacon and eggs) at R45; Eggs Benedict R52, scrambled eggs cost R45, and R55 with bacon, and R 65 if served with salmon; French Toast made from cinnamon and pecan brioche costs R58, and a Muesli Mix with fruit and yoghurt R 55.\u00a0 Breakfast pastries such as croissants filled with almonds, chocolate, apricot jam,\u00a0or cream, or served plain, cannoncino, bombolone as well as sticky buns, range in price between R10 – R18.\u00a0 “Filled” croissants can also be ordered, with mozzarella, parma ham or smoked Norwegian trout on them, costing R30 – R42.\u00a0\u00a0 The LavAzza cappuccino is excellent, and costs R15 (Nava discounts it to R10 at his Mozzarella Bar down the road).\u00a0\u00a0 I loved the neat LavAzza sugar sachet holder, which I have not seen elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lunch is served between midday and 16h00, a decent time range, and a bowl of toasted thin slices of some of the Caffe Milano breads is brought to the table.\u00a0 Only eleven lunch items are available, of which five are salads (avocado, smoked mozzarella, roasted chicken, calamari, and caprese), quite expensive at R 60 – R75.\u00a0I ordered the La Tartare di Mazo (R70), being ‘hand chopped raw prime fillet dressed with Morgenster olive oil, onion, egg, capers and parsley’, and served with three slices of toast, a perfect accompaniment to the tartare, one of the best I have tasted, less fine than that which one can buy at Raith Gourmet.\u00a0\u00a0 The presentation was rounded off by three half slices of lemon, each of these having a tiny amount of chopped onions, washed and chopped capers, and chopped parsley.\u00a0 \u00a0When I did not recognise the dried and chopped capers, Zoe brought before and after capers to the table, to explain how they get to look so brown when washed, dried and chopped up.\u00a0\u00a0 Parma ham and melon costs R95, smoked yellow fin tuna carpaccio R80, Norwegian salmon R85, beef carpaccio R70 and lasagne pasta, spinach and ricotta costs R65.\u00a0 There is only one ‘Dolci’ item on the menu, which is the Il Fondente “95”, from Nava’s 95 Keerom Street restaurant, which he also serves at the Mozzarella Bar.\u00a0\u00a0 I suspect that most patrons will make their way to the display cabinet, and will chose a dessert from it, the selection including cannoncino (R10); mini apple tarts, lemon tarts, Sacher Torte, Coconut Daquoise,\u00a0and Portuguese custard tarts costing R15,\u00a0and lots more.\u00a0\u00a0 I had\u00a0a berry pannacotta, which was served in a beautiful glass, and I savoured its creaminess,\u00a0whilst chatting to an American visitor sitting at a table across from me.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cap Classiques on offer are Villiera (R40\/R160), Graham Beck Brut (R45\/R210), Graham Beck Brut Ros\u00e9 (R50\/R230), Steenberg Brut 1682 (R280) and Krone Borealis Brut Ros\u00e9 (R270).\u00a0\u00a0 Taittinger Brut costs R720, and Billecart\u00a0Salmon Brut Ros\u00e9\u00a0R950.\u00a0 No Shiraz is on the winelist, and generally the winelist is weighted to white wines.\u00a0 Wines by the glass include Graham Beck Rail Road Red (R28\/R110), Villiera Cabernet Sauvignon (R35\/R110), Dombeya Merlot\u00a0(R48\/R190), Felicite Pinot Noir (R41\/R165), Kleine Zalze Sauvignon Blanc (R30\/R120), Graham Beck Chardonnay (R45\/R180), and Kloof Street Chenin Blanc (R28\/R110).<\/p>\n

One can go home with pastries and artisanal breads under one’s arm, as well as with a beautiful LavAzza cappuccino machine, ranging in price between R2800 – R 3300, depending on the colour scheme of the machine.\u00a0 LavAzza coffee pods can also be bought.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0had mixed feelings about my first visit to Caffe Milano, relative to the hype I had read, and saw no bar counter, as promised in the name of the restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the marriage between the restaurant and the pasticceria is not there yet.\u00a0 There is nothing\u00a0on the menu to encourage one to peek at the pastry display cabinet, especially when one does not see it in the side room, and it would be nice to have the names of these items listed on the menu too, to see them as dessert options, and also to get to know their Italian names with English descriptions.\u00a0\u00a0 Given Nava’s restaurant experience, I think the restaurant can stretch itself with a greater variety of Italian dishes over time, only\u00a0two dishes on the lunch menu being cooked, and I have read that it may open for dinner in future.\u00a0\u00a0The pastries are good value, especially given their quality, but I felt that the lunch portion of steak tartare was expensive relative to the amount that was served.\u00a0 The food quality is excellent.\u00a0The main attraction is the pastry section, and perhaps it could do with being fuller for most of the day, with pastry plates refilled, and more neatly presented, as per Cassis Paris.\u00a0\u00a0 I will be back, and my next visit will be for breakfast.\u00a0\u00a0 Parking is a challenge however, the popularity of Caffe Milano making it hard to find somewhere close by to park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I had written the above (with the exception of the first paragraph)\u00a0after my first visit for lunch, and my return visit clarified some things, and changed my mind about Caffe Milano\u00a0completely.\u00a0 First,\u00a0it was buzzing\u00a0on Saturday morning, and I was lucky enough to\u00a0get the last table, as well as to find a (creative) parking spot close by, so great is their popularity.\u00a0\u00a0 Charlene, the Manager, welcomed me back like an old friend, and the waitress Zoe took over some of the service at my table too.\u00a0 The pastry display cabinet was fully packed, and all the trays were filled.\u00a0 The service was fast and efficient, despite the restaurant being so full.\u00a0 The scrambled egg (R48)\u00a0I ordered was the most delicious and the most yellow I have ever eaten, served with lovely toasted rye bread.\u00a0\u00a0When I commented on the colour of the eggs, Charlene brought me an information booklet from Spier BD (for Biodiversity) Farm, whch\u00a0is their supplier of eggs, chicken and beef.\u00a0 I was fascinated to read their claims that ‘pasture-fed’ animals are “freer than the free ranging” animals and birds, and therefore implies healthier to eat.\u00a0 The chickens, for example, spend 21 days\u00a0on the pasture in ‘predator-proof houses’.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They lay their eggs in ‘eggmobiles”.\u00a0 The pastures have 19 varieties of grasses and legumes, the brochure explains, and the farming is biodynamic.\u00a0 “The chickens are treated as animals, and not as production widgets”, it continues.\u00a0 Slaughtering is done by hand, it says, as ‘humanely as possible’.\u00a0 The chickens are not injected with brine, up to 25 % being allowed in South Africa.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The co-owner Giorgio Nava looked very cheffy in his white chef top, and was behind the counter the whole time that I was there.\u00a0 The biggest delight of all was Vanessa Quellec coming to say hello. \u00a0She is very friendly and welcoming, and I loved her two pigtails, making her very down to earth. \u00a0She kept checking that everything was in order, and showed me her new bread ‘baby’, a baguette epi (right), which she had baked for the first time that morning.\u00a0 \u00a0She also compiled a list of her bread styles for me, which is not in the menu.\u00a0 On weekends she has\u00a0a greater variety of breads available, and it includes the epi, milk bread rolls and sugar milk bread, in addition to the\u00a0weekday range of\u00a0ciabatta, baguettes, 60 % as well 100%\u00a0rye sourdough, focaccia with sea salt and rosemary, and bialy.\u00a0\u00a0 Vanessa comes from Minnesota originally, and worked in some hotshot New York restaurants, where she met PJ Vadis, the chef at The Roundhouse.\u00a0 He suggested that she work for Markus Farbinger\u00a0at Il de Pain in Knysna, who is internationally known as one of the best bread bakers and pastry makers\u00a0in the world, having worked in New York too, including at Le Cirque.\u00a0\u00a0 Vanessa spent a year in Knysna, and says that\u00a0Farbinger has changed breadmaking in South Africa (one of his other proteges is Fritz\u00a0Schoon at De Oude Bank Bakkerij in Stellenbosch<\/a><\/strong><\/span>).\u00a0 Through her friendship with Vadis, she worked at The Roundhouse as pastry chef, until the opportunity arose to start Caffe Milano with Nava.\u00a0\u00a0 While she waited for the restaurant to be ready for opening, she spent time at a sourdough bread and at a roll factory in Germany, and also at a bread factory in Italy, such is the love for her craft.\u00a0\u00a0She told me that she only uses the best ingredients, and recently introduced Valrhona chocolate from France to South Africa, using it for all her chocolate requirements, and also selling it in slabs.<\/p>\n

Vanessa also told me that the menu will evolve, and\u00a0this week the first additions to the menu will be introduced.\u00a0\u00a0 They will focus on creating greater synergy between the pastry and bread side of the business, and the restaurant side, through the menu.\u00a0\u00a0 Vanessa confirmed that opening in the evenings is on the cards, but not in the immediate future, as she wants her staff to be perfectly trained first.\u00a0 I thought they were doing very well for having only been open for a month.<\/p>\n

I have found a delightfully friendly new breakfast, lunch and coffee break venue in Cape Town, with relatively easy parking (except on Saturday mornings).\u00a0 I will certainly be back.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 13\/3<\/strong>: I went back to Caffe Milano today, and enjoyed the most beautiful Eggs Benedict.\u00a0 I asked to have the bacon excluded, and Charlene spontaneously offered me avocado and mushrooms to replace it.\u00a0\u00a0 The restaurant was so full, that I had to wait for a table.\u00a0 It had a\u00a0wonderful buzz.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 27\/4<\/strong>: Vanessa Quellec leaves Caffe Milano in July, and is heading for Valrhona in France, where she will undergo training in the use of their chocolates.\u00a0 She plans to return to Cape Town as a representative of the company.\u00a0 Giorgio Nava will bring in an Italian pastry chef.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 26\/9<\/strong>: \u00a0The Weekend Argus<\/strong> reports that Caffe Milano will open for dinner from November.<\/p>\n

Caffe Milano Pasticceria & Bar, <\/strong>153 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town.\u00a0 Tel (021) 426-5566.\u00a0 www.caffemilano.co.za<\/a> (The website is still under construction). Tuesday – Sunday 7h00 – 17h00.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a> Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first encounter\u00a0with Caffe Milano Pasticceria & Bar\u00a0on Kloof Street, next door to ex hot-spot Manna, for lunch last week made me undecided as to how I felt about it, something that doesn’t happen very often.\u00a0\u00a0 A return visit for breakfast on Saturday morning made me a firm supporter, enjoying the good food, the good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,20,21],"tags":[7244,9530,7511,373,2285,10153,10145,10146,32366,10158,1434,10116,10118,10155,32378,225,6154,6102,8967,10268,10148,10156,6977,8034,1437,226,10264,10150,1335,665,10157,4973,10147,6749,10270,2056,8052,9522,10149,10124,406,9520,10267,2849,8099,252,3625,10151,10266,231,9204,7773,10154,607,10269,10152,2837,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t