We just happened to stumble upon this fantastic coffee place when we were on our way to have breakfast somewhere at the V&A Waterfront. The inside looked too inviting, so we ditched our plans and decided to go inside. Shift Coffee can easily be missed if you aren’t paying attention, as it is narrowly tucked between an Indian restaurant and another business.

There’s an outside front patio with plenty of seats, half in the shade and half in the sunlight. The inside is rather hip with funky lighting, rustic wood, exposed beams and a built in bookcase. We were there on a weekend morning and it was pretty packed.The place was was also very clean looking, somewhat owing to the fact that it was just opened in the summer of 2014.

The coffee menu has your normal selection of espresso drinks, and includes several signature drinks like the Hashtag, which comes with a double shot of espresso, vanilla gelato and oreos, or the Italian plumber, which trades out the oreos for condensed milk and nutella. However, the breakfast menu is what caught our eyes (and bellies). There are several affordable items on the food menu, like croissants with cheese or jam for just 20 rand, and a selection of other pastries. We both decided on the breakfast sandwich that came with streaky bacon, eggs, tomato and rye bread. The portion was large and was a great deal at only 38 rand (which was about 3.00 in USD at the time). We ate outside since it was such a beautiful day and the weather was near perfect, and Shift makes a great place to people watch.There are also plenty of power outlets, and it seems as if the side tables were designed for people working on laptops.

My one complaint is there was no bathroom — you’d think you were in Manhattan or something. Unfortunately for me, the next door places weren’t open yet either. I had to walk several blocks back to the hotel, so don’t come here with your bladder full. Otherwise, it’s a hard to beat as a place to chill out on the weekend and get your cup of joe.