What’s for dinner tonight?

If you don’t feel like cook­ing din­ner tonight and the credit crunch mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to afford that lux­ury din­ner then I have a few solu­tions for you to dine out for R50.00 or less per per­son. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?

Brad’s Grill in Harfield Village Claremont (Southern Suburbs, Cape Town), has an In by 6 Out by 8 spe­cial that runs 7 days a week and the whole night on Sunday. The deal is you need to be in the res­taur­ant by 18h00 (last orders taken at 18h45) and be out by 20h00. This is great for a mid­week din­ner when you have for­got­ten to defrost the chicken! The menu is always the same, which is great because you know what you are in for. For R35.00 you have a choice between a 180g sir­loin steak, chicken schnitzel, deep fried cala­mari, hot and spicy chicken wings or veget­arian spring rolls. This is served with either a baked potato, chips or rice and 2 veget­ables (but­ter­nut and spinach) ...

I find the cala­mari is always suc­cu­lent and tasty and the steak is done to per­fec­tion. If you are feel­ing a bit peck­ish then you can always have the Combo, which is any 2 items on the spe­cial menu for only R65.00 (so the steak and cala­mari make the per­fect surf and turf). A recent addi­tion to this spe­cial is the lamb shank for R60.00 served with mashed pota­toes and 2 veget­ables, it is abso­lutely deli­cious, slow roas­ted in a red wine sauce and don’t for­get to ask for the bone in a doggy bag if you have a dog at home, it will def­in­itely go down a treat!

Another early din­ner spe­cial can be found at Barristers Grill & Cafe on Main in Newlands (Southern Suburbs, Cape Town). This is also great as a lunch spe­cial as it starts from 12 noon and you need to have eaten by 19h00. I met a friend for after work drinks and since we both live on our own this was a great oppor­tun­ity to let someone else deal with the dirty dishes. The spe­cial costs only R39.95 and there are a wide range of choices on the menu, each main is served with the veget­ables of the day (it was but­ter­nut and creamed spin­ach when we were there).

You have a choice between chicken schnitzel, steak, fish served with lemon or gar­lic but­ter, veget­arian pasta (a spin­ach can­nel­loni was the option for the day), pie of the day, bangers and mash, the curry of the day (mut­ton) or crumbed cala­mari. Barristers is renowned for their steak so you won’t be dis­ap­poin­ted. We both decided to have the fish, which was an abso­lutely enorm­ous por­tion and fant­astic value for money. It was crumbed with a lovely bat­ter that when cracked revealed a per­fectly cooked piece of hake, it was accom­pan­ied by a tar­tar sauce and not the lemon or gar­lic but­ter as on the menu, how­ever it was deli­cious none the less. This was a great meal and I will def­in­itely be head­ing back there soon.

Heading into the Cape Town city centre the Cape Quarter in De Waterkant has a num­ber of fab­ulous res­taur­ants and most of them offer­ing spe­cials. Fiesta, a tapas, cafe and bar offers 2 tapas for R39.95 and 3 tapas for only R49.95, this is a great way to spend an even­ing with good friends who you can share food with. I espe­cially enjoyed their artichokes mar­in­ated with gar­lic and rose­mary. You can be sure to find some­thing to cater for anyone’s palate.

Last night I once again found myself at the Cape Quarter, this time at Andiamo for their fant­astic spe­cial 2 piz­zas or 2 pas­tas plus 2 glasses of wine for only R100.00. This is def­in­itely some­thing you shouldn’t miss out on, the spe­cial has been exten­ded and it’s not sur­pris­ing as the res­taur­ant was packed and buzz­ing with a great vibe. We had a large table of friends (try to make sure you go with even num­bers so that no one misses out on the spe­cial) and all ordered the spe­cial. It was also a happy dis­cov­ery to find that you are not lim­ited to have 2 pas­tas or 2 piz­zas you can mix and match (i.e. 1 pasta and 1 pizza), which is exactly what many of us at the table did, shar­ing is caring after all.

You are able to chose from their main menu and not the one that is entitled spe­cials, which can cause a bit of con­fu­sion how­ever there are plenty of options.  My choice was the Al Samone pasta (fresh baby leeks, smoked sal­mon, cream & a touch of napo­letana sauce) which was abso­lutely deli­cious and the por­tion size is just right. I also had a taste of the Salmone E Rucola a pizza with smoked sal­mon and rocket, served with cream cheese which is abso­lutely fant­astic, their piz­zas are not over­loaded with cheese so you are able to taste the del­ic­ate fla­vour of the smoked sal­mon with the pep­pery fla­vour of rocket. This spe­cial is great option with a large group of friends as there is not much to quibble over when the bill comes, every­one owes their R50.00 plus tip and any addi­tional bever­ages they had.

A big thank you to these res­taur­ants for giv­ing us such great spe­cials that are good value for money and tasty. Everyone deserves a night off from the kit­chen so why give your­self a break or sur­prise your loved one and visit one of these restaurants?

Contact Details:
Brad’s Grill, 69 Second Avenue, Harfield Village, Claremont
Telephone: +27 (0)21 671‑2527

Barristers Grill & Cafe on Main, Cardiff Castle, Corner of Kildare Rd and Main Street, Newlands
Telephone: +27 (0)21 671‑7907

Fiesta, Cape Quarter, 72 Waterkant Street, Green Point
Telephone: +27 (0)21 418‑5121

Andiamo, Cape Quarter, 72 Waterkant Street, Green Point
Telephone: +27 (0)21 421‑3687 / 8

Know of any good Restaurants offer­ing spe­cials?
If you know about other res­taur­ant spe­cials please share them with us by post­ing the details in the com­ments below.

Useful Links:
Cape Town Restaurants
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