My experience at Woodlands Eatery.…….25-04-2012

I have always wanted to go to Woodlands Eatery but every time we tried to go they were fully booked. A friend told me about them and said how amazing they were. I googled them and after reading about this husband and wife team who owned and ran the restaurant and seeing pictures of all the cute décor on the walls I was dead set on going.

So our 9 year anniversary was coming up and I saw this as the perfect opportunity go visit Woodlands. J Before the time we went for drinks at the roof top bar Tjing Tjing. Although we didn’t get to sit outside on the rooftop I really liked this place! The rawness of the “unfinished” look of the rafters contrasted against the bright red bar really did it for me. I loved it, but that is a story for another day.

Only after settling down at Woodlands and having had a look at their menu, did I realize that it was mainly a pizzeria. They don’t have a sample menu uploaded on their website as yet, so I suppose I didn’t really know what I was in for. Anyway, the fiancé wasn’t complaining as he loves pizza. So we ordered a bottle of celebratory bubbly and seeing as he was starving we thought about ordering a starter. They had some nice starters on their specials menu, but when we wanted to order one of them we were told that they were sold out of that starter. Turned out that they were pretty much sold out of everything on that day’s specials menu. Really? So why bother giving it to me in the first place or not telling me about it as you hand it to me. Anyway, there wasn’t really a great selection of starters on their normal menu so we left the starters and only ordered mains. By my friend’s recommendation I ordered the Lamb pizza.

Lamb pizza with Tuscan-style slow roasted lamb, fresh rosemary & a dash of crème fraiche.

After ordering it the waiter told me it was a really good choice so that assured me in my selection! J However I asked the waiter if it was possible to have some fresh coriander on the pizza. He said sure but that they would have to charge me extra. Usually I would have said it is fine, but I was already peeved off because of the lack of available items on their specials menu so I just left it.

When the pizza arrived it was really good. I can see why it comes recommended. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fresh coriander would have made a delightful difference though.

The fiancé had the Parma ham pizza bread with fresh rocket, fresh tomato, goats cheese & balsamic reduction. Parma ham and goats cheese are two of his favourite things so I figured it would be the perfect pizza for him. He didn’t enjoy it. He felt the base of the pizza was lacking flavour. And the little bit of flavour it had wasn’t very consistent throughout the pizza. I had a taste of his pizza and I’m afraid I would have to agree. I felt really bad that I had such a nice pizza and he really didn’t enjoy his! Usually when we go for pizza he takes the left overs home and ends up eating it as we get home. This time we actually gave the left overs to the car guard. :-/

So yeah, I highly doubt that I will be able to convince him to go there again anytime soon.

Yours in fun & lamb pizza,

Elly D

2 Deerpark Drive West

Vredehoek

Cape Town

021-801 5799

thewoodlandseatery@gmail.com

www.thewoodlandseatery.co.za

My experience at Knife.…….21-04-2012

A friend invited us to Knife for his birthday celebratory dinner. This was the first time I had heard of Knife. I was quite surprised to discover that they’re located at Crystal Towers by Canal Walk. Personally I would think that this is quite a difficult location to be seen at, but I suppose they have the surrounding residence and the hotel guests. We went on a chilly Saturday evening and the restaurant wasn’t very busy. Earlier on in the week another friend asked me where we were going for dinner. I still jokingly said Knife, you know Fork’s sister restaurant! Much to my surprise I was actually spot on! J

I read up on Knife a bit before we went, after which I really looked forward to going. I love meat so I couldn’t wait to see all the awesomeness on their menu. By just looking at the interior of the restaurant, you immediately know what type of restaurant you are in. They have a lovely bar situated in the middle of the restaurant with booths covering the one wall. There are blown up pictures of kid’s faces covered in steak sauce up on the walls, while other walls are decorated with animals showing their different cuts of meat.

The staff was really friendly and very helpful. The manager even helped us choose a good bottle of wine for the evening.

A few people at our table ordered ribs. It was accompanied with a massive plastic apron, not a bib, an apron! Hilarious!! Suppose this encourages you to eat it with your hands, after which it’ll look like you need a bath!

For mains I had one of their specials, namely 200g Kudu medallions served with wilted spinach, green beans, roasted potatoes and a peppercorn sauce.

It was absolutely divine! It was extremely tender and accompanied with a delicious peppercorn sauce.

Unfortunately we didn’t have dessert, although I was dying to try their baked cheesecake!

We will definitely be back there next time and then I will ensure I get to taste their cheesecake! This tasty experience has made me curious to try Fork, because if they are “related” it can only be good!

Yours in fun & wild game,

Elly D

Corner of Century Boulevard and Rialto Road

Century City

Cape Town

021-551 5000

info@knife-restaurants.co.za

www.knife-restaurants.co.za

My experience at Hemelhvijs……….08-03-2012

I practically work across the street from this awesome little place and I have walked past it a million times but never once did it cross my mind to actually go inside. From outside I thought it looked like a new little art gallery. It was only when I saw a menu of theirs lying at my office that I realized it is actually a new restaurant. So one day after a work meeting we popped over to Hemelhvijs for some lunch. As soon as I stepped inside I was mesmerized by all the quirky items decorating this little space. The Waterkant Street facing side of the restaurant is made up of predominantly windows, which allows for a lot of natural sunlight to enter and brighten up the place.

The colour scheme in this place is very earthy. Think wood, charcoal, white and some fresh green plants. There is so much glass in the restaurant that at times you’re not sure where the ends of the room are!

They have a small menu which seems to change according to the seasons. The tuna sounded delectable and the waiter assured me that it was fresh so that’s what I ordered. Seared tuna dressed with ginger, lime, sweet soy, roasted peanuts and fragrant leaves. It was absolutely amazing! Perfectly cooked and complimented by that yummy dressing they prepared it in. It was accompanied with quite unusual side dishes. A fragrant leaf salad and sliced green apple drizzled with a wholegrain mustard dressing. Both went surprisingly well with the Tuna. I think its intend was to emphasize the freshness of the tuna.

Their baked goods looked amazing! So much so that after two glasses of wine I threw caution to the wind and had some of their Lemon Meringue! Another one of my soft spots! It was delicious! Just enough of a lemon flavour not to leave your face sour, with a nice thick biscuit crust.

I will definitely be back there and take some of my friends with next time as I don’t think any of them have heard about Hemelhvijs either!

Yours in fun & new adventure,

Elly D

71 Waterkant Street

Cape Town

021-418 2042

info@hemelhuijs.co.za

www.hemelhuijs.co.za

My experience at HQ……….05-04-2012

For one of our fabulous monthly girl’s nights we booked two tables at the legendary steak house HQ. I have only been here for a couple of drinks before, but I had heard only good things about their steaks! We bought a City Mob deal which included a 3 course meal plus 5 bottles of wine (Simply Red & Simply White by Vins d’Orrance) for 10 people for R1310. An absolute bargain if you ask me!

For those of you that don’t know, HQ only sells steak (sirloin), salad and chips. So there is no extensive menu from which to choose. If you don’t feel like steak then don’t even bother going here. So our first course was Cos lettuce, roasted pine nuts, parmesan shavings with Dijon mustard vinaigrette which was totally delicious!

For mains we had the 250g minimum 35 day aged Sirloin steak, imported from Namibia, free range and organic served with Café de Paris Butter and skinny fries. I asked for mine to be served Medium-Rare, which is the only way a steak should be eaten! It was beyond amazing!!!! I don’t think I have ever before had a more delicious steak! Wow!!! Cooked to absolute perfection! It was so tender and juicy packed with bursting flavour! From now on if I crave steak there is no question as to where I would be going to satisfy my craving! Can’t wait to take the fiancé there as I know he’ll love it as well! It is so simply if you think about it! They have taken away the fanciness of having a menu with multiple choices and instead have gone back to basics, which is making one meal exceptionally well! Unfortunately I couldn’t finish my steak and I knew I had to keep some space for dessert as well.

For dessert we got to choose between Chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream or Crème Brulee. For me the choice here was dead obvious as I’m a TOTAL lover of chocolate and I think Crème Brulee is totally over rated! Maybe I am yet to come across one that will blow my mind. As if ruining my taste buds for any future piece of meat wasn’t enough, they had to hit me right on my chocolate soft spot as well! What more could you ask for in any dessert than warm crispy chocolate pudding filled with the most gooey chocolate centre, topped with vanilla ice cream. It was amazing to say the least!

The wine went down well too, but of course nothing in comparison to the food!

Overall a great experience and whenever someone asks me to recommend a good steak restaurant I would not hesitate twice to recommend this one!

Yours in fun & yummy cow,

Elly D
100 Shortmarket Street
Cape Town
021-424 6373
info@hqrestaurant.co.za
www.hqrestaurant.co.za

My experience at Café Felix……….22-03-2012

Once again I was in Riebeeck Kasteel for a work outing and as it usually happens round midday, we were hungry and needed food. I remember once having eaten at the Riebeeck West Hotel and it was very nice. You can dine outside in their garden under these massive trees. So we decided to go there first to check it out. We got to the Hotel and there was no one in the restaurant and they were busy cutting the lawn. Now I love the smell of freshly cut grass, but we couldn’t exactly sit and eat in the garden with grass shreds flying around everywhere. There is also nothing worse than being the only people in a place so we made our way back to Riebeeck Kasteeel and went to Café Felix. When we parked it also looked like this place was dead but we thought what the heck, we are here now so let’s just go inside. Much to our delight there were already a few patrons inside. You can’t actually see much from the road side as the tables are nicely hidden away from the street, in a courtyard outside. They have tables on the inside as well but seeing as it was such a lovely day, everyone was sitting outside. They have old lampposts outside in the courtyard and you can sit at a table underneath one! I was there with a girlfriend so sitting under a lamppost with her just felt kind of wrong. It would’ve felt like we were on a date from a Lady and the Tramp scene. Not that I’m calling either one of us a tramp…or a lady for that matter! J

We settled on one of their other tables. I immediately loved this little courtyard! Very cute! A friend of mine told me about this restaurant as a potential wedding venue. I emailed them once but never got a response so I lost interest. The main reason being though that I didn’t really want to get married in Riebeeck Kasteel as my brother got married there so it would have felt a bit like monkey see monkey do.

They don’t have printed menu’s but a blackboard with all the meals written on instead, which floats from table to table. For a casual small arty town restaurant I thought their menu was a little bit pricey as well as their wine list. Seeing as my office was paying I didn’t want to rack up a monster bill by choosing the most expensive thing on the menu. Therefore both of us decided on the chicken. Crisp chicken roulade with roasted butternut and sage compote, spring onion risotto and a whole grain mustard sauce. It’s description sounded great so I couldn’t wait to taste it. Apart from the Lasagna and Lamb Burger, this was the cheapest dish on the menu. Coming in at R75.

When it arrived my first impression was one of shock! I was really hungry when I placed the order and when I saw the food arrive I was convinced that there was no way in hell this would fill me. The presentation of the meal was lovely though. The chicken roulade was very tender and crispy indeed. It was wrapped around a filling of spinach and a little bit of what seemed like feta. The slightly sweet roasted butternut and raisons that accompanied it really made for a stunning combination! The risotto was really creamy and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Can you believe I have actually never had risotto before! So my first experience of risotto was a welcoming one! The mustard sauce on the side was absolutely delicious! I am not necessarily such a fan of mustard but this was amazing! You needed a strong grounding flavour with the already slightly sweet and creamy taste of the chicken and risotto. I hope it was home made because then they would score even more brownie points with me!! The staff was friendly and helpful! We actually forgot to take the slip when we left so later that day I called them and asked them to fax it to me which they gladly and speedily did.

Seeing as Riebeeck Kasteel is a bit out of the way I can’t say that I would be returning to Café Felix again soon or regularly. While we were looking for Café Felix we saw quite a few other places that I would like to try next time. Maybe if you are looking for a fine dining experience this would be the place to go. If a guy had gotten this chicken dish they would have needed to stop at the shop on their way home. It just filled me so it definitely would not have satisfied a man or someone with a bigger appetite. I did however see the Lamb Burger come past and it looked really impressive.

Café Felix has also been on my little list of “Restaurants I’d love to try” for a while now so I’m very glad I finally got to check it out.

Yours in fun & first time risotto,

Elly D

7 Church Street

Riebeeck Kasteel

022-4481170

café-felix@intekom.co.za

www.cafefelix.co.za

My experience at Greek Fisherman……….09-03-2012

Our department at work was looking for a team-build activity to do and it was up to me and another guy to come up with different team-building ideas. While I looked into more typical team building activities (e.g the Amazing Race etc.), my colleague came across a sailing idea. After pitching all our different ideas to our boss he decided that he didn’t feel like doing anything strenuous so we agreed on the sailing trip. Not that this would require any actual working together as a team but I suppose being “forced” to socialize with one another would also count as team building! Drinking and eating is more like our departments idea of team-building in anyway! J

This deal included an hour trip on a sail boat and then a two course lunch at one of two restaurants in the Waterfront for R130 per person. Not a bad deal if you ask me! So we booked it.

We chose a Friday naturally as one never goes back to work after these type of things! We could not have chosen a more perfect day, even if we were Mother Nature herself! Usually I don’t react too well to not having my feet planted firmly on land! I never really get extremely sick but I always feel woozy! Luckily this time I was fine and I even managed to slog down an ice cold cider on that awesome Cape Town day (while all the other plebs had to spend the day at work)! J Before the trip I thought an hour would be too long but when it was over I was quite surprised at how quickly it had gone.

We chose Greek Fisherman for our lunch and we had the following options for starters and mains:

Starters:

Greek Salad – A selection of crisp lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, topped with feta cheese and olives.

Mixed Greek Dip Platter – Taramara, tzatziki and hummus served with home-made pita bread.

I opted for the Greek Salad which was nothing to write home about, but then again what can one expect from a Greek Salad. It was served with a vinaigrette dressing which spiced it up a bit.

Some of my work colleagues went for the Mixed Greek Dip Platter. I wasn’t too impressed with this platter and was quite thankful that I hadn’t ordered it. The people who actually had it also didn’t really enjoy the Taramara and it didn’t even come with olives. To me that would be one of the first things I would expect on a Greek Mixed Platter. I suppose the name did say dip platter.

For mains the options were:

Sirloin Steak with mushroom sauce – Well aged sirloin steak topped with a mushroom sauce.

Calamari and Fish combo – Calamari grilled in a herbal garlicky butter sauce, grilled fish in lemon butter.

I am not sure what the linefish was but it looked like hake. I also can’t imagine that they would use anything else but hake as it is usually used as the “house” fish. I didn’t taste it myself but from what I saw the calamari didn’t look too great, which was confirmed by my friend not eating hers.

I had the sirloin steak, which (as you can see from the photo) was a monstrous piece. It was quite crispy on the outside and nice and tender on the inside. I really enjoyed the steak. The mushroom sauce was also quite tasty, but even without the sauce the steak has a very nice flavour to it. When it arrived I did notice (also visible from the photo) that there was quite a bit of oil lying in the plate. This is not really something anyone wants to see as they are about to dig into a chunk of cow.

I found the meals to be quite simple and it only came with one portion of starch, no greens. To be honest I didn’t really expect too much, as one never really does with these types of specials. It is obvious that they have to cut somewhere in order to make the special worthwhile for them, but overall it wasn’t a bad experience.  I couldn’t finish my steak event though I really wanted to.  I am also sure that the food from their A la Carte menu is fancier.

Yours in fun & lazy team-builds,

Elly D

Shop 157

Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre

V & A Waterfront

Cape Town

021-4185411

info@greekfisherman.co.za

www.greekfisherman.co.za

My experience at The Dog’s Bollocks……….01-03-2012

One of my friends told me about The Dog’s Bollocks a while ago already and we thought we’d kick of our new monthly girl’s night with this pop up burger joint. For someone as OCD as me it took a while to get used to the idea of just pitching up at a place, without being able to have booked, not 100% sure where it was and without a guarantee that you would actually get fed! We knew we had to get there early as well as he only makes a limited (30) number of burgers a night. My anxiety was fuelled by our lift being late to pick us up and my pregnant friend’s freaking out about whether she will get fed or not as food has become her best friend!! Ha Ha! But it is totally not as bad as I had made it out to be. I think we eventually got there at about 7:30. A couple of our friends were there already so they had organized a table for us. You order in the sequence in which you arrived, so there was one more 3-seater ahead of us before we could order.

By day you would never guess what happens behind that rolled down garage door. But once it is open this magical little alley appears, decorated with furniture and lamps from the 80’s and some massive statue dude in the corner! It reminded me on the type of furniture we had as kids! J The owner and chef is Nigel Woods. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to have a proper chat to him as to where he is from and what made him decide to do this, seeing as he was too busy, but we will definitely be back there so then I might have a chance to chat to him properly! We are planning on going again to take the boys there as it is such a man’s jol as well. What more could a man ask for? Massive burgers and you can take your own beers!

He sells Ukuva iAfrica U-Tube Wines as well which he makes himself. It is basically a glamorized papsak. It comes in a hard cardboard tube which fits two bottles of wine, for only 50 bucks!! Bargain! He has white and red wine. You can take your own drinks and ice (as he only sells his wine) as well at no corkage fee. He is very chilled! Make sure to take some glasses as well and anything else you might think you’d need.

There are quite a few different types of burgers to choose from, much to my surprise. I would have thought that there would be a smaller variety seeing as it must be so difficult to make so many different sauces per order. But it seems like he has it waxed. The picture of the blackboard menu shown was only the specials of the day. Inside there is a bigger board with more choices on. He also makes nachos! He said the only reason he makes them is because personally he loves nachos!! Two of the girls with us had to take food away for their starving men at home but decided to wait till all of us had eaten to place their orders. By then his burgers were finished for the evening so their guys had to settle for nachos! He puts a meaty gooey cheesy mess on the nachos which makes it delicious but I’m not sure for how long those nachos will stay crispy for if you don’t eat them immediately!

There is none of that stress to get all the meals out at the same time like at a restaurant. He shouts from the grill as soon as something is ready and then you holler ass to go and get your yummy burger. He has a good little system that works. First he crisps the buns and then adds a little bit of mayo to the top lid and adds the tomatoes, gherkins, onions and lettuce to the bottom half of the burger. The lettuce pieces he uses are by far the most enormous leaves I had ever seen! I have no idea where on earth he gets it from!! My friend had the Peppered Mushroom Burger. She was one of the girls that got there first so she got her burger before us.  I had a taste, and it was delicious. I couldn’t wait until mine arrived.

I had the Chilli Chocolate Molé Burger. It….was.…amazing! I was afraid that the chocolate might be too overpowering as I didn’t really feel like chocolate, but you could hardly taste the chocolate. Just the right amount of what I can only think is a dark chocolate, was used to tone down the chilli. Just enough chilli and just enough bitter sweetness to make it a perfect match. Much to the laughter of everyone else, I attempted to eat my burger with a knife and fork seeing as I was trying to get as much of it in my mouth and as little as possible on my lap! J It was really massive! I could not finish the entire burger. I ended up chucking most of the bun and just having the good stuff!

Like I mentioned earlier it was a really cool experience! Something completely different and it really works. We will definitely go back there. Keep in mind he doesn’t serves chips or any other side dishes with the burger but after you see the size of that thing you would not want anything else! But if you do you could always have nachos with it! When we got home we did all smell quite smokey but I think it was a combination of the grill smoke as well as the people smoking at our table.

He is open on Monday to Saturdays from 5pm until 10pm. This part of Roodehek Street is also a one way so make sure to enter it from Buitenkant Street and not from Hope Street.

Yours in fun & pop up burger joints,

Elly D

6 Roodehek Street (opposite red building)

Gardens

Cape Town

083-4407843

http://ukuvaiafrica.withtank.com

The Dog's Bollocks Facebook page

My experience at Il Leone……….29-02-2012

It was the fiancé’s birthday, he is a leap year baby, and so seeing as it only comes around once every 4 years I thought I’d spoil him a bit. Not that I never get him anything for his birthday the other 3 years. Would have been much cheaper for me if only it worked like that!! J

We first went for sundowners at Tobago, the restaurant at the Radisson Hotel, where we had an overpriced glass of wine. Mainly paying for the view I guess. In retrospect I was quite grateful for this seeing as on the way to Il Leone we went through a roadblock. Luckily I had nothing to worry about seeing as I only had a 1/3 of a glass of wine (at a full glass’ price).

If you haven’t been to Il Leone before, please do yourself a favour and get down there. I never regret having discovered this restaurant a few years ago at the Taste of Cape Town.

The restaurant was softly lit, creating a really romantic mood. We sat at a table upstairs overlooking the street down below. It was a nice warm summer’s night so there were even some people sitting outside on the small patio.

We ordered a bottle of Haute Cabriere Chardonnay/Pinot noir, which is one of our favourite wines! Seeing as the food here is so good, we didn’t want to spoil our appetite by having a starter! Therefore we only ordered mains and thought we’d decide about the dessert later.

I didn’t catch the name of our waiter but he was really goofy and made us laugh the whole night. Some free entertainment for the evening. After he explained the specials to us quite comically, I couldn’t decide what to have. Usually when we go out for dinner I never order pasta but seeing as we were at one of the best pasta restaurants in Cape Town I figured, before the time already, that I would have a pasta dish. One of their signature dishes, that the fiancé fell in love with when he tasted it for the first time at Taste of Cape Town, is their Shelled prawns sautéed in chilli, garlic and white wine. Tossed with cherry tomatoes, fresh rocket and roasted pine nuts. Served with linguine. You won’t find this on their menu though as it is listed as a special. So every time we go there, he has it. Although he tried to not be predictable and have it he just couldn’t resist it. The previous time we were there he also had it and I had their Lamb Ragu. So seeing as he was ordering the same again I just couldn’t get it over myself to order the ragu again! Then we would be about as exciting as an 80 year old couple going out for their annual anniversary dinner. That night the ragu was veal though and not lamb so it wouldn’t have been exactly the same but still, potato potaoe. Seeing as I was indecisive, I mentioned to the waiter that the Veal Ragu had caught my attention but that I had had it before. He then told me about the Vitello Porcini: Veal steak with Porcini mushrooms served with fresh greens and mash potatoes, which was one of the specials. Either he had forgotten to tell us about it initially or I hadn’t been paying attention. Seeing as it wasn’t on their menu I couldn’t get the exact description of the dish for you. I tried to ask the waiter what it entailed and he said; “Well it’s Veal with Porcini mushrooms!” Ha ha ha! Bless him. I decided to go for that.

Although I didn’t have pasta I don’t, for a second, regret ordering the Veal!!! It was absolutely to freaking die for!!! The veal steaks were very thin, like minute steaks but so so tender! I could tear it apart with your hands! The Porcini Mushrooms were also divine! Just cooked for long enough, as not to lose their firmness. The veg was still nice and crispy, accompanied with fluffy smooth mash potatoes. I absolutely could not get enough of this goodness! Every single bite was like palate heaven!!! I did of course also taste the fiancé’s pasta which was amazing as usual! It had just the right about of bite to ensure that the chilli wasn’t overwhelming.

While looking at the menu for mains we noticed their dessert menu, which actually played the major role in us not ordering starters! J Seeing as it was his birthday I suppose he deserved to have his cake and eat it too! We noticed the Tiramisu: homemade Italian specialty and it being the fiancé’s favourite (yes another favourite) we ordered some for dessert. It was ok. Definitely not the best tiramisu I have tasted. I will even go as far as to say that the tiramisu I’ve had from woolies’ was more flavourful. It just lacked those complex levels of flavours that you expect from a tiramisu. I thought the portion was a little bit on the small side as well. I remember it being quite a bit larger the previous time we had it.

None the less, it was an absolutely perfect evening!! Definitely one of the restaurants in Cape Town that I am in love with! I don’t think I will wait a whole year again before going back there though!!!

Yours in fun & birthday celebrations,

Elly D

22 Cobern Street

Corner of Prestwich

Green Point

Cape Town

021-4210071

illeone@mastrantonio.com

www.mastrantonio.com/illeone/