Mahā Café
Where: 5 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Point
Open: Daily 6am to 4pm
Call: 082 817 2957
The last time I visited Mahā Café was pre-Covid. Then, an unseasonal gale was blowing and the front doors wouldn’t close properly. It was like sitting in a wind tunnel. That and the fact that the chef wasn’t on duty and only the breakfast menu was available made for a somewhat desultory lunch. Certainly not “great” as the Sanskrit word would imply.
When I suggested to food writer Ingrid Shevlin that we try it again, I didn’t realise the big chill would descend. I shuddered on the trip down to the Point. Should I take a couple of duvets?
Thankfully, the door had been fixed. The restaurant was comfortable. I would never call it cosy; it’s not that sort of restaurant. It ideally needs a beautiful day to be open to the elements. But we were warm.
Chef Charlie Lakin may have left Mahā for new adventures in Hillcrest, but the new team has kept many of his quirky ideas and added some of their own.
The bar counter has an array of appetising pastries ready to tempt. Think butter chicken pies, or lamb sausage rolls, or filled croissants, or home-made biscuits and cakes. The coffee machine is doing overtime. We quickly order a warming cup. And peruse the menu which changes regularly.
Under To Graze, presumably the starters menu, is smoked trout with chive cream cheese, capers, red onion, dill herb oil and rye crackers, or fish cakes with a pickled mussel and herb salad and lemon mayo. There’s a veg tempura medley and soup of the day which was roasted cauliflower with curry oil and almonds. Bowls of olives or hummus or a bread platter complete the picture.
We snacked on Korean fried chicken wings (R75) in a lovely spicy gochujang and lime sauce (basically a red chilli paste). They could have been crisper but we liked the flavours. They came with a dill pickle salad. Also getting the thumbs up were the onion rings (R45) in a super light and crispy batter dusted with ginger and garlic masala and served with a curry leaf aioli. With a judicious sprinkling of salt, we thought these were very good.
We also shared from the Leaves selection a small roast zucchini salad (R85). I suggested it because I must admit I thought it was going to be a hot salad, suitable for the shivering weather outside. Sadly not: the roast veg was cold and Ingrid and I decided we do not like cold broccoli, raw or cooked. The carrot and peppers were enjoyable but it needed more zucchini. It was topped with crème fraîche, sans the advertised lemon and garlic flavours, and without the pumpkin seeds. It badly needed some sort of dressing besides the crème fraîche to hold it together. I suppose you can’t win them all.
Under Mains, there’s a Mahā burger, both single and double, with Dijon mustard and chimichurri, and a lamb burger with tzatziki and babaganoush. The double came out at a table next to us and was a monster creature. We were amazed at how anyone could get their mouth around it. An unusual pork belly was served with a massaman sauce, Asian slaw and parsnip purée. There’s mussels steamed in white wine garlic and leeks; beef brisket on sourdough with smoked cheddar and fermented cabbage; and a beef or chicken bibimbap, which is basically a Korean version of a poke bowl, traditionally topped with a fried egg. There’s fish and chips if you want something more prosaic.
Ingrid went for the linefish (R160) which was pan-fried in lemon and caper butter and topped with toasted almonds, with a zucchini, cucumber and baby leaf salad. She enjoyed it, although she felt it needed something more substantial than the small salad. Maybe it was just she didn’t feel like a second round of courgettes or, in the icy chill, some good hot chips would have worked better.
My Szechuan-style cumin lamb noodles (R140) was less successful. The lamb had been overly rubbed or marinated in cumin and the noodles overly doused in soy sauce, making for a heavy, intense dish. The chilli did lift it but it needed some more freshness, possibly lemon, to make it come alive.
We finished by sharing a bread and butter pudding (70) which was excellent, made with croissants and stuffed with pieces of dark chocolate and a nice hot custard. It was rich and buttery and a true winter warmer. I almost ordered a second portion. We also enjoyed our coffees.
Food: 3½
Service: 3½
Atmosphere: 3
The Bill: R666
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