Bedouin Café and Deli is the newest resident in Woodstock. With its offering of bold flavours from the Middle-East, delicately balanced with a Cape Town twist – there was no way I could miss out on the opportunity to visit when the invite arrived in my mailbox.
Their signature ingredient: Labneh cheese!
Labneh cheese is wildly popular in countries such as Lebanon and Israel and it’s quickly finding an appreciative audience in South Africa. Made from yogurt, it’s probably one of the lightest cheeses I’ve ever tasted. Its texture is very similar to cream cheese, with a more sour taste.
It’s exotic, but in essence Labneh is a traditional cream cheese substitute. It also isn’t too out-there for more conservative taste-buds. Being entirely free of preservatives but not yet another boring cardboard-flavoured “health food,” also made it a great ingredient for the deli. – Owner, Rachel [source: Food24]
To kick things off we were presented with a small tasting plate which included their own home-made Lebneh cheese & Lebnehdews – a very tasty combination of pepperdews stuffed with labneh. These were an absolute winner!
We then continued with the mezze platter as it was suggested to us by the owner. It came with humus, tatziki, labneh, olives, dolmades and flat bread and costs R48 – great value for money! The flat bread was fresh and straight out of the oven. I was excited to see a few more labnehdews on the plate – I can’t get enough of these little guys! For our second dish, we ordered the Bedouin wrap consisting of sumac chicken, hummus, chilli labneh, carrot, crisp lettuce and cumber (R50). It didn’t survive very long either; it was delicious.
In addition to the dishes served to order, Bedouin Café and Deli also handcraft a range of Middle Eastern specialities to take home. The labneh is available in a range of flavours: Original, Garlic, Pepper, Mint, and Chilli as well as my favourite – the labnehdews! Do it!
Overall, I loved my experience at Bedouin. You get to try dishes that you probably haven’t tasted before, the food is amazing and the owner is incredibly welcoming making sure all her customers enjoy their meals.
P.S.: Free wi-fi makes this the perfect spot for a lunch meeting with clients.
Directions to Bedouin Café & Deli
218 Albert Road
Woodstock
Tel: 021 447 1637
