The other day I was invited to pop in to Bedouin Café and Deli in Woodstock. You’ll find it at 218 Albert Road where the old Suprette used to be, just a stone’s throw from the biscuit mill.

Aside from serving up good wallet-friendly Kamili coffee and a nice selection of brekkie and lunch items, the restaurant, which is light, airy and spacious, also offers free Wi-Fi. This makes it a good spot to rock up with your laptop and get a bit of work done if you’re an office-less freelancer like me; nobody’s going to sit on top of you and the service is friendly but unobtrusive.

Upon arrival, my friend Tracy and I were treated to Bedouin’s speciality; flavoured labneh bolletjies that are made on site. For those of you who don’t know, labneh’s a traditionally Middle Eastern cheese that’s made from yoghurt. It’s fabulously soft and spreadable and tastes a lot like cream cheese but has a super subtle sourness to it. Of the two flavours we tried, garlic and chili, garlic was my favourite and made me think of Boursin cream cheese’s Garlic and Herb variant.

We then decided to share a mezze platter (R48) and a Bedouin chicken wrap (R50) on the suggestion of the radness that is Rachel, the owner. Rachel reckons it’s the best wrap in Woodstock and, while it certainly was tasty, Tracy and I agreed that the platter was definitely the winner. It came with warm, oven fresh flat bread and included yummy nummy labneh, soft salty olives, dolmades, hummus, labnehdews (pepperdews stuffed with labneh, apparently they’re Rachel’s kryptonite) and the best tzatziki I’ve ever had. Seriously. I’m not even a tzatziki fan but Bedouin Café’s creamy, slightly sour version with thick strips of cucumber totally knocked my socks off. I’m actually going to pop in there later this week to abuse their Wi-Fi and see if I can wrangle a giant pot of tzatziki take-away.

Speaking of take-aways, Bedouin Café also sells jars of flavoured labneh (priced between R38 and R42) and chilli jam (R45) and I was lucky enough to walk off with the jam (thanks Rachel!) and have been using it on everything since ‘cos it’s hot, hot, hot! It’s definitely more chili than jam which is just the way I like it.

Anyway, if you’re in the area and want a good coffee, have a thing for sexy flavoured cream cheese or want the best tzatziki and chilli jam I know of in Cape Town, Bedouin Café is your baby.

Love, love

Leigh