🍒 Restaurant Review: Lola's Long Street 🍒

Today I found myself lost in a daydream, wandering around my memories of ten years ago. I was in Long Street for work, and stopped for lunch at Lola's.

Ten years ago, I had just moved to Cape Town, at the age of twenty-one, after a stint overseas. @morkrock and I lived in a tiny bachelor apartment, walked everywhere, drank beer at 11am and smoked way too much weed. 😂😂I worked as a duty manager in a small hotel, and waitressed at night, and @morkrock was working at internet cafe, way before Twitter and Instagram. The hotel I worked at was smack bang in the middle of Long Street, and immersed me in the alternative, Bohemian, different from anything I had ever known culture that Long St at the time.

For those of you, unfamiliar with Cape Town and the vibe; Long Street is an iconic street running down the centre of Cape Town, filled with restaurants, clubs, bars and clothing stores. Anything can happen in Long street, from proper jolling/party sessions, to checking out bands, sampling a street curry, or finding a vintage Prada moonbag.

This was my life back then; working way too much for way too little money, partying my face off with some crazy people, riding the city flat with my cheapass bicycle, falling in love with someone who would become my forever person. I remember Mork telling me, "One day we'll look back on this and remember this tiny flat fondly, and laugh about how poor we were." And, you know, we do. We look back and remember it all. We remember the ones we've lost along the way, the friends who have become family, the city we once knew. Being in Lola's today took me straight back there, and it was a welcome reverie for today's busy, much older, much more tired me.

Lola's has always been part of the Long Street vibe. I remember back in 2008 when I was a wannabe blogger, I wrote a post about the restaurant for my Blogger.com site.

Back in the day, when everyone had dreadlocks and multiple facial piercings, Lola's was one of the first all vegetarian restaurants in Cape Town. I loved going there, I had never heard of a meat-free restaurant.

Nowadays, Lola's is just as cool, but with a more grown up vibe; a proper chef's menu, gorgeous interiors and quirky art for sale on the walls.

I ordered an iced coffee, which was the real deal (in my opinion at least); proper espresso blitzed with ice into a frappe kind of situation. It was perfect and quenched my thirst in the insane heatwave we are having.

The menu was well thought out and had some sublime offerings. Of course, I chose the falafel burger. If you follow my blog, you will know how much I love chickpeas, falafels and hummus. I thought the meal was perfect.

The hummus was homemade, creamy with a tiny zing of tahini. The salsa was slightly Mexican inspired with coriander (cilantro), red onion and diced tomato, and the falafel itself was pretty phenomenal. Moist, flavourful and well seasoned. I was really impressed.

It was so lovely to sit in the shade, out on the pavement, watching the people go by. Artists, skateboarders, tourists, students and hospitality employees milled up and down the street. The sun was shining brightly, and my iced coffee was deliciously cold.

C'est La Belle Vie

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