Magical mushrooms in the morning

Café: Bistro Sixteen82 Address: Steenberg Estate, just off Steenberg Road Contact: 021 713 2211 Website: www.steenberg-vineyards.co.za Hours: Breakfast from 9am to 11am; lunch from 12pm to 4pm; sunset tapas from 4.30pm to 8pm. Dish Eaten: Shrooms on Rösti Price: R64

KRISTEN VAN SCHIE

THE MOMENT I walk into Bistro Sixteen82, I know I’m underdressed.

There’s a wine wall on one end, and a sparkling wine wall on the other. The roof is a sleek black, and there’s some kind of tangled wooden branch installation in the middle. Words like “trendy” and “chic” force their way to the front of my mind.

The chairs and tables are a palette of brown, beige and white, and the waitresses are all in black. There are big doors opening out on to a terrace, and Afropop beats coming over the speakers – it’s the kind of place that requires a blazer and an expensive handbag. And me? I’m wearing my good takkies. We get some flat whites at R22 each, and are brought a plate of gorgeous, syrupy, muffin-like things. We didn’t order these and, for a moment, I think the jig is up, and that the photographer’s oversized backpack tipped them off to our visit. But then we see the other tables are also being served plates of glazed, magic cakes. We are impressed.

I kickstart breakfast with a fresh R20 oyster. The pre-feeding is a good thing, because my breakfast Shrooms on Rösti could be bigger for the R64 they’re charging me. Especially once I’ve tasted it. I don’t know what rösti is. Wikipedia will later tell me it is a “Swiss dish consisting mainly of potatoes”, but for now it’s a hash brown – the best I’ve ever had.

I can’t understand why I haven’t been served hash browns like this before, topped with spinach and mushrooms. Big mushrooms.

Little mushrooms. Sliced mushrooms and diced mushrooms, and mushrooms with those tiny heads and loooong stalks that look like they’re straight out of a fairy tale forest.

When I was a kid, my mother used to call me into the kitchen whenever she was cooking with mushrooms and let me eat a few straight out of the bag, and right now, I am in little mushroom heaven.

With a bill coming in at less than R200 for two, it’s a great choice for a “trendy” and “chic” morning out.

Dress the part.

PICTURE: CHE OVERMEYER CHIC AND TRENDY: Bistro Sixteen82 restaurant at Steenberg Estate.

FLAVOURFUL FUNGUS: Shrooms on Rösti at Steenberg Vineyards