I love a good breakfast and all my family and friends know this about me. Back in Cape Town, my weekends were always filled with an outing to a cute little breakfast spot with great tasting flat whites. It’s a little different here in San Francisco, as a breakfast outing is swapped with brunch and the great tasting coffee is replaced with Mimosas or Bloody Mary’s. Look I’m not complaining but every now and then I want a damn good flat white to kick off my weekend just right. I was recently back in Cape Town and visited one of my favorite breakfast spots, Starlings. So how did Starlings flat whites measure up…
1. Taste
I actually don’t know what coffee beans Starlings use, but that double shot of espresso is too good to be true.
2. Microfoam
The microfoam was super creamy and velvety, you can tell that the barista knows what they are doing.
3. Temperature
I’m not the fastest coffee drinker, so I do normally like my coffees to be slightly on the warmer sides. Starlings flat whites are not warm enough for me but that’s just me.
4. Presentation
When ordering a coffee, you’ll get it in the mix and match Le Creuset cups and sauces, which makes me even more obsessed with how gorgeous the presentation is. The latte art is big and aims at covering the whole cup surface.
5. Atmosphere
I love seeing families and friends catching up over breakfast and amazing coffee. This spot is perfect to meet a friend and have a great catch up over coffee. If you want a quiet spot, this is not the place.
6. Service
Service is on the slower side and the last time I was there, we got our coffee drinks quite far apart from one another, and when you’re dying for a coffee while your friends drink theirs, you do get a little jealous.
7. Something special
Starlings have some delicious cakes and pastries, but they should think about adding a mini rusk with their coffees. If there was a mini rusk with my flat white, I would probably be stuck there for hours.
For those who don’t know, a rusk is a South African biscuit that is first baked then dried. If you’re ever in South Africa, you have to try one. I’m missing not having rusks here but I do need to bake my own.
Starlings flat whites are one of the best I’ve had in Cape Town. Maybe next time I visit I’ll get a mini rusk with my flat white… hint hint
Flat White Rating: 8.5
Still not sure what a flat white is, you can read my blog post here.