La Perla, Sea Point

Another guest article by Niel:

La Perla has been around for ages, riding up and down on the fickle favour of the Cape restaurant crowd without disappearing from the radar. Apparently, it’s very “in” right now. Which is odd, because nothing has changed. Nothing much at all, in fact, over the last decade at least, one feels.

Yes, La Perla is an Italian restaurant, its feel dictated by a mix between retro décor and a good old fancy restaurant vibes.

Our waiter had these lines in his face and a knowing moustache that made it clear he has worked there for years and years. Which was nice. It’s lived in, you know? Not some “oh, we’re all about the industrial ceilings with pipes and air vents” with imported poppie waiters and Indian beer and Finnish cutlery and all that mumbo jumbo.

Clearly, it’s a food venue.

And about that food… it checked all the boxes for shizzy.

La Perla has a good reputation for fish. They serve three different dishes for every fish on the menu, with different sauces and preparation, so it takes some time to make a selection. I settled on a sole with creamy white-wine and prawn sauce.

The first thing you notice is that the menu wasn’t screwing you over. You will find no less than a full steaming plate of fish with plenty of vegetables to go around, as well as a not-petite side plate with your choice of chips, rice or more vegetables. Fantastic.

The sole was divine. Not because it taught me new things about fish or had my tongue doing some kind of flavour Olympics, but because it was just plain lekker. It was smooth, well prepared, aromatic and full-flavoured, the kind of food that makes you close your eyes.

The bar shook us up a decent cocktail, but for the most, we were drinking a very suitable Delheim 2003 Merlot.

As for price: don’t forget your wallet. We paid a not-too-ridiculous (for a high-end special night out) R350 for two people, including the wine and cocktail. It was a hundred percent worth it, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend La Perla to anyone who wants to splash out on a memorable dinner.

The Cape Colony at The Mount Nelson

 

This is the first in a series of guest blogging. Today our special guest blogger is Niel who runs the blog over at We Like Texture. He also happens to be a good friend and all-round cool guy.

Yes. Reviewing the Mount Nelson is like dusting off your old copy of Oliver Twist or War and Peace for a fireside reread. The Cape Colony, after all, is an establishment with history.

Anyway, that matters fuck-all to us, what with all the newer, mouth-watering eating destinations in Cape Town. Uh huh, the restaurant is geared just the slightest bit towards the tourist crowd, as you can tell from the huge colonial mural (complete with very un-PC black servant boys in the foreground) and get this, leopard print upholstery on the large benched seating in the middle of the restaurant. But everyone can appreciate a bit of show, some silver cutlery, and huge, huge glasses for your red vine juice.

And everyone likes a good meal.

We had a Franschoek Merlot to drink – one that I would recommend to anyone who has a passing interest in mine (passing being the most sophistication I can self-attach here). I commited the unforgivable faux pas of not bothering to taste the wine before allowing the waitress to pour. How arrogant is it for me to taste the wine for corkage or imperfections on the palate when I probably couldn’t taste the difference anyway.

Still, Le Manoir de Brendal, Merlot 2003, is some seriously ass-kicking red, for what it’s worth. My company agreed.

The food. Ah, that. The Mount Nelson is pretty dependable to deliver fine meat dishes, and so on. You will not, however, have screaming tongue orgasms from their kitchen works, as you might when in Haiku, or Ginja. (Editors note: Haiku is crap)

I ordered the seared tuna, and was surprised to receive it moulded, in the Nouveau tradition, I presume, like canned dog food. Yup, it was a solid meat cylinder, with sauce on the side. Hilarious. Anyway, with the little sauce provided it was enjoyable enough, though that soon run out and then I found it a bit salty and… plain. In any event, The Cape Colony’s seared tuna can’t hold up a fin to that of Ginja, but it is a solid main course, not a train smash by any standards.

Dessert was extremely decadent sundae, which I couldn’t finish for its richness. I’m quite a glutton, so perhaps the sweet-chef hadn’t gotten it quite right this time.

What is there to be said about this Cape Classic, the old Champ? Perhaps a bit slow on its feet. The Mount Nelson’s Cape Colony might have to explore some new flavours if it wants to keep up with the new kids on the block.

And oh ja: it’s fucken expensive.

Relish Reviewed

I found myself at Relish last night; it is situated on New Church Street, previously known as Rustica. I happened to receive an Email a few days earlier informing me of a special that they are running during the winter. Believe it or not, the food is technically free. Get this, Relish want you to pay merely what you think your meal was worth! How’s that for a deal?Firstly, let me begin by accrediting Relish with the most superb location with outstanding views of Table Mountain. On every floor, of which there are 3, you have the most magnificent views of Table Mountain, Lions Head and Signal Hill.

The interior is very simplistic, too simplistic for my liking. I am more of a warm-felt décor type person and what you get at Relish is a lot more ‘cold’. Don’t get met wrong, it has ambiance, but for me, it lacks soul. Modern, simplistic, neat and spacious are some characteristics that can be associated with the interior of Relish. It is not a ‘cold’ restaurant, not in the least. Downstairs, restaurant area, is especially in need of a bit more furniture, maybe a facelift in terms of the seating arrangements. However, it works for the special that is being run. The Bar = the top two floors, are similar, yet different. As can be seen by the picture, the top floor has a wonderful outside section, which is just magnificent during the summer days. A wide variety of cocktails are on offer, and often during the summer days they run specials on certain cocktails. And believe me, they are worth every penny.

Let me get to the point here, before I go on about the smaller details. The food! The food, the food, the food. A rather unusual menu in my opinion. I found myself seated, and browsing the menu, of course, no meal is complete without a good glass of wine. And seeing as I knew what I was going to have, I ordered a glass of white. House sauvignon blanc, I was just having a quick meal seeing as my companion lost his appetite, or possibly his financial liquidity. Who knows? Notwithstanding, I ordered. Pan fried Kingklip with steamed asian greens, fragrant coconut sauce and hand cut chips. It arrived and was presented rather beautifully.

Not only did it look good, it tasted extraordinary! Blasting onto the palette, to put it mildly! HOWEVER! I feel the portion of fish was totally outweighed by the amount of ‘hand-cut chips’ served alongside it. The fragrant coconut sauce mingled just perfectly with the asian greens and panfried kingklip. It was, to say the least, perfect in taste.

Would you like to know how much I ended up paying for this meal? A full R45-00. I felt that because a glass of wine put me back R23-00 that I would compensate. Although I felt that R67-00 was a bit much for the meal, if you look at the portion of kingklip, it would have been money well spent either way. I am not justifying the prices of Relish, I am merely stating that good food is rare, but not non-existent. It can be found here, at Relish.

Last point, I am not a fan of French style cuisine, especially not French styled portions and I sincerely hope that the portion of Kingklip will be larger in the future. People seem to forget that value is still value. Being ripped off is not a novelty. There is a saying, ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’ it applies in more ways that one would think.

All in all, I would without hesitation attribute an 8 out 10 rating to Relish, considering the special, the location and once again, the view.

Quality.

-S

Arnold’s, lets not beat around the bush.

After the Argentina v Germany match, in which Argentina performed dismally in the penalty shootout, Germany took the game and are headed to the semi’s. As an Argentinean supporter for that specific clash, I was heartbroken that they lost. Even though it probably was because they had to use their reserve goalie who had only had 4 international caps behind his name on arrival at the box. So, as it would seem clear at that point, the obvious thing to do would be to devour something nice, something filling, something, something. A burger! What better way to grieve over the disappointment of the Argentinean side. We were watching the game at the Cape Milner. I was told that down the road, a place called Arnold’s, serves a great burger. Not a gourmet burger, just a burger. PERFECT! We hit the street and made way to Arnold’s.

We arrived, we were hungry, we were in the mood for a burger, we knew what we wanted!
The waiter came to the table and we promptly ordered 4 plain burgers. Remember, it is not a gourmet burger restaurant, hence we did not expect gourmet burgers. They are BURGERS, not huge, not tiny, they are, however, delicious. Imagine this: Sunday afternoon, couple of friends, beer (a good couple of course), hunger, rugby. What could better compliment this than a good ol’ fashioned home made burger. Lettuce, tomato, 400g beef patty! Fat Albert’s only has 200g AND THEY DARE CALL IT ‘FAT’. The taste that comes to mind when imagining this scenario is, may I say, fantastic? Exactly! Arnold’s served a fantastic non-gourmet burger. They aren’t pretentious, they don’t try to be la-di-da.

Moving on now, the burgers arrived and they were presented, well, they were presented on a plate. A white plate. It was good enough for a non-gourmet burger. They came with scrumptious deep-fried potato wedges. Speaking of which, upon it’s arrival the manager spotted that we did not have enough on our plate and that he would get us some more. Unfortunately he did not do so, it seemed to have slipped his mind, which is maybe a -1 on my scale. Nonetheless it was good.
Bite after bite we could not believe the value for money, for R30-00 we had received a deliciously made, home-made style burger which was fat in size and great in taste! The wedges were limited but as I previously mentioned, there was an attempt to better that situation. The attempt however, failed.

Needless to say, my experience at Arnold’s was of a pleasant nature. I have had better burgers, don’t get me wrong, but then it was at a place that claims to serve gourmet burgers, in which case I’d expect better. At Arnold’s however, it was value for money, sheer value for money! We even received a free bottle of wine because were a table of 2 or more. I have no comment with regards to the wine.

All and all, I would give Arnold’s a 7 out 10 rating. Mainly because of the value for money aspect. The atmosphere definitely helped achieve that ranking.

-S

Technorati Tags: Arnold’s, Burgers, Cape Town, Non-Gourmet, Restaurants, Table Mountain

Fat Alberts Burger Review

Ok, seeing as the other team is taking their time posting anything about our previous burger experience, I’ll step in. Myself and two other friends were sitting at Vida and contemplating things such as life, the universe and good coffee. Naturally the discussion would then veer towards good food as well, something that the universe and life is based on. We started talking about the review site, and the current plan of reviewing burgers, the series supposedly known as the Burger-Off (which is meant to be pronounced Bugger-Off if I get my way). There had still been many a place that we had not yet visited, which meant we should probably start getting going. We promptly got up and left our seats, missioning on down Long street (yes, much to K’s dismay we decided on walking, you get a much better view of city, and it was something that I hadn’t done in quite a while.) We found ourself here:

None other than Fat Alberts. Fat Alberts was suggested by S as a new place to check out. They, apparently, have gourmet burgers and a good selection of wine. While we didn’t entertain the thought of wine at this occasion, maybe next time we stumble in we’ll give the winelist a shot. The menu was somewhat a bit devoid of options I feel. They had the standard burgers, a few with cheese (one even called a Royale.. bad move, you don’t want to remind customers of other people’s burgers), some bacon here and there. Nothing too fancy about that. What suprised me was that they had a duck burger and one or two other exotic items on the menu. This is where things sort of started going a bit pearshaped. A burger is a burger is a burger. As soon as you deviate from the buns and patty, it no longer becomes a burger. It falls into a new category, but a bun and some leaves featuring a duck patty doeth not make a burger. Maybe this was there attempt at “gourmet” burger.

Me liking spicy food, ordered the Mexican/spicy burger, S ordered a plain with fresh avo and no basting (He’s a purist remember) and K ordered a plain chicken burger. I like that they give you a choice of 3 different buns, even though I wouldn’t suggest having a rye bun. I mean seriously now, why? Once again, refer to the previous mentioned part of what a burger should be. And then the food arrives!

Presentation was very good. I love the square black plates and the entire composition of the plate is well balanced. The portions of chips and wedges are also very generous. So then comes the first bite… The first thing that strikes you is that they haven’t fried the onions that they’ve made the patties with. It gives it a slightly tinged taste, and on taking a second bite I recalled what the patty tasted like… I have an idea that the basting has something to do with this as well… At every cycling race, and every hockey match I’ve been to there have always been those small Oom Salie se Burgers foodstalls. This was a patty straight from that book. Don’t take me wrong, I like those patties, but not when I’m paying R45 for it! Or when I expect something brilliant. This just made it taste cheap. I could taste some Spur in there as well. Ugh. The chilli-quacamole that come with had a great taste to it. I do think that this probably saved the burger from being a complete disaster. The foilage accompanying added some value, but could perhaps have been done without. On to the chips, or the Mr Chips. Wind filled bags of air. Absolutely shocking! I can’t believe a place that puts itself to be gourmet would even THINK of buying pre-cut chips. The wedges were a nice size and well cooked. The spicing on them was great as well. The condiments were a bit of a waste, and seemingly cheap as well. On the left, Sweet Chilli, middle, something resembling mayo, right, tomato.

The mayo was a serious disappointment. When it originally came out of the bottle I thought it to be sour cream as it had the same consistency. But nope, that’s some very

bad rendition of mayo.

Finito!

Atmosphere I could recommend Fat Alberts as a nice environment to be in. When we arrived we had the option of sitting streetside, in the main section or the courtyard in the back. Each area looking quite inviting. We decided to sit street front as Short Market is quite buzzing that time of the day. The waiters were very friendly, maybe lacking a bit of personality, but that’s something that some people like and others don’t. When we wanted to order a second round of drinks they told us that they had run out of Coke. What kind of restaurant runs out of Coke? How does this happen? Would I go there again? No I doubt it. It was a nice experience, but nothing great. There are much better environments to be in, where you also end up paying R45 for a burger, but it has a much higher quality. There isn’t that much to take away from it. Except that it really wasn’t awe inspiring. The fact they they call themselves a gourmet burger restaurant might need to take some review… There wasn’t that much gourmet behind their burgers. A good gourmet restaurant has gourmet burgers as their main menu list, not as a secondary listing (under the “Extra specials”).

A 6 out of 10.