19-on-Main Bistro, 'Kalk Bay on a Plate'

19-on-Main Bistro

We went down to Kalk Bay on Sunday for a spot of lunch.  We nor­mally go straight along Boyes Drive and then will, nine times out of ten, hook a right and make straight for Polana.  However, now that the road to Simons Town is south flow­ing only, we find ourselves driv­ing along Main Road and dis­covered a few spots that we haven’t before, purely because we don’t drive past them.

I wanted to have lunch at a little French place I’d noticed but before we got there we noticed 19-on-Main Bistro and ended up walk­ing in, lov­ing the look of it and settled down there instead.  I don’t know how I hadn’t seen this gem of a place before.  Perhaps its because the sign for the res­taur­ant and, to be hon­est, the front door are set back a few metres from the road.

My hus­band and I are hooked though and kept say­ing that we couldn’t believe we hadn’t found the place before!  There are a num­ber of tables inside but we made our way to the ‘out­side’ sec­tion – although its not strictly inside, its also not strictly out­side and is covered with shade cloth in most parts.  We decided to sit up at a ‘bar counter’ table – who wouldn’t want the elev­ated view over the sea?

The menu is var­ied and the dishes are simple, bis­tro styled food.  Portions are more than gen­er­ous and with the veget­able accom­pani­ments you def­in­itely get your mon­ies worth.  A bas­ket of bread was placed in front of us; thick cut slices of deli­cious white bread which I smothered in but­ter.  There is noth­ing bet­ter than fresh white bread thick with but­ter is there?  The chicken liv­ers in a creamy brandy sauce were sold out so instead we shared a starter of Thai fish cakes served with a very gingery sauce.  Very Thai and very tasty.

For main I had the chicken pie.  For once the pie was 90% meat and 10% sauce; served with mashed pota­toes, beans, car­rots and creamed spin­ach it was a huge meal.  My hus­band had, as always, a steak! Served with either a pep­per sauce or a mush­room sauce this is accom­pan­ied with beans, car­rots, creamed spin­ach and roas­ted potatoes.

Other items on the menu were for starters: fish soup, a mezze plat­ter and a pot of mus­sels.  Main courses range from Karoo chops, the Harbour bounty, Gnochi and a beef pie.  We were too full for pud­ding but the date and almond tart, Death by Chocolate or the Malva pud would have gone down a treat!

Contact Details:
19-0n-Main is open daily for break­fast and lunch and for din­ner Wednesdays to Sundays.
Call +27 (0)21 788‑3885 for fur­ther information.

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• Kalk Bay Accommodation
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