We had some family down from Belgium so we thought it would be great to take them to Moyo at Spier as it is such a nice experience for foreigners. We reserved a table in one of the tree houses. Unfortunately it was a little bit chilly that night seeing as it was autumn already.
I was actually quite looking forward to going as I hadn’t been there in a while. This Moyo is not exactly a restaurant that you would go to with friends regularly. I would have to say that the only time I would ever go there is if I had foreigners with me.
They came to paint our faces and sing for us as per usual. It was the birthday of one of the guests so it was quite nice to get them to sing happy birthday to him. One thing that they didn’t do though was the washing of our hands before dinner. This would have been great seeing as it was so cold that night.
I decided to have seafood as my starter but I was disappointed when I saw that they had a very limited range of seafood. There was Snoek (or so I think) lying in tinfoil on the side of the counter and then in three bowls in front of me they had cold Crumbed Dorado, cold Grilled Calamari and cold plain grilled Dorado. This I thought was extremely shocking! How unimaginative! What about prawns, paella, calamari steaks, calamari tenticles, mussels and I can go on and on. I must add though, that even though the calamari was cold, it was quite tasty. For someone that is a seafood fanatic I can never get enough seafood, which was the case here, but for a totally different reason!
For mains I had some Bobotie (which I always order when I see it on a menu because I cannot make Bobotie myself), which was nice but not as exploding with flavour as one would expect Bobotie to be. It almost tasted like the only spice they used was a bottle of chutney. It was quite sweet and it seems like everyone who wanted Bobotie was more interested in the egg layer on top as oppose to the mince inside as there was no more egg layer left half way thru the dish. The Lamb Potjie was delicious! The Chicken Potjie was not too bad but there were way too many small bones which made it difficult to eat. The Beef Steak was extremely tough. I didn’t even bother to finish eating mine as it was too well done for my liking. The Ostrich Kebabs were tough as well. The Springbok Sausage on the other hand was a breath of fresh air compared to the other meats. I was also not impressed with the pap they served. I was looking forward to introducing the foreigners to some South African pap but this pap was stiff pap. This could just be my personal taste, but pap should rather be served crummy. It should have a similar texture to cous cous.
For dessert I had Pecan Nut Pie and Cheesecake as those are my two favourite desserts. The Pecan Nut Pie was amazing! BUT it should have been served warm and with ice cream. When we asked for some ice cream they eventually said they would be able to fetch us some and when asked if they could heat it up they said there wasn’t a microwave on the premises. So why didn’t they just place the pie on the heated tray next to the messy Apple Crumble and what I think was a Malva Pudding meet Brandy Tart, in the first place! Now don’t get me started on the Cheesecake! That little block of “Cheesecake” that I ate definitely doesn’t deserve to be called Cheesecake! Its texture was way too hard and it wasn’t really creamy. That along with all the other little dessert squares (Caramel Crunch, Peanut Square) tasted extremely fake and synthetic. Whatever happened to homemade truly South African dessert? Where were the Koeksisters and the Milktart and even just good old reliable Ice cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce? I tasted the Chocolate Sauce that was there and it tasted granularly. Like who ever mixed it didn’t stir it for long enough. The little sweet Nutty Springrolls were delicious though. Unfortunately I didn’t taste the Chocolate Brownies and the Lemon Tart myself, but some of my guests said that the Chocolate Brownies were really tasty as well.
We were 12 people, 9 adults and 3 children. When we sat down we asked our waiter if there was a price difference for adults and for children. He mentioned that it is cheaper for kids under 12. Now two of the kids were well over 12 but one was obviously under 12, but yet when the bill came they charged us for 12 adults. Needless to say he gladly corrected it.
I am truly sorry to say, but I was really, really not impressed with the food at all! I would gladly pay R250 (and even more) for a 3 course meal if it was worth it, and I am saddened to say that this was definitely not worth it! Is there absolutely no quality control in this place what so ever? It seriously looked like the show was run without a manager on the floor to oversee all the operations. Does no one taste the food that their making anymore? When I went to Moyo about 2 years ago it was lovely and the whole idea of an outdoor South African dining experience is a great one! But it seems like nothing has changed since then. The food has stayed the same, which then was good but now it has become unimaginative and dull over time. The decor hasn’t changed much except that it is faded, old and full of bird shit. It was not really busy when we went. One of the dining rooms were even closed, so maybe because they weren’t so busy they didn’t care and didn’t feel like putting in the extra effort?? Although, that said, I can’t imagine that any business would be that silly.
Now a day where ever you go (pubs and restaurants) they have installed these little heaters under the covering of the outdoor tables. Why hasn’t Moyo done this? Initially I thought that they would have to kick us out of there by midnight, but we even shocked our driver by asking to be picked up by 22:00. We have some more family coming from overseas in January 2012 and I must say we will seriously have to rethink about bringing them there as they have been there before and will probably only be let down about how it has degraded, like we were.
Seeing as we are used to really good South African food we noticed a lot more things than our foreign guests did. Thank goodness! Therefore we didn’t comment too much about how we felt in front of them because we didn’t want to spoil it for them. But I think Moyo is seriously busy pulling a quick one on the foreigners and taking advantage of them as the foreigners don’t know any better. I really hope that next time when I take some foreign guests to Moyo at Spier again that I can be proud of it.
Yours in fun & food,
Elly D
Spier Wine Estate
R310 Lynedoch Road
Stellenbosch
Cape Town
(021)809 1133
Too True Elly. I was there last year June and was equally disappointed with the food. The service was good but the food was shocking :(.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, the one at Eden on the Bay has definitely picked up. I went with a group of Hospitality managers as an introductory lunch and was so disappointed in the food. BUT I went there two weeks ago for a friends birthday and the food / service/people/decor was FABULOUS!! xxx MP