Fábrica
Where: Sunningdale Shopping Centre, 1 Village Way, Sunningdale
Open: Monday to Thursday 6.30am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 6.30am to 10pm, Sunday 6.30am to 7pm.
Call: 087 255 8129
The Poet and I decided to stop for an early lunch on the way to the Bridge Club at Mount Edgecombe. We settled on Fábrica in Sunningdale, a charming looking restaurant and coffee shop I had always wanted to try.
Its Facebook page states that “Fábrica is about coffee, food and family; a lifestyle, a community and home. We invite you to enjoy”.
It’s an inviting space with lively wallpapers and an array of art and craft for sale. There’s a bar counter and coffee station along the front wall and the whole spills effortlessly out onto the pavement. On a miserable day all the action was inside. It was a pleasant buzz.
We found a seat and waited quite a while before service arrived. As we sipped our coffees ‒ these were good ‒ we perused the menu.
We were presented with the breakfast menu, which runs until 11.30am. No problems here. It’s a wonderful ode to eggs with some very interesting options for those looking for a more adventurous breakfast. On the conventional side there’s the simple egg, bacon and cherry tomatoes on toast to the full monty which includes a sirloin steak, as well as the kitchen sink.
But then there’s the likes of Turkish eggs in chilli butter and whipped feta, and shakshuka, which is eggs poached in a spicy tomato and pepper sauce. These can be cooked with artichokes, or salmon.
A rösti can be piled with halloumi, mushrooms and poached eggs, or you can try the same dish with a kimchi rösti. I was tempted just to see what arrived at the table. In reality the idea filled me with dread.
Firstly I’m not a kimchi fan, and secondly the joy of a rösti is that it goes nice and crisp and I wasn't sure pickled cabbage would ever go crisp. It’s a bit like trying to crisp a sweet potato.
French toast features, either with eggs or a variety of sweet stuff. There’s chilli con carne or Bolognese topped with poached eggs. There’s a selection of omelettes including one with zucchini and kimchi, and another with sundried tomatoes, corn, chives and streaky bacon.
Or you can build your own. Plus a whole range of Benedicts, including a South African one topped with chakalaka, and a Moroccan one on lamb patty with harissa. I’m a little bit of a purist when it comes to Benedicts.
The muesli brigade will be very happy with a whole page of bowls filled with fruit, nuts, seeds and the like, including a chocolate mango nut bowl and a banana split bowl, while a range of smoothies are made with coconut milk. Chia porridge and cardamom oats feature.
For those not into eggs, there’s a page of croissants, bagels and sandwiches, plus you could always try some of the delicious-looking baking stacked up under glass domes on the main counter.
I was quite interested in a selection of Japanese rice pancakes, but the option with salmon contained pickled onions, something of a deal breaker, and our waitress didn’t seem too inclined to suggest a substitute.
I opted for the breakfast frittata (R119) with pesto, bacon, onions, rainbow bell peppers, spinach and garlic topped with cheddar and basil leaves. It was enjoyable, and a large portion, although it was very heavy on the garlic.
Perhaps that’s why we won the bridge that afternoon. All I had to do was breathe over my poor opponents and they’d wilt.
The Poet wanted the chicken mayonnaise bagel, topped with bacon and cheddar cheese (R85) which was odd. It was served hot, the chicken mayo being pulverised into almost a paste, and it certainly didn’t need the cheddar cheese.
We wanted to share one of their crumpet stacks for dessert ‒ the berry and banana one looked good, although there’s an option with chocolate balls, nutella and kit kat ‒ but unfortunately we had run out of time.
Instead, I took home a slice of their orange cake (R49), which while having a lovely deep orange, almost marmalady, flavour was incredibly dense and heavy. Unfortunate.
The main menu covers an enormous range from pizzas and pastas, to burgers, to grills, but has some interesting Asian inspired bowls. These would be worth exploring.
Food: 2 ½
Service: 2 ½
Ambience: 3
The Bill: R322
The Independent on Saturday