Review – Whole Earth Café, Scarborough

Address: 257 Main Rd, Scarborough

Hours: 8:30am-5pm Mon, closed Tue, 8:30am-5pm Wed-Sun

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In the quest to try to cover as many vegan restaurants as possible I have literally tripled my petrol budget for the past month. When you find me homeless begging outside The Hungry Herbivore in town, please throw me your vegan scraps! Bankruptcy is nigh!

So I thought I’d drive to the furthest end of Cape Town on my petrol fumes to the seaside town of Scarborough which is about a 35min drive from the insanely picturesque Cape Point, and 20min away from the naval town of Simon’s Town (sometimes spelled Simonstown). I’d been told by several people to try out a ‘holistic eatery’ named Whole Earth Café and can report back that I had a fantastic experience!

This is yet ANOTHER eatery that offers MANY vegan options that are CLEARLY marked on their menus. Does it annoy you that I occasionally write in CAPITAL LETTERS, or that I write… like I speak?

Breakfast

• Vegan French Toast w/seasonal fruit, syrup & fried banana, R64
• Flapjack Stack w/chia seeds, banana, cinnamon syrup, fruit, macadamia butter, R68 (make sure you ask for vegan option)
• Wild Shrooms, w/zucchini flax seed rosti, avocado & mixed greens R66

Lunch

• Bagel Veggie Burger w/vegan cashew nut cream cheese, tomato chutney & basil pesto R92
• Vietnamese String Salad w/soya pumpkin seeds, mint, chilli, crispy noodles and Yuzu dressing, R70
• Salad Love w/baby salad leaf & mixed leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avo, pumpkin seeds, red cabbage & olives R56
• Falafel and Friends w/aubergine chutney, marinated olives, quinoa tabouleh, homemade hummus & pita wedges R78

They also offer fresh fruit and vegetable juices (R45) and a Flu Shot (R15)

Methinks this is a pretty decent offering folks! (How many of you are saying right now, “I’ve never heard of this place!”? Well now you have!)

What did I eat? Well, truth be told I pulled a fast one. I ordered the Vietnamese String Salad and the Bagel Veggie Burger to SHARE, and ended up not sharing the burger because it looked so epic when it arrived!

R92 for a burger? Worth it! This was one delicious MOFO of a burger! I was very impressed. The combination of the cashew cream cheese, tomato chutney and basil pesto made it incredibly rich and tasty as all hell – literally one of the best taste combos! I would recommend this to everyone!

The Vietnamese Salad was good too – but wasn’t quite as flavourful as it could have been. Warning – the noodles are the spiky spaghetti-like creatures emanating from the visually epic work of art: beautiful to look at, but not very filling if you are looking for something a little more substantial.

I would recommend this dish for the models who come to Cape Town in season who prefer a cigarette and caffeine diet.

I got into kak for not sharing my burger, but damn it was good!

I made one mistake though – I ordered dessert for myself and no one would share it with me. And it was HUGE! And rich. But WAY too much even for this Cape Town Vegan. The Raw Blueberry Cheesecake ranks as one of the best vegan desserts I have had to date, as it ticks many boxes. Firstly, it is RAW vegan – which I am always keen for and secondly, I have never had a purple cheesecake. Who doesn’t like all things purple? Visually this thing is astounding, and it tastes GREAT.

Someone asked me whether it was tomato sauce drizzled all over it. I want to smack you through my WhatsApp screen! It was a berry coulis of sorts – which slightly overpowered the taste of the cheesecake so I didn’t have much of it. The actual ‘body’ of the cheesecake was (very gay word) GORGEOUS! It was even… (wait for it) FABULOUS! (<— gayer word)

Summary: order the cheesecake but make sure you share it 50/50 or you will land up with bellyache like I did from overindulging.

Their website is one of the clearest and most concise I have come across to date – an area a lot of other eateries could afford to spend some time and money on improving. The only thing I would add is prices. But maybe this is a strategic move? One vegan restaurant in town that I shan’t mention for fear of being assassinated by the Vegan Mafia has not even bothered to update their website since they moved locations a year ago! Really!? Yes, really. I was one of the tools who went to their old location, because I referenced their website, only to find they had moved shop when I arrived in ********. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who has made this mistake.

Whole Earth Café in Scarborough is delightful. On your way out, make sure you buy a Gourmet Cluster from the cashier which are basically little bites of brownie heaven for R22. I had to have SOMETHING to take home!

Seriously though – these are good people and we are grateful that they are keeping up with the times and providing incredibly good food, great service, and saving the planet, one vegan meal at a time.

Peace xx

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