This charming Bo-Kaap café opened up in early March, serving up tasty lunches and brunches to city workers. Named for the Spanish pilgrimage, the Camino del Santiago, where owners Jessica and Marijus Jakas met in 2012, El Camino’s menu offers diners something of a journey, from Asian-style dishes to pulled pork and cheese burgers. Eat Out’s resident gingers set off to sample the menu.

Food

The menu is a mix of café classics: Asian-style dishes, influenced by Marijus’s time as a sushi chef, and more local comfort food, which is the creation of the chef. Tuck into eggs Benedict for breakfast, with a glossy, well-executed Hollandaise, or construct your own board from the menu of options.

For lunch, I can recommend the beef teriyaki. The meat is crunchy, sweet and sticky – redolent of fresh ginger and garlic – and served on a refreshing portion of grilled veggies. The ‘big boy’ fries – shoestring chips in a glorious mess of pulled pork and very cheesy béchamel sauce – would make great hangover food. Some dishes could use a little more gumption: the simple sandwich with roasted red peppers (which are actually pickled piquant peppers on the day we’re here), avo, hummus and feta is a little light on the promised homemade hummus (though the gently toasted ciabatta is delicious), and the chicken satay wrap could use a little more of a peanut sauce hit. We’ll be back to try the incredible-sounding sriracha cheese burger and Japanese oishii buns. Dishes range from a decent R40 to R65.

El Camino. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Sweet options depend on the day. We sample a pumpkin pie, which is beautifully spiced with cinnamon and ginger. Cheesecake and apple pie are other regular options.

Drinks

Try one of the freshly squeezed juices in tasty combinations. The Gold Digger is a sweet, refreshing mix of pineapple, apple and mint, while the Red Ridinghood is a warming combination of beetroot, carrot, apple, ginger and lemon. Good quality coffee is supplied by Tribe. They do not have a liquor licence, but patrons are welcome to bring their own wine.

Ambience

El Camino is a cosy, hip little space with a carefully curated collection of clutter. An exposed stone wall, wooden fittings and hexagonal shelving create a great canvas for the artfully selected trinkets, succulents and animal horns.

El Camino. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Service

Take a seat and wait for someone to come around, or order straight at the bar. The owners are ever-present, so service is swift and full of care.

And…

It’s predominantly a day-time space, but they’re open on Thursday evenings until 9.30pm, when they serve their cheese burger and oishii buns (a great idea for First Thursdays). Plans are also afoot to start opening on Saturday mornings.

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