My Experience at San Marco..........22-07-2011

I have always been quite skeptical about buying into deals and specials so I am not registered with sites like Group On and Ubuntu. My boyfriend however is and he came across this pasta special at San Marco. So we got our friends together and we gave it a go. I have never heard of San Marco but figured it couldn’t be too bad if it was located in the Waterfront. The special consisted of: pasta (choice of 5 different pasta’s namely Bolognaise, Napolitana, Chili Arrabiata, Fresh Basil Pesto and Sage & Parmesan), 1 scoop of Gelato and a drink (Coca-Cola, Mineral water, 300ml Peroni, glass of Chenin Blanc). All of this for only R29 (valued at R123)!!

Seeing as this special was quite a steal it makes one think that they are obviously struggling a bit with the colder winter season and hence trying to get new customers. This works in concept because if it wasn’t for the vouchers we would never have considered this place. If we will now become regular customers is another story.

When all of us had arrived it took a while to get the waitress’ attention. She knew we were there for the vouchers so I am not sure if she immediately had a pre conceived perception of what it would be like serving us. Little did she know she should not judge the book by its cover as we would never be able to just have one drink per person!

After we ordered our drinks it took a while to be brought to us. Most of their tables are situated outside hence why they probably struggle with clientele in the colder winter months. Some of the other waiters were standing around and it didn’t really seem like they were helping each other out. We managed to get one of them to move a heater closer to us after another table had left. Later on what seemed like the manager also brought out some blankets.

The food at least arrived quite soon after we had ordered. I was really not impressed with my food but to be honest I didn’t expect too much seeing as I had only paid R29 for it. With each pasta dish you had a choice of tagliatelle, penne or angel hair pasta. I chose the angel hair with my Bolognaise because I thought that that would be the one with the least amount of pasta in it. In hind sight I should have probably gone for penne instead. I merely choose the Bolognaise because it was the only one that wasn’t vegetarian. I understand a vegetarian pasta is obviously cheaper than one with meat in hence why the meaty ones weren’t included in the special. Towards the end of my meal I just fished out the few pieces of meat that was left as the ratio between pasta and meat was very much in the favor of the pasta. The taste of the bolognaise itself wasn’t too bad. Most of us had the Bolognaise but one of my friends had the Fresh Basil Pesto pasta with angel hair and she thoroughly enjoyed it!

The gelato’s were probably the highlight of the evening! The only problem was that I ordered the wrong flavour so ended up having gelato envy!!  Some of my friends had the Tiramisu and Chocolate flavours which were both absolutely divine!! The Tiramisu gelato had pieces of soft biscuit in it which made it totally delicious!! It was almost like they had mushed up an actual Tiramisu and added it to the gelato. The Chocolate gelato was thick and full of heavy chocolate flavour which made it super yum as well! It actually reminded me a lot of woolies’ chocolate milkshakes. I had the Stracciatella gelato with chocolate flakes which was VERY disappointing. It didn’t have enough chocolate flakes and the vanilla gelato tasted extremely watery! The waiter was generous with her scoops of gelato though which made up for everything.

Overall I would say that the only reason I went was because of the Ubuntu voucher. The service was also not the greatest and it’s not even like the waitress’ “award winning” personality made up for it. I would not go there again unless it was just for dessert (the Tiramisu gelato) as I also saw a lovely piece of baked cheesecake (my weakness) fly past me.

Yours in fun & food,

Elly D

Shop No. 128, Lower Level
V&A Waterfront
Cape Town
021-418 5434
sanmarco@telkomsa.net