Dinner & Dance in Cape Town

What do you get when you put together a group of old friends, an approach­ing birth­day, deli­cious food and copi­ous amounts of wine? The answer — a reunion and smash­ing birth­day bash.

I have a group of very spe­cial friends who are spread far and wide across con­tin­ents and sea and this week we were lucky enough to arrange for every­one to be in the same place at the same time for a cel­eb­ra­tion. We had friends travel from Eshowe in KwaZulu Natal, Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape as well as the birth­day boy from Hamburg, Germany, his sis­ter from the UK and a pair love birds from the shores of Spain. And of course -  all of the fab­ulous people who reside in Cape Town. This even­ing was an oppor­tun­ity to get kit­ted out in our finest attire and head down to Somerset Road in Green Point for some fine din­ing and bit of dancing ...

The decision was to do some­thing com­pletely out of the norm, we wanted it lav­ish, we wanted it over the top and most import­antly indul­gent. And where bet­ter to do so than Pigalle Restaurant? Not only is the decor opu­lent, but the ser­vice impec­cable and the food sublime.

For those of you who don’t know, Pigalle is a spe­cial concept brought to life by Victor Gonçalves with branches in Cape Town and three in Johannesburg (Bedfordview, Sandton and Melrose Arch).  The entrance to Pigalle in Cape Town is not off Somerset road as expec­ted, but at the back end of the build­ing. It is a grand entrance with red car­peted floors with a team of staff who eagerly await your arrival. A warm, wel­com­ing bar is your first taste of Pigalle with a cock­tail and wine list that is vast and this makes it tricky to make a decision as to what to drink, how­ever it is also easy to become dis­trac­ted by the gor­geous decor of chan­deliers and mag­ni­fi­cent artwork.

This 350-seater res­taur­ant has a private din­ing room for more intim­ate func­tions as well as a smoking room for those who wish to relax on a big leather couch and catch up with good friends. The room is centred around the 3 piece band who treated us to a won­der­ful selec­tion of music and stead­ily trans­formed the relaxed din­ing atmo­sphere into an excit­ing music dance hall dur­ing the course of the evening.

Once seated at our table we were intro­duced to our waiters, who I must add, took excep­tional care of the table and atten­ded to our every need. I do need to add a note here though that while they keep filling up your water glasses be aware that this can lead to an unex­pec­ted hefty addi­tion to your bill at the end of the night (we had an addi­tional R400 added to our bill for water).

I think the most dif­fi­cult part of the even­ing was try­ing to select what to eat as the menu, although not for everyone’s budget, is vast with a wide selec­tion to choose from. As the staff will tell you Pigalle is renowned for their sea­food and there are a num­ber of options you can chose. For those meat lov­ers out there you will not be dis­ap­poin­ted as there are some excel­lent choices for you.

As our waiter was telling us about the spe­cials and what he would recom­mend for the even­ing everyone’s mouth star­ted to water as he described some of their most pop­u­lar dishes. I was sold on some­thing that is so 1970’s, the prawn cock­tail. It arrived in a mar­gar­ita glass with a base of beet­root, a creamy avo­cado puree, delight­fully plump prawns, a seg­ment of cit­rus and topped with a dash of caviar. It was abso­lutely tasty but it was only the begin­ning of the feast. I was also lucky enough to try an oyster, which was pos­sibly one of the biggest and freshest oysters I have been lucky enough to slurp down. Some of the other starters that were enjoyed were escar­got, grilled cala­mari and a goats cheese salad. The starters and salads range start at R49 and up to R80 with the major­ity priced at around R65.

You know you are in a place with great ser­vice when you don’t need to ask for another drink or ask when the next course will be ready, time seemed to flow effort­lessly that even­ing and before we knew it our main course had arrived.

The line fish of the day was Kingklip and I decided to have this grilled with a lemon beurre blanc sauce, it was accom­pan­ied by a scrump­tious basil mash (which I will def­in­itely try to rep­lic­ate at home), the shock­ing green col­our of the mash was com­pli­men­ted with red onions, pep­per­dews and baby peas. This was def­in­itely worth the R118 charged for the meal, it looked as good as it tasted.

As is most com­mon with good friends, or cer­tainly in my case, shar­ing is caring and so it was lovely to be able to taste a few of my friends dishes as well. The baked line fish (R118) was extremely tasty and well presen­ted and as men­tioned before meat lov­ers will not be dis­ap­poin­ted. The herb mar­in­ated beef fil­let (R150) epi­tom­ised the expres­sion “like a hot knife through but­ter”, as this fil­let was cooked to per­fec­tion and was an abso­lute star at the din­ner table. Main courses range from R118 to R490 for a sea­food plat­ter for 2.

Once we had had our fill and were a bit more relaxed the band upped the tempo and it was time to hit the dance floor. Since we were a large table it was the per­fect oppor­tun­ity to fill up your dance card and dance with each and every­one. What fun it was spin­ning around the floor and hav­ing the most fun with your friends. It doesn’t really mat­ter what kind of moves you have it is just a great oppor­tun­ity to get up and move your body to some smooth sounds from the band.

The band played their last num­ber just after 23h00 although I think a few of us could have danced all night! Dinner was roun­ded off by some delect­able desserts, I would highly recom­mend adding some but­ter­scotch sauce to your malva pud­ding when you are next there.

Some import­ant things to remem­ber are that there is a dress code enforced at the door and it is smart. This means a collared shirt and smart shoes, jeans are accept­able. You also need to be pre­pared for a min­imum spend of R150, this is what each per­son will be charged no mat­ter what they have. So if you only intend to have a starter you will still be charged R150.

What more is there to say besides that I highly recom­mend an even­ing at Pigalle, but remem­ber this is not a quick din­ing exper­i­ence. You need to ensure you go when you can savour the entire even­ing, the food is most def­in­itely worth it. And go with people you really care about, it makes the even­ing that much more mem­or­able. Thank you friends, you know who you are!

Contact details:
Pigalle Cape Town — 57A Somerset Road, Green Point, +27 (0)21 421‑4848.
Pigalle Bedfordview — Shop No 36, Village View Shopping Centre, Cnr. Kloof and Van Buuren Road, +27 (0)11 450‑2242.
Pigalle Sandton — Shop U09, 4^th floor, Michelangelo Tower, Maude Street, +27 (0)21 884‑8899.
Pigalle Melrose Arch — Shop HL48 Level 05/Orange (High Level Street), Corlett Drive, +27 (0)11 684‑2711

Useful Links:
Green Point Attractions
Things to Do in Green Point
Green Point Accommodation
Cape Town Restaurants