Addis in Cape — eating with your hands is all it's cut out to be

Addis in Cape Town

As you have no doubt derived from the rather obvi­ous name of the res­taur­ant, Addis is a bit of Ethiopia bang smack in the middle of Cape Town.

I don't usu­ally do 'theme' res­taur­ants, par­tic­u­larly those aimed at tour­ists. To be hon­est, I don't get to eat out at night much at all – funny how that stops when the 'bundle of joy' arrives, and stays stopped until he's left home, although I'm hop­ing I get out and about before then... another twenty odd years without cul­ture will do my head in. But with mom-in-law down, a night on the town was oblig­at­ory, and Long Street was the obvi­ous choice (Long Street is where the night life is, if Camps Bay isn't your thing, which it isn't). Even if Addis is tech­nic­ally just around the corner from Long Street, on Church Street, it has incred­ible views of Long Street, and blends right on in with the other trendy eat­er­ies ... Continued

Lunch at Lanzerac

Lunch at Lanzerac

We spent the recent Heritage Day long week­end in the Cape Winelands and had lunch at Lanzerac on Friday.  I’d spent a few hours at the Spa and feel­ing a bit peck­ish we opted for what was close at hand – The Taphuis!  There was a fresh breeze blow­ing so we were happy to sit inside and the interior with its massive fire­place and long, wooden bar counter set a per­fect ambience.

There are only a few tables in The Taphuis but they are fairly large and I appre­ci­ated not hav­ing to rearrange the cut­lery, crock­ery and glass­ware to make enough space for the bread bas­ket! The ser­vice was good (although as we were one of two tables you would expect it to be!) and before long we were tuck­ing into a very sat­is­fy­ing lunch indeed ... Continued

Mano's in Green Point — a review

Mano's in Green Point

I went to Mano’s for din­ner with friends on Wednesday night and I feel like I’ve been let in on Cape Towns best kept secret!  What a fant­astic little haunt this is and judging by the packed interior a lot of other folk think so to!

Located at 39 Main Road, Green Point, Mano’s is open for both lunch and din­ner and has cul­tiv­ated an atmo­sphere that makes it pop­u­lar with young fam­il­ies and city slick­ers.  There were four of us in our group and although seated as a six seater table we were soon shif­ted to a four seater Continued

Geoffrey Murray joins Justin Bonello on "Cooked — Out of the Frying Pan"

This month Zachary’s Executive Chef, Geoffrey Murray, will appear in an epis­ode of Season IV’s Cooked with Justin Bonello on DStv’s BBC Lifestyle channel.

The epis­ode shows Geoffrey Murray and his team with Justin in Zachary’s kit­chen at Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa in Knysna, pre­par­ing and cook­ing some of the dishes from Zachary’s menu, includ­ing seed loaf, green tomato rel­ish, octopus carpac­cio and salami.

The focus of the series is to show how Justin, who has made his name cook­ing in the out­doors, copes with work­ing in a formal kitchen.

After three sea­sons of Cooked, and hav­ing pub­lished the first Cooked in Africa cook­book, Justin will be seen cook­ing in top haute-cuisine styled eat­er­ies and fam­ily res­taur­ants where he attempts to mas­ter or at least gain insight into a smor­gas­bord of cook­ing styles from around the globe. Continued

10 Eateries with a View for Lunch (or Sundowners)

10 Eateries with a View for Lunch (or Sundowners) this Summer — Some things you need to take upon your­self to change, but the beauty of life is that with most things it’s a given. After the cold, will come the warmth and after winter will come spring and with it, the all gor­geous sum­mer sun, allow­ing us golden oppor­tun­it­ies to sit back and sip in the beauty that sur­rounds us. So dust off the winter cob­webs, get out­side and breathe in the splend­our of our South African sum­mers, which is: spec­tac­u­lar views, fresh open air, gor­geous wines and suc­cu­lent foods.

We have high­lighted some of the loc­a­tions where you and your fam­ily and friends can treat yourselves to top class din­ing with breath­tak­ing views — the beach­front, vine­yard and moun­tain sur­round­ings of South Africa were our inspir­a­tion palette. We hope to inspire you to enjoy an after­noon lunch in one of these idyllic set­tings, while sip­ping on your favour­ite wine and soak­ing up the fresh air and warm after­noon sun. All you need to do is take the time to make the time, because you deserve it!

10 Eateries with a View for Lunch or Sundowners this Summer (in no par­tic­u­lar order):

1. Salt Restaurant & Bar (Bantry Bay, Cape Town)
2. The Twelve Apostles (near Camps Bay, Cape Town)
3. La Vierge Restaurant & Champagne Verandah (near Hermanus, Western Cape)
4. Grande Provence (Franschhoek, Cape Winelands)
5. Bel Punto Restaurant (Umdloti, KwaZulu Natal)
6. Casalinga Ristorante (Johannesburg, Gauteng)
7. The Goatshed at Fairview (Paarl, Cape Winelands)
8. Zachary's at Pezula (Knysna, Garden Route)
9. Granny Mouse Country House (KwaZulu Natal Midlands)
10. Harbour House Restaurant (Kalk Bay, Cape Town) Continued

Café Delicieux in Welgemoed Cape Town — a review

There are many little hid­den gems in the Northern sub­urbs of Cape Town. For instance, there is a quiet little eat­ery loc­ated at the Welgemoed forum called Café Delicieux. This is a trendy café where those in the know gather for deli­cious brunches or a tasty light lunch. However, once a week on a Friday even­ing they are open for din­ner, offer­ing a dif­fer­ent menu every week where you can have two courses for R125, or three courses for R150 ... Continued

Pizza for lunch at Posticino — a highlight of Sea Point

Posticino in Sea Point

There's some­thing decidedly hodge podge about Posticino – the vir­tu­ally emer­ald green sign indic­at­ing the res­taur­ant, the rather glam­or­ous and trendy out­door ter­race that looks like some­thing out of Italy, the almost over­cum­ber­some arches, and then the quaint, this-is-a-family-style rather dimly lit tavern-style res­taur­ant that all some­how man­ages to co-exist in a way that has the place con­stantly buzzing.

Okay, per­haps 'hodge podge' is a little derog­at­ory a term for this suc­cess­ful eat­ery. Eclectic would prob­ably be more apt, since it's some­thing of an icon in Sea Point and I need to treat it with more respect (I do so nat­ur­ally when I later sample the piz­zas) ... Continued

La Perla in Sea Point — a review

La Perla

I’m a huge Springbok fan and there is noth­ing I enjoy more than a Saturday after­noon in front of the tele­vi­sion cheer­ing them on to vic­tory.  However, I’m also closer to 40 than I am to 30, so stand­ing in a heav­ing pub where you have to queue for a drink has def­in­itely lost its appeal!  Imagine my joy then when friends invited us to La Perla in Sea Point for the game on Saturday after­noon.  I must admit, I didn’t even know La Perla exis­ted but I’m impressed, very impressed!

Our friends were already at La Perla when we arrived and had booked front row seats; a couch and a few otto­mans placed around a table.  We were among the first to arrive but within thirty minutes or so the lounge was packed with not a spare seat to be found.  We had barely sat down when a waiter placed espresso cups of but­ter­nut soup on the table in front of us.  A little taster from the kit­chen; and a deli­cious taster it was too Continued

Café Jo Brown — a Long Street experience not to be missed

Café Jo Brown

Café Jo Brown might lie just off the top end of Long Street in Buiten Street, in Cape Town's thriv­ing City Bowl, but in truth its fla­vour, per­son­al­ity and fresh faced candor means it deserves to take its place on Long Street, in amongst the stream of other din­stinctly African fla­voured eateries.

I park on the corner of Long Street and Buiten and, after pay­ing the car attend­ant what seems an inor­din­ate amount of cash con­sid­er­ing that this is a street and not under­cover park­ing at a mall, begin to amble up the little side road that is Buiten, in search of Judah's Café Jo Brown — a friend of mine has recom­men­ded we try it ... Continued

Mundo Vida in Umdloti — a review

Mundo Vida

I spent part of the recent long week­end on the Dolphin Coast of KwaZulu Natal and had lunch on Saturday at a new eat­ery, Mundo Vida in Umdloti.  The theme of the res­taur­ant is ‘world food’ and the menu ranges from a Vietnamese starter plat­ter to steamed lang­oustines.  Game dishes and good old clas­sics like pork belly are also served, as are Thai dishes like pad thai.

We had booked a table on the large, covered deck and the views from here are beau­ti­ful.  Mundo Vida is a spit away from the beach so I can only ima­gine how packed it will be come high sum­mer! Continued

Breakfast at Cafeen in Harfield Village, Cape Town

Cafeen

I often drive past this little place on Third Avenue in Harfield Village but I haven’t yet had the chance to go in and exper­i­ence it. There are always lots of cars parked out­side and on a Saturday morn­ing it looks filled to burst­ing with people, which is always a good sign.

Last Sunday I met up with two old friends from varsity days, we had all decided that it had been to long and we needed a good old catch up of the L.G’s. So off to Cafeen it was. Thank good­ness Tash had the fore­thought to book a table because when I walked in there was only one table open — the one we had booked. Continued

Cape Farmhouse Restaurant in Scarborough – a must for weekend lunch

Cape Farmhouse

If you're after that 'on a farm' feel­ing, sur­roun­ded by moun­tains, fyn­bos and not much else, without hav­ing to put in the miles to get there, then this one's for you. The per­fect views from the front ver­andah of the 250-year old farm­house, the gor­geous under-grapevine front stoep, and the none-too-shabby food com­bine to make this a more than worthy fam­ily outing.

Admittedly, if you live in the south­ern sub­urbs get­ting to the Cape Farmhouse Restaurant is quite a trek, although a lovely one (you can make a day of it). It's up Red Hill way, mid­way between Simon's Town and Scarborough, just out­side the bor­ders of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve (hence the views, and the feel­ing of being on the edge of everything). But if you live in either Kommetjie, Scarborough or Simon's Town, this is one haunt you need to fre­quent, if you aren't already. Continued

Perlman House Restaurant in Sutherland — a review

Perlman House

I had din­ner at Perlman House Restaurant in Sutherland when I was in the town last week and what a night that was!  A book­ing had been made for star gaz­ing (we were in the star gaz­ing cap­ital of the world after all) but we were hav­ing such a won­der­ful time that we made a unan­im­ous decision to just turn our heads to the heav­ens instead for our own ver­sion of star gazing!

Perlman’s is owned and run by Annie, Vincent and Annie’s mum!  We booked a table and although this is advis­able dur­ing the week­end we were there on a Monday even­ing and there was only one other table booked.  We had a few pre-dinner drinks in the pub — a won­der­fully cosy room where a log fire nor­mally blazes dur­ing the winter but it was unseason­ably warm and a fire was not needed.  The walls are covered in mes­sages and graf­fiti from past punters and trav­el­lers who have vis­ited the cold­est place in South Africa. Continued

Liquorice and Lime in Kloof Street — a review

Liquorice and Lime

Something I haven’t done for quite a long time is have brunch with my girl friends and yes­ter­day we decided it was about time to get together for a good old skin­ner and a deli­cious food. The venue was Liquorice and Lime on the top end of Kloof Street in Cape Town.

It is quite easy to miss so keep your eyes open and you’ll see it on your right hand side as you head towards the moun­tain. This is an abso­lutely fab­ulous find and I abso­lutely loved the retro wall paper and mag­ni­fi­cent view of Table Mountain. We arrived at 11h00 and were lucky to grab the last table as the res­taur­ant was already buzz­ing with young fam­il­ies, people work­ing on laptops or read­ing the paper. Continued

A walk on the Sea Point promenade and Dinner at Aris Souvlaki

Sea Point Walk

It was Sunday late after­noon and the weather was abso­lutely stun­ning in Cape Town and so my friends and I decided to catch up. Since we had all been all over the place with the recent activ­it­ies of the World Cup tak­ing over our lives and hearts we were all feel­ing a bit dis­join­ted. So we decided that the three of us from the “burbs” (Southern Suburbs) would head over to Sea Point for a walk on the prom­en­ade before an early sup­per with the rest of the gang.

We star­ted at the wrong end of the prom­en­ade to under­stand the story told through art, but the sculp­tures of the young girl were no less mag­ni­fi­cent. The prom­en­ade was buzz­ing with fam­il­ies, friends and young chil­dren all enjoy­ing the beau­ti­ful day. There were fam­ily pic­nics tak­ing place on the grass while young boys played a game of soc­cer, couples walked hand in hand, ath­letes donned in run­ning gear with iPod’s pump­ing tunes in their ears weaved their way through the crowds. While oth­ers were just friends enjoy­ing each other’s com­pany and the won­der­ful set­ting. Continued