Before I set off for Robertson, I received recommendations from friends living as close to the Breede River town as Montagu (30km) and as far away as Cape Town (160km). “You’re driving Route 62? Make sure you stop for a latte at Strictly Coffee,” they all advised. So I decided to go one better. I had spent the night in Montagu and decided to skip breakfast to drive straight through to Robertson in order to try out this welcome addition to the town’s culinary scene.

I arrived half an hour later, hungry and with high expectations. I was not to be disappointed. First there was the coffee – an excellent brew with the beans all roasted on site. But despite the café’s name, there is a lot more going on here than just coffee and on viewing the menu I quickly decided to turn breakfast into brunch to try as much as possible from the tempting menu. Locals rave about the eggs Benedict, but I’m not much of an egg person. I opted instead for the pastrami sandwich, served with sauerkraut on freshly baked rye bread, a delicious bite chosen from the chalkboard menu. The daily specials come and go, depending on the seasons and the availability of farm-fresh ingredients, but there’s a permanent menu on offer as well.

One thing that you can always expect to find is a solid choice of cakes and other sweet treats – think gluten-free lemon polenta cake, warm cinnamon buns straight out of the oven, baked cheesecake and a selection of biscuits and sweeties. And then there are the cronuts. A cronut, in case you haven’t encountered one, is basically croissant dough, deep fried and shaped like a donut. It’s then glazed, dusted with cinnamon sugar or filled with some sort of delectable centre. At Strictly Coffee you might find lemon cheesecake inside your cronut. You might find a chocolatey concoction, or you might find the flavours of Turkish Delight within. Whichever you order, you’ll need a strong cup of coffee to cut through the richness, and luckily, good, strong coffee is something that this superb café excels at.