"THERE'S simply nowhere better to linger over a long lunch or patisserie delight while sipping on something refreshing," reads the menu blurb at the newly opened La Belle in Camps Bay.
Allowing for hype and faced with the spectacular ocean view, that's true of this delightfully casual venue. But to be fair, it applies to all the restaurants along the strip - including the Kove collection's Umi and Zenzero. (As an aside, the group seems intent on not only capturing the Atlantic seaboard market, but has set its sights on the UK, opening what it describes as "the first of its eateries" in London).
But back to local shores. The friendly, totally professional café-cum-bakery was packed for lunch on a Tuesday, testimony to the fresh, light and tasty menu it shares with the branch at Alphen Boutique Hotel. But the mood couldn't be more different. In Constantia, you relax under umbrellas on the terrace, overlooking a tree-shaded, grassy werf, bordered by gracious white-washed heritage buildings, or indoors in a wood-rich, welcoming ambience, face-to-face with those indulgent pastries.
The Camps Bay vibe is livelier: the venue is more transient in custom, allowing for the attraction of the beach. If there's no table available, you simply leave your cellphone number with the friendly waiters and head for the sand to sunbake till you're alerted that there's a table free. The interior is bright, streamlined and inviting, also with close-up views of the must-sample fresh bakes.
The sand-between-the-toes outside area is tiered, with different chairs demarcating the different levels, and (good for singles) there's seating at a balustrade counter with an uninterrupted ocean view.
It was here that I saw an example of dedicated colour co-ordination: a woman in a chartreuse top sipping a matching freshly pressed "green peace" juice (a refreshing blend of celery, apple, cucumber and spinach). The appetising vegetarian quiche she had ordered was as green in mood: an inviting mix of seasonal vegetables, feta, parmesan, basil pesto and mixed leaf salad.
The entire menu shows a tasty "thinking out of the box" approach, from my intensely flavoured starter, a light but satisfying fresh seafood broth with perfectly cooked prawns, Norwegian salmon, kingklip and herbs, to my friend's choice of a best-selling signature hamburger, cooked as requested and presented with crisp battered onion rings, ripe avo and tomato, enhanced with rocket and mushroom sauce.
But it was the menu description of the cottage cheese tartar sauce with the beer-battered kingklip that caught our attention. Interestingly, the La Belle tartar sauces contain no mayo and are chunkier. Sensing our interest, the kitchen offered us a sample, which was original, delicious and utterly addictive.
So much so, that, having been to the pastries counter and ogled the delights, I paired the sauce with my carefully selected, fruit-rich and lattice-topped mini apple pie. The result sang on my palate. Totally absorbed in her chocolate tartlet (tartlets are garnished with gilded nuts - or copper-tinted in the case of the decadent chocolate pastry variation) my friend happily donated the remaining sauce to me.
Breakfast goodies (try ricotta hotcakes) from round R55; salads from R85; generous sandwiches from R75; starters from R70; mains from R80; pastries around R35.