Little Saint on Bree reviewed

 

The cluster of restaurants and bars at the top end of Bree Street is more than a little inviting with a lot on offer.  There’s a trendy dive bar with awesome tacos, burgers  and cocktails, a gin bar, an Italian restaurant,  a place dedicated to bacon,  and a cheese club that does breakfasts, lunches, kefir smoothies and of course, cheese. 

Little Saint, one of the newest additions to this food comfort zone, is a sustainable little café with a simple menu concept based around organic, free range and locally sourced produce. Everything is cooked using only the healthiest oils and obviously no refined sugars. 

This little haven of healthy food is owned and run by husband and wife team Dominique Beaumont Louzan and Santiago Louzan Fidalgo. Santiago is a wonderfully warm character with the friendliest smile and has Michelin-star standard experience in catering. The name Little Saint comes from Santiago’s childhood nickname. 

The interior is small and inviting. A very cool herb garden adorns one wall  like a huge plant mural –  with the herbs being picked from it for items on the menu.  There’s great outdoor seating on Bree Street, which turns out to be very social on a beautiful day, or evening, when all the other nearby restaurants are also busy. 

The secret to Little Saint is their simple approach to food – by keeping it simple they are doing it really well, with a few real surprises here and there.  The breakfast menu has all you need on it with a standout (and exceptional) sweet potato tortilla (R60) – it’s a tortilla in the Spanish sense – which basically comes out looking like a frittata. Layers of thinly sliced sweet potato and egg are cooked in a pan and then cut into thick, delicious wedges. The accompaniment of their famous Little Saint salsa zesty tomato salsa completes the dish making it an ideal option for breakfast or lunch! This dish alone is worth a daytime visit. The other star on the breakfast menu is an omelette with bacon and honey.  I will be giving that a try on my next visit. 

The lunch menu offers a simple choice between a salad (with mixed leaves) or a sandwich (there are plenty of bread options all from the famous Woodstock Bakery) with the following fillings or toppings:  Triple cooked pork belly, minute steak, minted lamb, tomato and herb chicken, sautéed seasonal vegetables and poached egg and bacon.  These all range between R70 and R90. 

Little Saint has recently extended their opening hours to dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and if these menu items  and pictures don’t entice you to try it out, then I do not know what will. 

Triple cooked pork belly with sweet potato puree (R130)
Minted lamb on a bed of creamed spinach ( R130)
Chicken breast with herbed and tomato sauce and seasonal veg (R110)
Yellowtail with trio of puree and caramelised vegetables (R140)
Ribeye steak and sweet potato chips (R150)
Roast of South African vegetables (R95)

My favourite part of the dinner menu is the (perfect for Banters) side order offering of sweet potato roasties. My tummy rumbles at the thought. 

The drinks menu offers all the standards plus some interesting items such as The Little Bullet – a Double shot espresso blended with coconut oil, butter and cinnamon.  Also in the Winter months you can make your body very happy with a cup of delicious chicken broth at R30. There’s also Kombucha, a healthy smoothie menu and several teas featured. 

Under the Little Sinner menu you will find wines, craft beers and spirits. 

Food24 was invited as guests for lunch – I had the minted lamb on sourdough (which I posted on Instagram and it got over 100 likes!) while my colleague had (and loved) the tortilla.  

I can’t wait to go back to try the dinner menu!

All images by: Claire Gunn Photography