Flavour Café in Pietermaritzburg – A review

The Flavour Café Entrance

There’s noth­ing quite as enjoy­able as Sunday lunch with friends, and Flavour Café in Pietermaritzburg cer­tainly delivered the goods when we vis­ited them recently. Situated in the attract­ive sur­round­ings of the col­our­ful Dunrobin Nursery in the upmar­ket sub­urb of Oak Park, Flavour Café has to be one of Pietermaritzburg’s best-kept secrets.

The beau­ti­fully dec­or­ated menu offers everything you would expect to find at a café, and more. A vari­ety of cooked break­fast dishes, includ­ing omelettes, are served through­out day while a selec­tion of crois­sants, muffins and ‘health break­fasts’ are avail­able for those who would prefer some­thing lighter. Continued

Fego Caffé in Pietermaritzburg – A Review

Fego Caffé

Fego Caffé at the Liberty Midlands Mall in Pietermaritzburg is a mod­ern cof­fee bar and cas­ual res­taur­ant that has became a pop­u­lar eat­ery fre­quen­ted by people from all walks of life. The Fego Caffé concept works well because they always strive to serve the best espresso based cof­fees and qual­ity, freshly pre­pared food at an afford­able price in a styl­ish yet com­fort­able environment.

Their sig­na­ture brand cof­fee is sourced, roas­ted and pack­aged in Italy and is appar­ently so good that many Europeans feel as though they have never left the con­tin­ent when vis­it­ing a Fego Caffé. Cappuccinos include reg­u­lar (R16), chocol­ate cream (R19), dark and white chocol­ate cio­coc­cino (both R20) while spe­cial cof­fees range from Irish, Kahlua, Frangelico and Sambuca (all R28) to the dec­ad­ent mac­ad­amia and Kahlua Pedro (R35).

Non cof­fee drink­ers like me have the choice of an array of hot bever­ages ran­ging from a humble cup of tea (R13) to the rather inter­est­ing sound­ing Morlicks (R21), a milo and hor­licks com­bin­a­tion that appears to be unique to Fego Caffé. I settled for a hot chocol­ate (R19) which was rich, sweet and won­der­fully deli­cious, set­ting the tone for what was to be a mem­or­able and enjoy­able after­noon. Continued

Boyd Café in Pietermaritzburg – A review

Boyd Cafe

The Hayfields shop­ping centre in Pietermaritzburg is home to a num­ber of small busi­nesses, one of which is the well-known and pop­u­lar cof­fee shop and eat­ery Boyd Café. Now owned by father and son com­bin­a­tion George and Marco Paulo, Boyd Café sports a new look in this extens­ively revamped shop­ping centre.

The décor is brighter and more col­our­ful; cre­at­ing an uplift­ing ambi­ence and the menu still con­tains all those deli­cious tea-time treats that has made this venue so pop­u­lar among loc­als. A mouth– water­ing selec­tion of scones, muffins and cakes cater for those with a sweet tooth while break­fast offer­ings (served through­out the day) range from the humble eggs on toast (R18) to the hearty English break­fast (R49). Continued

Coffeeberry Café in Pietermaritzburg – A Review

Coffeeberry Cafe

Situated in the heart of the Cascades shop­ping centre in Pietermaritzburg, Coffeeberry Café is an upmar­ket cof­fee shop and pan­cake bar that has enjoyed much suc­cess since its incep­tion a num­ber of years ago. The café pays trib­ute to the humble cof­fee berry by serving world-class cof­fee and award-winning cap­pucci­nos to its pat­rons. In addi­tion, the eat­ery offers an extens­ive break­fast, lunch time and snack-time menu.

The Coffeeberry concept revolves around the nat­ural, healthy side of cof­fee; the actual ori­gin of this much loved com­mod­ity. It is widely accep­ted that a young goat her­der named Kaldi dis­covered the little red berry more than a 1,000 years ago – a dis­cov­ery that lit­er­ally changed the world we live in today with cof­fee, after pet­ro­leum, being the most heav­ily traded com­mod­ity on the planet. Continued

Circus Café in Pietermaritzburg – A Review

Circus Café

Circus Café is a rel­at­ively new addi­tion to the Pietermaritzburgres­taur­ant scene, hav­ing recently taken over premises pre­vi­ously occu­pied by a Piatto fran­chise at the Liberty Midlands Mall. Being rather eager to find out what they had to offer, I booked a table for din­ner and soon dis­covered this res­taur­ant could well be here to stay.

Situated adja­cent to the recently opened fun fare, Circus Café attracts a high degree of passing foot traffic with its col­our­ful black and green logo and ‘chess board’ themed tiled floor. The décor is dis­tinct­ively retro, depict­ing a vari­ety of cir­cus themes from a bygone area and com­bined with the upbeat vibe, cre­ates a unique and uplift­ing ambience.

Upon enter­ing I was pleas­antly greeted by res­taur­ant man­ager Andre who promptly showed me to my seat where the rest of my din­ner party were patiently wait­ing. Without fur­ther ado we ordered our drinks and a gar­lic roll to share while we per­used through the rather extens­ive menu. From starters and soups like the Belgium Mussel Hot Pot (fresh Saldanha mus­sels steamed with a creamy gar­lic and dill sauce) to char-grilled steaks and oxtail, Circus Café sports a var­ied menu that will cater for most tastes and pref­er­ences. Continued

Cappello Restaurant in Pietermaritzburg – A review

Cappello Restaurant

Although the brand has been around since 2001, Cappello is rel­at­ively new to the Pietermaritzburg res­taur­ant scene hav­ing only opened in the KwaZulu-Natal cap­ital a few months ago. I recently popped in for lunch to see what they had to offer and was rather impressed with my findings.

Originally developed as a cof­fee shop the brand is now a cock­tail café and a rather swanky one at that. The attract­ive décor and styl­ish interior finishing’s are indic­at­ive of an upmar­ket venue and although I felt dis­tinctly under dressed for the occa­sion, I man­aged to pluck up the cour­age to make an entrance.

Well-groomed busi­ness people of vari­ous descrip­tions sat chat­ting at their tables, enjoy­ing their drinks and the deli­cious food that was avail­able. Restaurant manger Rudi was quick to offer me a table near the bar area and I accep­ted without hes­it­a­tion. Continued

Butcher Boys restaurant in Pietermaritzburg – A superb culinary experience in the capital of KZN

Butcher Boys

There are quite a num­ber of upmar­ket eat­er­ies in Pietermaritzburg these days and as far as steak­houses go you aren’t likely to find any­thing more upmar­ket than Butcher Boys. Located in Armitage Road just oppos­ite the Bird Sanctuary, Butcher Boys is situ­ated in close prox­im­ity to Pietermaritzburg’s afflu­ent north­ern sub­urbs, no doubt the inten­ded tar­get mar­ket of this fine restaurant.

Curious as to what culin­ary exper­i­ences I could savour at this highly recom­men­ded eat­ery I decided to have sup­per at Butcher Boys recently and was most impressed with my find­ings. Specializing in prime cuts of well-aged grain fed South African beef and offer­ing a selec­tion of over 50 vin­tage wines stored in tem­per­at­ure con­trolled cel­lars, Butcher Boys has the per­fect recipe for suc­cess. 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

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

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

The Olive Tree Coffee Shop – A review

Olive Tree Coffee Shop

The Olive Tree Coffee Shop in Pietermaritzburg has been one of my favour­ite eat­er­ies in the KwaZulu-Natal cap­ital for a num­ber of years now, and after my latest lunch­time visit I can hap­pily say that the estab­lish­ment hasn’t changed its recipe for suc­cess. The chief aim of any cof­fee shop should be to make it as easy as pos­sible for pat­rons to unwind and relax while they sample top qual­ity cuisine and receive extraordin­ary ser­vice – some­thing The Olive Tree does very well.

Unfriendly or poorly trained staff, sub-standard or poorly presen­ted food and a noisy, cluttered envir­on­ment are a major turn off for any poten­tial cus­tomer. Happily, though, The Olive Tree main­tains a high degree of pro­fes­sion­al­ism right from the kit­chen to the table mak­ing it undoubtedly the best cof­fee shop in Pietermaritzburg by some mar­gin. Continued

Jimmy’s Killer Prawns in Pietermaritzburg — A review

Jimmy’s Killer Prawns

Although I’m not a huge sea­food fan my curi­os­ity got the bet­ter of me one even­ing when I decided to pay a visit to a recently opened branch of the Jimmy’s Killer Prawns res­taur­ant chain. The branch in ques­tion is situ­ated at the increas­ingly pop­u­lar Invesco Centre in Pietermaritzburg, which is home to a num­ber of upmar­ket res­taur­ants in the KwaZulu-Natal capital.

Friends Mary-Anne, Peta-Anne and Allan (a caterer by trade) joined me on this occa­sion and I was look­ing for­ward to an enjoy­able even­ing din­ing out. Mary-Anne ordered a help­ing of cala­mari served with veget­ables, chips and rice (R70) while the ever exuber­ant Peta-Anne opted for sushi, which took the form of an eight-piece smoked sal­mon California Roll (R45). Continued

Liberty Midlands Mall Motor Show – A review

Motor Show

Once dubbed ‘Sleepy Hollow’, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal’s cap­ital, has become a vibrant city thanks largely to the estab­lish­ment of a mod­ern shop­ping centre there some years ago. Situated on Sanctuary Road, just off the N3 high­way, The Liberty Midlands Mall is home to nearly 180 shops includ­ing many house­hold names like Game, Pick ‘n Pay, Woolworths, Edgars and Cine Centre Cinemas.

Besides the many shops and res­taur­ants, the Mall has a num­ber of attrac­tions with one of the most pop­u­lar being its annual motor show, which is always a crowd puller. Many of the city’s motor deal­ers have real­ised the import­ance of dis­play­ing their products at the Mall and judging by the massive turn out once again, it cer­tainly was money well spent. Continued

Jewel Of India – An exquisite dining experience

Jewel Of India

The rel­at­ively newly estab­lished Invesco Centre in Pietermaritzburg boasts a num­ber of top qual­ity res­taur­ants all offer­ing their own unique brand of cuisine. One of those res­taur­ants, The Jewel of India, was my latest port of call on my travels through KwaZulu-Natal, and what an amaz­ing exper­i­ence it proved to be.

My good friend Mary-Anne and my mom accom­pan­ied me for this review and they both agreed that The Jewel of India was quite pos­sibly the most exclus­ive res­taur­ant they had ever had the pleas­ure of din­ing at. The expens­ive décor and the smart attire of both staff mem­bers and pat­rons served notice that this was an upmar­ket estab­lish­ment, in fact so much so that I almost felt out of place among all the glitz and glam­our. Continued

‘Concert in the Park’ – A review

Concert in the Park

Established in the early 1870s for the pur­pose of con­serving and propagat­ing rare and endangered indi­gen­ous plants, the National Botanical Gardens in Pietermaritzburg is always a great venue for any­one look­ing to relax and unwind amongst the beauty of nature. Flowers of every descrip­tion birth forth a kal­eido­scope of col­ours and hues while tall trees shade vis­it­ors strolling along the neatly man­i­cured lawns cre­at­ing a sense of uto­pia sel­dom exper­i­enced in any city setting.

The ever pop­u­lar ‘Concert in the Park’ has been staged annu­ally in the Botanical Gardens since 2005 and when Continued