The Blue Cafe — Restaurant in Tamboerskloof

Was excited to revisit this place with a friend. But unless you are anything other than Lily white avoid. We got there for breakfast seated ourselves because one of the waiters ignored us. Place wasn’t busy, called over one of the male waiters he looked right at us, ignored us and walked away, but didn’t mind to immediately thereafter come out and serve the white customer who arrive after and still ignore us. We brushed it off and waited till Faith came to serve us. She was great. Later on one of us went to use the bathroom, asked the other male attendant where it was. Same attitude. He looked at us ignored us and served a white woman. We asked again and still he ignored us. The lady behind him heard and answered. Thankfully or we would have had a problem. When we came out and mentioned this in a polite way, he makes a joke in his language with the staff and they laughed in our face. Next encounter at paying, same attendant that ignored the bathroom question comes to do the bill - think he is the manager. We are busy paying. We two friends haggle over the bill and one of us treats the other as we often do. Big mistake that it so happens to be the one of us that had the bathroom encounter. Because this same guy now politely offers up to the one that he ignored the first time that he did so because it seemed earlier that they would not be the one picking up the bill. Eh what now? He repeats this a few times for good measure ...verbatim ... “I don’t look at you or talk to you, I only talk to the other because you are not the one paying the bill”. Out of embarrassment we try to make a joke of it and ask why would he assume we don’t have money to pay (after ordering quite a lot or food for two). He just repeats like a record player that he won’t look or talk to the other because they are now not the one paying. Side note - not that it matters - we are both high earning Cape Town coloured women who don’t live here full time, except at holidays when we each live in or close to the neighbourhood. We in our mid 40’s, well dressed, degree educated, well travelled and frequently eat out. On top of that we are both nice people. Never before have either of us been subjected to such blatantly prejudiced behaviour. Appalling and I will be telling all my local and international friends who live close by, as well as those in radio and social media -AVOID unless you feel like a complimentary side order of gender and/or race prejudice with your breakfast. What a disgusting experience. By the way no one from management contacted us after either. That’s ok soon it will be all over...

Quaint little coffee spot with a decent food menu. But, the management appears not to understand the function of a cafe in modern times, and to memorialize this, if you take out a laptop, they hand you a card (see photo) with extensive rules, including the assertion of a right to issue a fine (R200) for being there more than an hour or if they hear your computer's speakers. I get it: you don't want to have your tables filled with people all day long who are buying nothing and preventing you from seating other paying customers. I own a bar, and I, too, don't particularly enjoy customers who come in, order a water, tell me what music we "should" be playing, and then leave a 3* review because we didn't stock their favorite brand of toilet paper. But, no one wants to read a book of rules to sit with a coffee and check their e-mails, and my partner and I ordered a full breakfast, we were literally the only people in their downstairs room, and were handed this card about 15 minutes in.

Perhaps you fear that if you use discretion rather than enforce universally, you'll be accused of being selective or racist or whatever. However, the right way to do this is just to have a simple 2 hour table limit for everyone and enforce it (on everyone in the space) only when space runs out. And, if people are using their speakers or otherwise being disruptive, politely remind them not to. A sign with 4 words could replace this ridiculous, "only in South Africa" authoritarian method.

I see at least one other reviewer has mentioned the laptop policy and has been dismissed in the cafe's reply, but I hope management reconsiders, as their space was...

Unfortunately had an interaction with who I think was the kitchen manager who was unexplainably rude and sarcastic. Ordered a pastrami and gherkin sandwich, which came to the table with very little in the way of fillings (a total of 3, small diameter gherkin slices). It looked like a sandwich one might find at a fuel station. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a photo to make my point. We politely asked if they could perhaps add some more toppings. For unclear reasons, this person came to our table and was rude from the beginning. He then made a sarcastic comment about the sandwich being 'delicate' as the place was a delicatessen. The rest of the staff were very polite and friendly, and we could clearly see that they were very uncomfortable with the way this person handled the situation. Perhaps he had a bad day, but it seems from the other comments that this is a recurring theme. Honestly, from our experience I can confidently say that there are far better places to go ito value for money, without the bad experience. In summary - certainly overrated, but would have been pleasant if not for the 'manager'. I do not...