110 Kloof St, Gardens, Cape Town Central 8008, South Africa
Cuisine:
Cafe
Good for:
Breakfast/Brunch, Late Night, Local Cuisine, Reservations
Cafe Paradiso
12 Visitor Photos +
REVIEWS
2 Reviews
Expert Review
Café Paradiso is a pretty, indoor and outdoor restaurant set on busy Kloof Street in Gardens. It’s meant to resemble...
Café Paradiso is a pretty, indoor and outdoor restaurant set on busy Kloof Street in Gardens. It’s meant to resemble an old farm stall, and the peaceful garden does feel a world away from the vibrant and noisy street. The converted house that holds the restaurant has a very old-world feel to it with beautiful views of the mountains. Café Paradiso serves breakfast until noon, lunch from noon to 6pm, and dinner thereafter. The cutoff time between breakfast and lunch is a little frustrating as if you arrive at 11:30 for lunch, like I did, you can only order off the breakfast menu or wait a half an hour.
The menu is fairly traditional and has a bit of everything. For breakfast, choose between about eight classic breakfast options. Lunch offers sandwiches, salads, pastas, burgers, and grill items. There are also some baked treats on offer. Because I arrived before noon, I was restricted to the breakfast menu. I opted to try the croissant with poached eggs, wilted spinach, and hollandaise with smoked salmon. The flavors were good, but a toasted croissant is probably not the best choice of breads to pile eggs, spinach, and hollandaise on. It pretty much became a soggy mess. Perhaps in recognition of the problem, the kitchen went way too light on the hollandaise for my liking. The cappuccino I had to accompany my breakfast was on the weak and watery side.
Service was very slow to start and it seemed to take forever for a waiter to come with a menu. But then, when I explained that I was in a hurry, the food came almost instantly. The best part of Café Paradiso is definitely the calm and relaxed garden atmosphere. I might give it another try to see if their lunch and dinner beats their breakfast, but Kloof Street is a competitive area for restaurants and there are many great options.
Expert Review
Café Paradiso is known as a top contender for the best restaurant on Kloof Street and as the locals will...
Café Paradiso is known as a top contender for the best restaurant on Kloof Street and as the locals will tell you, it’s a real treat visiting this garden cottage paradise. As part of the legendary Madame Zingara family, Café Paradiso is a great upmarket family spot that’s wonderfully bright and sunny during the day and when the sun goes down, it turns into an intimate, summer hangout that will make you fall in love with Cape Town. They’re open until 10pm every day except Sunday when they close at 3pm and they also offer a great kids menu and kids project until 8pm. Café Paradiso serve an Italian menu of pastas, anti-pastas and some wonderful mains that you’ll be dying to try. They also served open sandwiches until 6pm if you’re in the mood for something lighter.
For starters, I had the Phyllo parcels filled with smoked chicken, spinach & mozzarella and served on a mushroom jus. The two springroll-sized crunchy parcels were topped with parmesan shavings and were very tasty indeed. All their starters are very unique and creative that just reading the menu will have your mouth salivating!
For mains, I ordered the Grilled sirloin with Café de Paris butter, grilled black mushrooms, parmesan & rocket. This was served with root vegetables which were very tasty and made a great, healthy alternative to fried potato chips. The sirloin was tender and full of flavour. I loved the Café de Paris butter flavour that really came through on the meat. What a great, healthy dish! These are the kind of dishes they serve at Café Paradiso and it’s a great dining experience that you’ll want to enjoy regularly!
For dessert, I had to try the Tiramisu as I’m a big fan. The biscuit base was delicious and the filling tasted more like cheesecake than tiramisu as it was missing the fruity flavour we all know and love about this dessert. I still thoroughly enjoyed my dessert and would recommend this restaurant to anyone in Cape Town, especially during the warmer months!