Beluga, Cape Town

I haven’t posted in quite some time, however, I feel that after last night it’s time to get back on top of things. I’m still trying to figure out what it is I want to relay first, the negative or the positive? There is definitely, specials aside, more negative aspects.
I have decided to go with the good first, so that I can leave you with a taste of bitterness when you close this window.
So, Beluga is running the most amazing special, and it entails SUSHI. All sushi = half price between 1pm & 7pm, and I mean everything. It is amazing! The sushi is tantalizing and, best of all, cheap! For 22 pieces, during the special, it’ll cost you a mere R75-00. This includes 6 Salmon roses, 6 seared Tuna roses, 5 pieces of Salmon Nigiri, 5 Pieces of seared Tuna Nigiri & 2 California rolls. This is about as good as it gets at Beluga. It is worth going there for the special, no doubt.

Cocktails are also half-priced, not that they know how to make them. We ordered two Mojito’s and for some reason they made it with lemon, mint and Bacardi only. I mean seriously, do you have any idea how disgusting that tastes? It needs some form of sweetness. Yuk, my face is all tweaked out just from thinking about it.

Just thinking of sushi is giving me tummy rumbles, and only because I am hungry.

Now, the negative… OH the negative. Firstly, upon arrival, we were seated at a table without a clean table cloth, of course this is no issue, if they actually change it in due course. Obviously, this never happened, so for an hour or so, I was dining on a table cloth with two impeccable stains on them, they could have represented the second coming of Christ, or they could have represented poor quality service as a result of mis-management and lack of customer care. Who knows? Secondly eating sushi required minimal ‘cutlery’ right? So we got exactly that, chopsticks & two soy bowls. That’s it. No Soy sauce, no serviettes, no nothing. I am amazed they put our sushi on a plate. So we borrowed someSoy Sauce from our neighbouring table and proceeded to eat simplistically. Which was worth it, due to the price we ended up paying for our entire meal (R100 for two).

Claiming to be one of the top restaurants in Cape Town or at least striving to be, they should seriously consider revamping their customer care strategy.

Until next time, which should be soon, if all goes well of course
-S

Technorati Tags: food, sushi, beluga, cape town, dining, gourmet, cocktails

Gainsbourg, Kloof Street.

I think this is a long awaited review, or at least I think so. This place has been on Kloof street for quite some time now, long enough for me to forget what it was before. It is situated right next to Topolino Café, a very old shop run by a grumpy ol’ Portuguese man. If you run in there for a pack of smokes or a coke, be sure to avoid eye contact, he might make you evaporate or turn your liver into stone maybe even make you spontaneously combust. You never know.

Anyway, I decided to wear my slippers (they aren’t uncool) they are rather nice. In fact, they look like shoes. Light brown leather slippers, they have wool inside and keep my feet amazingly warm! I only paid R125.00 for them! Cape Union Mart had a sale last week, they might still have it but stock is running dry so hurry up. If you feel like hearing more about my slippers, be sure to drop me an e-mail and I will tell you all about them.

I cannot remember what the rest of my outfit consisted of, but I am sure it included jeans (or a jeanpant for our Afrikaans readers), a shirt and something very warm.

So it was truly a cold night out and the restaurant decided that it would be a magnificent idea to not close the doors. They, instead, decided to install those canvas tents so as to extend the real estate of the restaurant. We all know that they DO NOT entirely block out the cold, not even with the two industrial sized outdoor heaters they have mounted up against the walls. And the fact that they did not want to feed the fire sufficiently enough to heat up the restaurant effectively also did not really help with the cold.

Anyway, given the atmospherics it was a toss up decision between the seared tuna and the lamb shank. Eventually the lamb shank, mash, roast vegetables and onion sauce won the toss. My lady friend decided to have the Gorgonzola, crispy bacon and walnut pasta.

Here comes the tricky part, we ordered take away so that we could eat at home. The restaurant was a weeee bit cold. The food arrived swiftly though, that is indeed a plus. I think I waited about 15minutes and voila!

So, at home I plated the food and I was a bit let down by the portion of pasta. It was a half-portion in my opinion. On the flipside the portion of lamb shank was overly generous! Priced at R78.00 for the lamb shank and R58.00 for the Pasta, the pasta was over-priced and the lamb was well priced. HOWEVER, they both tasted wonderful! I wouldn’t say the pasta was perfect, but then I am extremely cynical when it comes to eating pasta anywhere but at home. It was overcooked, maybe even precooked which I strongly disagree with. Pasta needs to be fresh, as fresh as possible. TIP: make your own pasta!

Luckily I had the lamb. Everything blended so well, it was truly an amazing dish to have on an icy cold day. I immediately pat myself on the back for not ordering the tuna.

All I can say is that next time you are in the area and you are feeling a bit hungry, Give Gainsbourg a go, you won’t regret it.

Now, my slippers were a bit wet when I got home but 15minutes in front of the fire with a lovely plate of warm food sorted that out. Once again, I urge you to drop me an e-mail with regards to my garments.

Goodbye

-S

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