The Italian Kitchen in Tokai

The Italian Kitchen in Tokai, sis­ter res­taur­ant to Jonkershuis and Societi bis­tro at its  new home on Orange Street in Gardens, was fairly hum­ming when we arrived on a Saturday night to cel­eb­rate a birthday.

Its nonas­sum­ing kerb­side façade gives no real indic­a­tion of the buzz that ensues just inside the door, even though there is an out­side table or two, this being spring and hardly the time to sit out of doors, yet. But I can see that in sum­mer, the out­side tables could be much sought after, depend­ing on how much you like watch­ing traffic drive by ...

The Italian Kitchen's décor is just that, an Italian Kitchen, and the bar off to the side allows cas­ual vis­it­ors a chance to sit and sip without hav­ing to sup (or some­thing like that). The team behind the res­taur­ant also bring Tokai the weekly Porter Estate mar­ket or out­door coun­try kit­chen — favour­ite local pro­duce dir­ectly from the source — and the res­taur­ant is covered with pic­tures from the mar­ket, and the pics of local food so enti­cing that by the time you reach your seat and the menu finds its way into your hands, you're prac­tic­ally salivating.

The ethos behind Societi Bistro (which has a co-operative rela­tion­ship with the Labia Theatre) and Jonkershuis has been one of deep­en­ing the qual­ity of life in the com­munity, an emphasis on local products and a place where the accent is on fam­ily and friends, all of which is also in evid­ence at Italian Kitchen. Although it was dif­fi­cult to work out just which of their menu items sup­por­ted local farm­ers and busi­ness (per­haps they can think of adding this as some stage?)

We were seated in a private alcove that serves as a room for such func­tions and can seat up to 12 people. We had a good time, the ser­vice was excel­lent (except when it came time for the bill, but then we all have our short­com­ings) and the food was bet­ter than it gets when it comes to Italian food.

Most inter­est­ing was the take on piz­zas. These were ori­ginal to say the least. Not only are they rect­an­gu­lar, with a simply gor­geous thin crust, but they come in formerly unheard of vari­et­ies, like the Sei, which comes with bacon, red chilli, avo and rocket, the Otto with pesto chicken, goats feta and spin­ach, and the Dieci, the vegetarian's choice, with cin­na­mon but­ter­nut, spin­ach and feta.

Not only do chil­dren get to roll their own piz­zas, but you can order a pizza that comes with a square of each of just about every type of pizza in the joint, known as the Kitchen Zink! Not that that's to what I suc­cumbed. An even bet­ter option was the half a pizza that comes with a side salad of micro greens, tomato and a won­der­ful olive oil based dressing.

And the Italian Kitchen is not all about pizza. There are some heav­enly starters — they assured us that our spe­cial of beef bruschetta would soon become a menu reg­u­lar – and there are pas­tas and meat options on the menu as well. And desserts are simply deli­cious — cheese­cake, won­der­ful almond icecream, dom ped­ros, irish cof­fees — the works.

Where?
The Italian Kitchen is at 21 Tokai road, oppos­ite the Blue Route Mall in Tokai, right next door to Easy Life Kitchens.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 713‑4218.

Porter Estate pro­duce mar­ket is a great place for Saturday morn­ing farm-style break­fasts, fresh local and organic pro­duce and a place for chil­dren to play. Saturday from 9 am till 1 pm.
Telephone: +27 (0)82 823‑4121.

Useful Links:
Tokai Attractions
Tokai Accommodation
Constantia Valley