As mentioned in a previous blog, we spent the Woman’s Day long weekend in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands town of Nottingham Road. We were guests of a wedding and with the service taking place at 14h00 but dinner to only be served about five hours later, the wedding literature sent with the invitation subtly hinted that a decent lunch of some kind would be advisable (you know, to line the stomach that a free bar normally plays havoc with!)
We took this advice on board and with three weddings in Nottingham Road that day, booked a table at Sapore earlier in the morning. There is nothing worse than queuing for a table, gobbling down a plate of food and rushing to get to the Michaelhouse chapel on time!
There is a great atmosphere at Sapore; perhaps it was a restaurant full of people enjoying the long weekend but the food, log fires and superb service must surely play their part? The interior is light with the pizza bar and wood fired pizza oven the focal point. The menu is fairly extensive with a good range of starters, pizzas, pastas, mains and sushi.
As we had had a decent sized breakfast a few hours earlier, my husband and I shared a starter of six tempura prawns served with a honey and ginger sauce. They were absolutely delicious; light, crispy and everything a tempura prawn should be. At R65 it was fairly pricey but quality does have its price!
To follow this we shared the Parma pizza – at R89 this is probably much better value for money and the pizza chef certainly didn’t scrimp on the toppings. There was loads of ham, parmesan and rocket making it a pizza to try again.
My brother-in-law and his wife also shared a tempura prawn starter and followed that with a focaccia bread each. These looked fabulous; perfectly thin and sprinkled with a good dollop of sea salt and rosemary. Definitely worth their R32 price tag.
Other starters include chicken livers (R45), calamari at R45 and homemade Thai salmon fishcakes (also R45). With a choice of 15 pizzas you could be left pondering the menu for hours but to me the Pesto Chicken (chicken, avo, pine nuts, rocket and basil pesto) sounded tasty, as did the Pablo the Mexican (spicy ground beef, cherry tomatoes, red onions and chopped chillies. At R78 and R88 respectively they seem to offer your money’s worth.
Pasta options are the standard Carbonara and Bolognese dishes as well as some that are a bit different: the Gamberi which consists of tiger prawns and fresh tomatoes in a creamy tomato sauce with a hint of chilli (R95), as well as a Chinese slant on a pasta dish: egg noodles, sweet soy sauce, chicken and sesame seeds with mixed vegetables and tempura veggies on top of that (R68).
Various choices of fillet, burgers, ribs and even warthog loin make up the mains menu while the sushi options are quite extensive. Friends were at a table opposite us and their sushi platter looked gorgeous – not something that I would like to eat on a chilly day but tasty all the same.
Visiting the Natal Midlands:
Find many charming accommodation in Nottingham Road, see Nottingham Road hotels, explore the Natal Midlands and see a a choice of restaurants for your dining pleasure!
Address and contact details:
Sapore is open every day from 11h00 to late.
Find them at Shop 5 & 6 Meander Square, Nottingham Road.
The phone number is +27 (0)33 266-6921.
