Brown Cat Café, Botha’s Hill

Updated: 28-08-2024

Brown Cat Café combines retro diner, with a family-friendly environment and amazing natural views. It’s a bit of a drive out of central Durban. Near enough to decide to go at the last minute but far enough to feel like a day out. We headed there on Saturday straight from King Shaka Airport for brunch.

It’s part of a little tourist hub set atop a hill looking out over the lush Botha’s Hill landscape. The interior walls are covered in vintage retro decor of vinyl records, number plates and even the grill of an old Cadillac mounted against the wall.

There is a framed picture of two bikers on the wall. Tahir Seedat, who is one of the new owners of the café points out that these are the two previous owners and their combined names are where the name of the café is taken from.

They have a sheltered deck area, which was fully booked already, so we took a table on the porch outside as it had such a lovely view. The cafe also has a cosy couch corner as well as an outdoor area with more seating plus a fully equipped play area for the kids.

The menu comprises of breakfast, toasted sandwiches, burgers, sweet and savoury waffles and crepes and a range of milkshakes, desserts and mocktails. They also have a small selection of pizzas and grills available on weekends.

We ordered the Don Kiddo, a toasted steak sandwich with onion marmalade, chips, chilli mustard and cheddar as well as the Southern Fried Chicken & Waffle with maple syrup, hot sauce and cheese sauce. These were accomapanied by a Passionfruit Crush and Coffee Shake.

The toasted sandwich was generously stuffed full of saucy steak and chips. It was very tasty and a little on the sweet side. There was a chilli taste without it feeling like a masala steak. It was accompanied with chips inspite of the chips already inside the sandwich. Although extra fries are always welcome…

The chicken and waffle was served with the maple syrup and hot sauce already on the chicken. I would have preferred pouring it on myself. I liked the tangy flavour  of the hot sauce they used and felt the chicken could have used more of it. The cheese sauce was thick and creamy and served on the side. They serve it on a normal waffle rather than a Belgian waffle, which makes sense as the thicker Belgian waffle would overpower the chicken. The thinner waffle is more balanced so you don’t end up with a mouth full of dough and too little chicken. Both our drinks were good though the coffee shake could have been a little stronger.

Both these items were R95 and R100 respectively. Most of the mains average a reasonable R100 and they have a few special offers for the week days.

We were eyeing dessert but were both a little full at this stage. So we took a walk around the complex poking our heads in at the leather bag shop, and one selling baby clothes. There is also an interesting puzzle shop where I was completely bested by what seemed like the simplest puzzles and a souvenir shop selling mugs printed in iconic South African brands like, Lion Matches, Smarties, Wicks and more.

We returned to Brown Cat and shared a Peppermint Crisp, white chocolate and chocolate mouse waffle. This was a thick and perfectly done Belgian waffle along with some vanilla ice cream. We enjoyed this on the now half empty deck dappled in afternoon sun with a view of the hills beyond.

It was almost a sin to be jumping back into our rental Toyota for the 50 minute drive to check in to our hotel when what we both really wanted was a nap…