Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster

Isn’t that perfectly awful?

Kerry-Anne ordered this drink at Eastwoods Lounge, near Tyger Valley Center. She reported that the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster never had the alleged brain-smashing effect on her and was fairly tasty, albeit just a little too sweet for her liking.

Dunes Restaurant in Hout Bay

Dunes is a great place to visit – it has plenty of interesting decor, they show the sport on big-screen televisions, and the service was pretty good. The olive starter that we had was however not that awesome (I’m told that some of the olives tasted pretty bad) and the portion of Calamari was tasty, but pretty meager for the price – we felt.

This said I’d still recommend a visit. Dunes is a nice place to visit, it’s located just over the road from the beach and I’ve had their Fish & Chips before – which, from what I can remember, was pretty good.

Clock Tower

Even though the restaurant was empty (on a Friday night) the service wasn’t very good. While expensive, the food was ok – but not particularly memorable. Also, it appeared as though the main meals were fairly different in size – leaving some of us still hungry after the meal.

Although the restaurant is beautiful inside, and has beautiful views, with the huge array of restaurants to choose from it’s probably not a restaurant that we’d return to in a great hurry.

Den Anker's shoe-beer

One of the restaurant’s most popular traditions is that patrons are required to hand over a shoe as deposit when purchasing one of these beers. This 8.4% Belgian Kwak beer is served in it’s traditional round-bottom glass that by accounts is pretty darn expensive to replace, hence the clever shoe-deposit!

Buffet breakfast

Through an arrangement of circumstance Kerry-Anne and I were invited to visit Sun International’s Table Bay Hotel (the one next to the V&A Waterfront mall), to enjoy their buffet breakfast before setting out to the other side of Table Bay Harbour to take a few photos of Cunard’s awesomely HUGE and beautiful Queen Mary 2. (I’ll post a few photos of her docked in the harbour soon.)

I had previously visited the The Atlantic restaurant at the Table Bay Hotel for a phenomenal lunch, so I was more than looking forward to what I anticipated would be an absolute feast. It would take me hours and many words to describe all the yummy dishes that we tasted, so I’m afraid that you’ll just have to visit for yourself!

Just to give you an overview, let me list a selection of the 230 dishes that comprised the buffet, starting with a plethora of fruit dishes, regular cereals, yummy muesli, yoghurt and nuts; cold meats, salmon, tuna, olives and other savoury treats; cheese, bread, and pastries (including the most delectable custard-filled pastries you could ever imagine); dainty pieces of sushi and nigiri, with a bowl of fresh oysters; scrambled egg, and the most awesome poached eggs and ham; crispy and not-crispy bacon; chicken, beef and pork sausages; mushrooms, French toast and other warm dishes; a small selection of Indian curry dishes; and finally, the daily carvery (usually gammon or crispy duck). What a mouthful!

Sinn's summer special

We’re not often invited to review the restaurants that we write about, so when we were asked to visit Sinn’s in Wembley Square (map) to try out their summer specials, it was a no-brainer.

Owner and chef Thomas Sinn was on leave for the day, but left instructions for his chefs to prepare taster-size portions of 5 of the 6 dishes on his Summer Lunch Specials list, some of which I’ve included in the photo above. Each of these Summer Lunch Special meals costs just R50. Based on the size of the dishes and the quality of the food, it’s a definite bargain!

Below we’ve ranked the five dishes in order of our preference. Even though we’ve ranked them, allow me to say that every dish was pretty impressive, and each would have been perfectly satisfying on its own.

The first on our list, and top-right in the photo, was the Zorbian Chicken – a very mild chicken curry served with basmati rice, poppadums, and sweet-and-sour aubergine. This one won first place because of the variety of tastes and the unusual (and yummy!) sweet-and-sour aubergine.

Paprika Chicken was next on our list, and was in fact a strong contender for first place. The dish consists of chicken in a rich and creamy paprika sauce, served with spaetzle. The chicken in this dish was tender, the spaetzle was a good accompaniment, and the paprika sauce was out of this world – so much so that we both highly recommend this dish.

The Oriental Seared Sirloin is, in our opinion, the next logical choice if you’d prefer not to have chicken or a cream-based sauce. The (perfectly) grilled pieces of marinated sirloin were carefully laid over a salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sprouts. I’m not exactly sure what the dressing contained (it was sweet, with perhaps a hint of chilli), but what I can say is that I found myself scooping every last drop from the bowl. The dish was pretty darn good and if I were in the mood for red meat, I’d definitely have this one again.

I can’t recall that I’ve ever had Croque Madame. For someone who enjoys toasted sandwiches, this was a real treat. The sandwich (bottom left in the photo) contains cheese and ham, and is topped with a fried egg. The dish also includes a variety of simple salads and a portion of chips. The sandwich itself was very good – I enjoyed it plenty – and the salads offered a nice range of flavours. Although Kerry-Anne enjoyed the chips, I can’t say that they were the best I’ve ever had.

The final dish on our list was the Roast Vegetable and Tomato with Chilli Penne. This is the vegetarian option, which I guess is part of the reason it ended up in last place on our list. The pasta dish tasted nice: the vegetables were yummy, the penne was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was good. As I mentioned, we only had a small portion each, but after some thought I decided that a full portion could have become monotonous to eat (I usually have this problem with pasta dishes, though, so perhaps that’s just a matter of personal taste).

After such a massive quantity of food (which I’m mildly embarrassed about finishing), it was a real treat when Dylan, our waiter, brought around a lovely apricot sorbet (bottom right) to conclude our lunch. Kerry-Anne loves sorbet, but I’m not usually partial to it. This one was pretty good, though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

In conclusion, all the dishes were very good, and any one of them is truly a bargain at R50. All the staff seem to enjoy working at Sinn’s (which creates a great atmosphere) and our waiter specifically was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable about the food and its ingredients.

The view from Salt Restaurant

This was our first visit to Salt and, besides for the gorgeous view, we found the service and the food outstanding. As a starter we ordered Ballottine of Trout – which turned out to be a magnificent choice. For our main course we both enjoyed a (very rare, very tender, and very sizable) sirloin steak, with a huge and perfectly prepared cappuccino crème brûlée to complete the meal. (We’re pretty fussy when it comes to crème brûlée, so the words “perfectly prepared” shouldn’t be taken lightly).

All in all, while Salt is a little on the expensive side, we really enjoyed ourselves. The food tasted great and for a fine-dining restaurant, the portions were very large. The only thing that I’m able to criticize them on is the coffee – it was far too strong (for my liking).

Well done Salt!

Salt Restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel

In my next post I’ll tell you a little more about the awesome meal that we enjoyed, but for now, visit their website to see the beautiful photo taken of the view from inside the restaurant. It’s truly a spectacularly romantic spot for evening dining.

Flowering tea

At first I though that the tea was some kind of dried flower – presumably from a tea plant. However on closer inspection I noticed that it appeared to be a bundle if tea leaves wound tightly together by cotton thread. From the photo you’re able to see that my tea actually had little red flowers hidden inside, that appeared as the dried bundle expanded and “bloomed” in the hot water.

My review of the tea is that it’s very pretty to watch, but lacks the taste of traditional Earl Grey, Rooibos, or Ceylon tea. In addition to my ambivalent feeling about it’s taste, the tea is frightfully expensive compared to traditional teas. Personally, I still prefer South African Rooibos over all these – but that said, I’m glad to have tried it – once.

Jan Cats restaurant in Stellenbosch

The restaurant was fairly quiet – I suspect because most of the the university students are away on holiday. They had a fairly large selection of meals to choose from and a number of special offers, including 40% off chicken and beef burgers. The food wasn’t anything extraordinary, but perfectly acceptable (although, we’d recommend chicken over the beef patties). The day had been pretty warm, so what was great about the restaurant was that we were able to sit outside on the cool patio amidst huge oak trees, enjoying the peaceful evening atmosphere.

If it’s a warm evening, and you’re in the mood for pub/bistro-type food, and if there’s place out on the patio – I’d recommend visiting Jan Cats. If you can’t sit on the patio – I’d probably select another restaurant in Andringa Road.

High Tea at the One & Only

What made the visit to the One & Only a little more special was that we spoke for a while with the hotel’s executive chef, Roberto de Carvalho (who joined the One & Only in December and was formerly executive chef at the 12 Apostles). From what I’ve heard, and from what Kerry-Anne has experienced, executive chefs often tend to be aloof, slightly eccentric, and engrossed in their own culinary fame. Roberto, on the other hand, appeared not to fit into that box at all – he seems to be a genuinely nice guy with a passion for awesome food.

We spoke for a few minutes about the cakes, his yummy macarons, and his new position at the One & Only, and then continued to relax while munching away and being bathed in the 5-star service that you’d expect from an O&O hotel. It was a great afternoon that comes highly recommended.

Read this article about Roberto’s move to the One & Only, and perhaps this Q&A session with Muzi Mohale.

Teapot at Myatt

What eventually led us to Myatt was that it was windy outside and we were looking for a quite and comfortable place to have tea and a light snack. After browsing past other noisy restaurants and coffee shops we stumbled upon the quiet and brightly-lit Myatt Café. Even though the macarons that we ordered weren’t comparable to those at Daniela’s the good service and great array of tasty teas served in beautiful pots definitely made up for it.

Myatt is located on the top level of the V&A shopping mall, on the far side – close to Primi Piatti.

A Christmas Tree

Christmas Day is nearly upon us in Cape Town. In fact, it’s about an hour away! In a previous post I commented on how white Christmas trees seem so out of place in Africa. This one at the Mount Nelson Hotel (a.k.a. The Pink Lady) is far more appropriate, don’t you think?

I visited the Mount Nelson for a quick drink with a friend. If you’ve never been, then you have to go. The staff are really professional and the service is exactly what you’d expect from a five-star hotel. Although it’s a little more expensive than other nearby restaurants, meeting for drinks at the Planet Restaurant or Planet Bar (map) is super-convenient, because while parking in Cape Town is often difficult to find, the hotel provides plenty of free undercover parking (which is awesome if you prefer not returning to a car that’s been baking in our hot African summer sun)!

If you celebrate Christmas, allow us to wish you an awesome Christmas Day filled with love and good cheer. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, well, then, allow us to wish you an awesome day filled with love and good cheer. Merry Christmas, folks.