Fast facts

Price: R45 average for a breakfast or lunch.
Serves: killer coffee, bakes, breakfast items and cafe-style lunches.
Best for: A flat white and a quick breakfast before work.
Parking: Buitengracht is chaotic on most days, so find a parking spot around the corner and walk, or hop on a MyCiti bus.
Star ratings: food 4, service 4, ambience 4.

The interior at Tribe112 in Cape Town’s city bowl. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Eat Out readers voted Tribe 112 the best coffee shop in the Western Cape for the 2015 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Best Everyday Eateries. The Tribe coffee-roasting team is already known for its top-notch brews, but they have a tasty food menu at this Buitengracht eatery now too. Nikita Buxton set off for a midday feast to try out their café-style cooking.

Food

The hearty breakfasts come in familiar guises like fluffy scrambled eggs on toast, and bacon and egg on a Portuguese roll. The buttery, herbed mushrooms on toast are rich and satisfying, propped on the diner’s choice of bread with parmesan shavings and rocket to finish it off.

The mushrooms on toast breakfast at Tribe112.

For lunch, options vary from burgers to open sandwiches. The Cape to Rio fishcakes are made with smoky snoek and hake, and have a pleasant bite of chilli and coriander. A good size for a light lunch, the portion comes with three mini cakes, a lime-mayo dip and hand-cut chips. Vegetarians might opt for the roast veggie and hummus wrap, packed with aubergine and peppers, but it’s not as flavourful as it could be. Dishes are mostly served on a wooden planks, but plates are available should you prefer. The bakes range from carrot cake to brownies and are displayed on the counter, ready for a quick takeaway treat.

The Cape to Rio fish cakes at Tribe112.

Drinks

Coffee is their forte and Tribe‘s roasts are pretty darn delicious. The raw green beans used for their signature blends are single-origin beans from different parts of the world, which are roasted at the Tribe Roastery in Woodstock. On warmer days you could try an iced coffee for a refreshing caffeine fix, but their flat whites are still the winner. Avoiding dairy? They offer some great Almond Breeze coffees. For a sneaky lunchtime tipple, the menu also boasts a small booze offering with Wolf Trap wines, Jack Black and Devil’s Peak beers, and Hope on Hopkins gin.

Service

The staff at Tribe 112 are friendly and the service is speedy. You’ll often find Tribe’s chief and co-founder, Jake Easton, perfecting your flat white or convincing patrons to take some more date balls.

Another interior shot at Tribe112. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Ambience

The hip coffee shop is situated inside the Donford BMW Motorrad showroom. The gleaming bikes in the showroom add an edge, and the raised café offers great views of the city streets. Concrete flooring, charcoal accents and black leather link the two spaces.

And…

Don’t leave without taking a handful of their date balls with you. These glorious bites are coated in coconut and have a pleasing cakey texture – ideal with a cortado to go.

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Eat Out critics dine anonymously and pay for their meals in full. Read our editorial policy here.

A flat white at Tribe112. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.