The Break Room
Where: 37 Hilton Ave, Hilton.
Open: Monday to Friday 8am to 3pm, Saturday 8am to 1pm.
Call: 076 676 3140
After the Hilton Festival I took food writer Ingrid Shevlin to The Break Room, a funky, super healthy and strongly vegetarian daytime eatery I discovered a few years ago. It was not only their super fresh food that would entice but also their interesting flavour combinations. I knew this would be right up her alley. It was.
The restaurant is a simple affair with a counter and a few tables inside, the menu chalked up on the board, and more tables spilling out onto a deck outside. It’s under an art gallery and has painted “artwords” down the brick façade. It’s fun, and we’re made to feel very welcome and treated to excellent coffee.
Lunchtime treats include the likes of falafels either as a wrap or a salad, a North African glow bowl, a butternut, chickpea and coconut curry either on brown rice or as a wrap, and cauliflower tacos with “hot wings”, charred corn, avo sriracha, pickled cabbage and crispy onion rings. There’s a boast on the board ‒ their onion rings are the best. I need to put that to the test sometime soon.
They’re also the home of the original sushi dog, or poke burrito. This is tofu, veg, tuna or salmon (or all of the above) battered, crumbed and deep fried, loaded with cucumber, edamame beans, pickled ginger, avo, pickled cabbage, gochujang and togarashi sauces and sesame seeds. Wow, that’s a mouthful. Of course you could simply have a poke bowl.
I got all excited when I saw apple crumble on the menu. After all, what better for breakfast? Until I discovered it was apple crumble oats ‒ something of a deal breaker. Still, if you can stomach oats porridge, this might be an exciting option.
Instead we looked no further than five exciting ways with eggs. There’s a build-your-own bagel which could include scrambled eggs, or scrambled tofu, at which the mind boggled. And there’s avo on sourdough with beetroot hummus, feta and peppadew relish, to which you could add an egg. Ingrid settled for salmon trout and scrambled eggs with avo, sesame seeds and a sprinkling of “everything spice” (R110) which she enjoyed.
I looked at the brisket and eggs smothered with a cheesy sauce, but it also included sauerkraut which I couldn’t stomach so early in the morning. Instead I chose the Turkish (R115) which was creamy feta, avo, mushrooms and poached eggs with shakshuka and slices of sourdough toast. It was a superb breakfast, the shakshuka not being overly hot but having a lovely depth of flavour, the soft poached eggs cooked to perfection.
We lingered over a second coffee.
While on the subject of breakfasts, I also relished an egg and bacon roll at the festival from the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine. Although the acclaimed chef admitted quietly that she never saw herself as being the purveyor of fine egg and bacon rolls, they were flying out of her simple field kitchen. This was just perfect: two soft eggs, good crispy bacon and a lovely dollop of a roast tomato and onion chutney or relish.
The festival is fortunate to have the school fleshing out its many food options. While it’s never going to be the fine dining, the students are taught, and the menu is simple and interesting. For lunch Ingrid relished her lovely buttery chicken pie, while I enjoyed a Yorkshire pudding stuffed full of a rich beef shortrib casserole. It was sort of like an English vetkoek, if you will. We finished with a very good moist slice of orange drizzle cake and a suitably fudgy and rich chocolate brownie and cream. Hats off to the students.
That evening I also enjoyed a super tasty but delightfully messy chicken tikka burger from Nadia Adams in her Fudart food truck, a fabulous old Bedford that blended in with the classic cars addition to the festival. She really is talented at working with Asian flavours.
Food: 4
Service: 3 ½
Atmosphere: 3 ½
The Bill: R222
The Independent on Saturday