La Vita Restaurant in Pietermaritzburg – A Review

La Vita Restaurant

La Vita res­taur­ant has had a repu­ta­tion as being one of the most upmar­ket and expens­ive eat­er­ies in Pietermaritzburg for a while now. Situated in the pop­u­lar and well-known Invesco Centre just a few kilo­metres from the CBD, La Vita spe­cial­ises in Italian cuisine and has an extens­ive selec­tion of pizza, pasta, sea­food and meat dishes to cater for almost any pal­ate. Curious sound­ing offer­ings such as Drunk Duck and Raunchy Rabbit are guar­an­teed to arouse interest and even Guineafowl is avail­able for those want­ing to try some­thing new.

Italian cuisine has a rich her­it­age, hav­ing trace­able roots as far back as the fourth cen­tury BC. La Vita strives to main­tain this her­it­age by using only impor­ted ingredi­ents, giv­ing the food an authen­tic and unmis­tak­able Italian fla­vour. My mom and I exper­i­enced this authen­ti­city first hand when we had sup­per at La Vita recently, an exper­i­ence we’ll cer­tainly remem­ber for some time. Continued

Where to Lunch in De Rust, and Why it's Worth a Visit

Lunch in De Rust

We don't mean to stop in De Rust. We're on the N12 that heads off the N1 close to the Karoo National Park en route to Ladismith, our inten­ded des­tin­a­tion, and have just come through the incred­ible Meiringspoort, when De Rust appears out of nowhere.

The main road through town is littered with col­our­ful res­taur­ants, cof­fee shops and the odd boutique. The place is hot and hum­ming. And a big board informs us that De Rust has won 'dorp van die jaar' and claims to be the best town in the Karoo.

Besides, we're hot and hungry. And with all the jolly jost­ling for atten­tion that each of the estab­lish­ments makes in a bid to get you to stop at their res­taur­ant (they're rather col­our­ful), the town deserves exploration.

The towns we've passed through, the heat of the Karoo and the incred­ible tower­ing sand­stone cliffs of Meiringspoort have all reminded me of author Ettienne van Heerden's The Long Silence of Mario Salviati (if there's one book that to me epi­tom­ises the Karoo, then it's this one, although the ori­ginal, is of course, Die Swye van Mario Salviati). Continued

Essence Café in Pietermaritzburg — A Review

Essence Cafe

Location plays a crit­ical role in the suc­cess of any res­taur­ant and Essence Café is most cer­tainly well situ­ated at Wetherlys Centre, prob­ably the most upmar­ket loc­a­tion in the Pietermaritzburg CBD. On the day of my visit there were a num­ber of lux­ury cars, includ­ing BMW’s, Mercedes Benz’s, Audi’s and even a Porsche gra­cing the centre’s park­ing bays – unmis­tak­able proof that this venue is quickly gain­ing a repu­ta­tion as one of the best meet­ing places for local busi­ness people.

Owner Martin Maltby named the res­taur­ant ‘Essence’ because he believes the word encom­passes the ‘soul’ of the busi­ness: “Good food, good friends and excel­lence,” and he cer­tainly has devised a com­pre­hens­ive menu that caters for just about every­one. From health break­fasts such as jungle oats to tasty offer­ings like crum­pet stacks, pan­cakes, French toast, freshly baked crois­sants, Welsh rarebit and omelettes to name but a few, the early morn­ing cuisine cer­tainly soun­ded won­der­ful but hav­ing arrived just after one in the after­noon, the lunch menu was what I was most inter­ested in. Continued

Rawdon’s Restaurant – Good old fashioned service and hospitality in the Midlands

Rawdons Estate

Situated in the heart of the Midlands Meander and only a five minute drive from the N3 high­way is Rawdon’s Estate, prob­ably one of the old­est hos­pit­al­ity estab­lish­ments on the Midlands. The first thing that struck me about Rawdon’s was its unique, old world charm.

Closely resem­bling an English coun­try estate of a bygone era the estab­lish­ment is fur­nished with a vari­ety of prize antiques that cre­ate an atmo­sphere of class and soph­ist­ic­a­tion. Walking through its numer­ous hall­ways and invest­ig­at­ing its many nooks and cran­nies was an abso­lute delight and I espe­cially enjoyed the count­less, anim­ated framed sketches that adorned the walls. Continued

Gunther’s – A little piece of Switzerland in the Midlands

Gunther's

I’ve never been to Switzerland, but I got the chance to exper­i­ence just a taste of what that might be like when I vis­ited Gunther’s on the Midlands Meander recently. Gunther’s is not really a res­taur­ant in the tra­di­tional sense, serving only light meals of German / Swiss saus­ages washed down with your favour­ite draft or glass of wine, but even without a formal menu it cer­tainly is a venue that has a lot to offer.

The secret to its suc­cess is the hands on approach adop­ted by owner Gunther Janz, a man who clearly has a pas­sion for the hos­pit­al­ity industry and a love for tra­di­tional German / Swiss cuisine. Born in Switzerland, Gunther moved to South Africa at a young age and quickly fell in love with its stun­ning, nat­ural beauty. He decided to stay and, together with his wife Carmen, estab­lished Gunther’s some years ago.

Billed as ‘a little piece of Switzerland in the heart of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands’ Gunther could not have picked a more beau­ti­ful spot for his beloved cre­ation. Situated high on a hill over­look­ing the per­en­ni­ally majestic Caversham Valley, Gunther’s resembles a set­ting straight out of the pages of an inter­na­tional travel cata­logue and in the winter months, where snow­fall is com­mon in the Midlands, it cer­tainly must be an awe­some sight to behold. Continued

La Popote Restaurant in Hilton – a little oasis of peace and tranquillity in the Midlands

La Popote Restaurant

The quaint little vil­lage of Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands is a pleas­ure to visit no mat­ter what time of the year. The crisp, clean air is always refresh­ing and with a num­ber of qual­ity eat­er­ies to choose from, you are almost always guar­an­teed to find the per­fect venue to tickle your taste buds.

La Popote Restaurant, situ­ated amidst the beauty and tran­quil­lity of Sue Tarr’s Summerhouse, is without a doubt one of the best eat­er­ies in the area as I found out when some friends and I popped in for Sunday lunch recently. Although more of a tea garden than a res­taur­ant, La Popote offers a range of cuisine cater­ing for most palates.

To ensure vari­ety the menu changes reg­u­larly and upon learn­ing that all meals, desserts and drinks are pre­pared on site I promptly ordered a home made ginger ale (R18). It was excep­tion­ally refresh­ing, not to sweet yet full of fla­vour and just what I needed to quench my thirst. Continued

Butcher Block Restaurant in Pietermaritzburg – A review

Butcher Block Restaurant

When my good friend Mary-Anne invited me to join her and her par­ents for din­ner at The Butcher Block Restaurant in Pietermaritzburg recently I didn’t hes­it­ate on tak­ing up their offer know­ing from past exper­i­ence that the food at this estab­lish­ment is gen­er­ally pretty good. Situated at the Liberty Midlands Mall, The Butcher Block finds itself in a com­pet­it­ive envir­on­ment with a num­ber of sim­il­arly themed res­taur­ants loc­ated close by.

The Butcher Block copes with this com­pet­i­tion by deliv­er­ing fast and effi­cient ser­vice and great tast­ing, afford­ably priced food in a relaxed yet uplift­ing atmo­sphere that makes you want to relive the exper­i­ence time and time again. Although essen­tially a meat and chicken lover’s para­dise The Butcher Block menu offers a wide selec­tion of starters, salads and main meals that cater for just about every pal­ate, no mat­ter how particular.

Mary-Anne opted for the chicken wrap (chicken fil­lets filled with moz­zarella cheese and herb and gar­lic but­ter wrapped in bacon and topped with a mush­room sauce) and thor­oughly enjoyed it, mainly because of the “deli­ciously tasty mush­room sauce that com­pli­men­ted the dish to per­fec­tion.” At R82 the meal was also well priced, espe­cially when you con­sider, as with all the poultry dishes on the menu, that it included a serving of fresh chips or sea­sonal veget­ables. Continued

St Ives Restaurant in the Midlands – A Review

St Ives Restaurant

St Ives Country Estate has to be one of the most attract­ive ven­ues on the Midlands Meander and quite pos­sibly one of the most well-known as well. Situated on the R103 just up the road from the Piggly Wiggly Coffee Shop, St Ives is hard to miss.

It’s a huge estate sport­ing well man­i­cured, lush green lawns and a beau­ti­ful lake mak­ing for a land­scape rivalling among the most allur­ing the region has to offer. St Ives has many attrac­tions, the most well known of which is undoubtedly its superb trout fishing.

However, indul­ging in a spot of fish­ing was not the reason for my visit. I had come to indulge my taste buds at their pop­u­lar gour­met res­taur­ant, reputed to be one of the best in the area. My good friend Mary-Anne and my mom accom­pan­ied me for the after­noon and although we all (for the most part at least) simply loved the cuisine that was on offer, we left some­what dis­ap­poin­ted with our find­ings. Continued

John Dory’s Liberty Midlands Mall – A review

John Dory’s

Founded with the intent of mak­ing fresh fish and sea­food avail­able to the pub­lic at afford­able prices, the first John Dory’s Fish and Grill opened its doors in Durban in 1996 and quickly mush­roomed into a national brand with 26 stores in eight provinces. That sort of growth is pretty impress­ive in anyone’s books and being eager to dis­cover why John Dory’s have been so suc­cess­ful I decided to have din­ner at their Liberty Midlands Mall out­let in Pietermaritzburg recently.

I invited my good friend Mary-Anne and my mom to join me for the even­ing know­ing full well that both of them would be more than will­ing to provide an hon­est assess­ment of their culin­ary exper­i­ences. Upon enter­ing the estab­lish­ment we received a warm wel­come and were promptly shown to our table stop­ping occa­sion­ally to appre­ci­ate some of the vibrant décor, which cre­ated an almost the­at­rical ambi­ence through­out the res­taur­ant, along the way. Continued

The Calabash Café – A quaint little coffee shop in the Midlands

The Calabash Café

The Calabash Café is a quaint, little cof­fee shop situ­ated just off the busy N3 near Howick in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. I decided to pop in for Sunday lunch there recently, per­suad­ing friends Mary-Anne, Peter and Lisa to join me for what proved to be an inter­est­ing experience.

After being shown to our table we promptly ordered drinks and began to per­use the menu which con­tained just about everything you’d expect to find at a coun­try café. We had the option of choos­ing from a selec­tion of sand­wiches, bur­gers, soups, quiche’s and salads as well as a vari­ety of tra­di­tional favour­ites such as Welsh Rarebit, fish and chips, Chicken a la King and bangers and mash to men­tion but a few.

With so many options avail­able decid­ing what to have was prov­ing dif­fi­cult and so both I and Peter decided to play it safe by order­ing the Sunday roast (R60). Mary-Anne, on the other hand, opted for the chicken schnitzel, chips and salad (R45) while Lisa decided to skip mains, select­ing one of her favour­ite treats, a lemon meringue tart (R20), instead. Continued

Terbodore Coffee Roasters – A fine culinary experience in the Midlands

Terbodore Coffee Roasters

Situated on the Curry’s Post Road in the KwaZulu-Natal mid­lands, Terbodore Coffee Roasters are renowned for their award win­ning cap­pucci­nos made from the finest roas­ted cof­fee in the area. Not being a cof­fee drinker how­ever, I had never really shown much interest in pay­ing Terbodore a visit, that is until I learnt the estab­lish­ment is home to a fully fledged restaurant.

Eager to find out what was on the menu I booked a table for Sunday lunch as soon as I could. The trip from Pietermaritzburg to Howick is sel­dom a pleas­ant one these days with lum­ber­ing, heavy-laden trucks and haz­ard­ous con­struc­tion work prov­ing a chal­lenge for even the most vigil­ant motor­ist. Once off the busy N3 how­ever, I began to relax as I made me way onto the Curry’s Post Road – the epi­tome of a quite coun­try road if ever there was one.

The scenery in this part of the world is simply stun­ning. A series of sea blue lakes shimmered in the glor­i­ous spring sun­shine and the lush, green mead­ows were so invit­ing that I exper­i­enced an almost irres­ist­ible urge to stop the car and enjoy an impromptu pic­nic right in the midst of all the beauty. However, as enthu­si­astic as I was I wasn’t going to risk spoil­ing my appet­ite and so I car­ried on driv­ing, reach­ing my des­tin­a­tion in good time and in very good spir­its. Continued

Jaxx Restaurant in Hilton – A review

Jaxx Restaurant

The beau­ti­ful and quaint vil­lage of Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands is home to a num­ber of fine eat­er­ies, many of which have been around for quite some time. A recent visit to village’s pop­u­lar Quarry shop­ping centre, how­ever, revealed the pres­ence of Jaxx Restaurant, an obvi­ous ‘new kid on the block’.

Not want­ing to pass up the oppor­tun­ity to try some­thing new I decided to sit down and enjoy an impromptu lunch and, a few quibbles aside, I was rather happy with my find­ings. The Jaxx menu is quite var­ied with break­fast offer­ings includ­ing a selec­tion of omelettes and tra­di­tional fare such as bacon and eggs on toast while health­ier options are avail­able for those keep­ing a strict eye on their waistlines.

I quite enjoy my cooked break­fasts, some­times reques­ted them even in the after­noon, but with Jaxx strictly adher­ing to their policy of “break­fasts served until 11am only” I had to look else­where on the menu for sat­is­fac­tion. Not being par­tic­u­larly hungry I decided to settle for a roast beef, pickled onion and Dijon mayo sand­wich with French fries which, at just R35, seemed like a decent bet. Continued

RJ’s Steakhouse in Pietermaritzburg — A review

RJ's Steakhouse

The RJ’s res­taur­ant chain has become a house­hold name in South Africa for a num­ber of years now and is syn­onym­ous for pro­du­cing suc­cu­lent steaks, mouth-watering ribs and vari­ous other types of deli­cious cuisine. Eager to put these claims to the test I paid a visit to RJ’s at the upmar­ket Invesco Centre in Pietermaritzburg recently.

Friday and Saturday nights at RJ’s are known to be busy and the even­ing of my visit was no excep­tion. There wasn’t a free table in sight and the res­taur­ant was a hive of activ­ity with waitrons scur­ry­ing about and pat­rons enga­ging in loud con­ver­sa­tion and much mer­ri­ment. Continued

Tea at Nellies

Tea at Nellies

I've got a con­fes­sion to make. I've lived in Cape Town for nigh on six years and up until yes­ter­day had still not had high tea at Nellies. This is a sac­ri­lege. Even my friends, who recently came to stay from Durban, man­aged to make a detour to the Mount Nelson Hotel some­thing of a pri­or­ity, where after they waxed lyr­ical for at least an hour.  Nothing like feel­ing you don't know your home city to get one motiv­ated. Nonetheless  it still took an irres­ist­ible spe­cial offer and an organ­ised man to get me there. Continued

O’ways Teacafe in Claremont

O'Ways Teacafe

Tea houses haven’t exactly taken off in Cape Town. While we embrace cof­fee cul­ture with almost reli­gious zeal, we tend to sniff our noses at any­where that offers any­thing other than Ceylon and Rooibos (or per­haps Green Tea or Chamomile for the real dare­dev­ils.) The now defunct Tea Emporium in Cavendish Mall had dozens of vari­et­ies of tea, but its many Eastern-inspired teapots stood empty whilst den­iz­ens of the mall jostled for room in the cof­fee shops.

Thankfully we now have a new tea house in the sub­urbs to chal­lenge the cof­fee olig­archy. O’ways Teacafe offers more than sixty-four exit­ing forms of nigiro teas and infu­sions sourced from all over the world.  The exotic names are enough to make you try them all; Chinese Gunpowder, Strawberries and Cream and even the more eso­teric flower­ing teas. Continued