Table Mountain Valentines Treat Turns Nasty

Being the romantic I am, I surprised my hubby with Table Mountain ride and dine tickets for Valentines. The plan was to have a lovely meal at one of the worlds most beautiful venues and watch the sunset together. But even the best made plans sometimes fall flat...

We arrived at the cable way just after 5.30pm, it was busy, but I had booked online so we went straight up in the next available cable car. I have only ever been up the mountain twice before. Once, before I left for the UK, some 9 years ago and last year winter, when we took my son on a day trip. This is the first time I would be seeing the sunset from the mountain. The trip up was glorious, the views breathtaking.

On arrival at the summit we had a walk about, even spotted some Dasie, and took some pictures of the magnificent view. We didn't want to miss a minute of the sunset, so opted to use our cafe tickets and have our meal. We both had R110 to spend, which sounded ample. But as I said earlier, even the best made plans can go South.

The Cafe "now I know why they don't call it a restaurant" was very busy. We grabbed our trays and edged our way to the Valentines buffet. A mixed feeling of  shock and horror gripped me; bain-marie after bain-marie of slightly steaming stew like "dishes", each with their own greasy texture. Everything smelt of curry "it was still 26 degrees outside", the only "other" choice was some sad looking chicken pieces and right on the end some extremely oily pizza. As we were standing there looking at this sorry lot, another bain - marie tray arrived with sliced chicken and some type of gravy.

We decided to make the best of it and I grabbed the serving spoon to attack the sliced chicken, feeling  brave I also served myself some of the meat,stew,substance. We were looking forward to seeing the salad's, but this was short lived. The green salad consisted of a large bowl of withered, limp leaves with clumps of feta thrown in and the occasional cherry tomato. There was something that resembled a pasta salad and to be honest I had given up hope by then. I sifted through the green salad trying to find greens with a little life in them.

Hubby had pretty much the same as me, for drinks we opted for a slush puppy "told you it was hot" an Energade and a hunters dry. After the weighing process," surely there's a better way of deciding a price, this is just so tacky" (by the way my excuse of a salad was R10), we made our way to pay. Our meals came to a staggering R250 so we needed to pay in the difference. By now there was no fight left in me, hubby paid the lady, and we took our awkward trays outside to find a table.


We "ate" in relative silence. After 10 minutes of trying to convince myself that it "wasn't that bad" I gave up! Hubby followed suit and we washed down the greasy taste with a mix of slush puppy and hunters. I remembered that we had a lovely sparking wine in the fridge that we bought from Laborie on Saturday and sighed when I saw the experienced Table Mountain visitors arrive with lovely picnic baskets and bottles of bubbly. Believe me, had I know the food was going to be that bad and that we could bring our own food, I would of made a quick trip to Woolies and filled up our picnic basket. But I was ignorant on both counts.


Determined not to let our failed attempt at a romantic meal get us down, we left our table and headed for a good spot to watch the sunset. A blissful twenty minutes passed, suddenly I felt an awful burning in my stomach, which quickly spread to my chest, I looked over at the hubby, "heartburn" he said knowingly, "same here" We stuck it out another 20 minutes or so, but in the end the heartburn won and we headed back to the cable car and home to our heartburn pills and a cold glass of milk. No sunset for us!

As a world famous landmark and a finalist for the new list of natural wonders of the world list, surely we can do better then this? I am sure there are many challenges to creating gourmet food at 1067m above sea level in such an environmentally sensitive environment.  But isn't that what us South African do best? We are leaders in coping with diversity and finding a way... Maybe a small set menu, using local in season products, table service versus the horrid buffet. There has to be a better way.

Almost saw the sunset!

I shudder to think what stories our foreign visitors take home about their Table Mountain Cafe experiences.  Cape Town is know as the gourmet capital of South Africa, we have more five star restaurants per kilometer then any other province, yet our most famous landmark is serving "school dinners" . Come on Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, you can do better then this.

Will I go back to the mountain. Definitely Yes, its wonderful . Would I eat in the Cafe again?  Unless I hear Jamie Oliver has paid a visit and sorted things out or they have made some significant changes NO NO NO.

P.S If the Table Mountain Cableway Company need some inspiration I suggest having a look at the  Eiffel Tower Restaurant. Not a curry in sight!

Lazy Days at Laborie

This Saturday we ventured out to Paarl. I'm a big fan of markets, in fact in the UK I spent almost every Sunday attending everything from Farmers Markets to boot sales. I found out about the Lazy Days Market being held at Laborie via their Facebook page and just had to see it for myself.

It was a pleasant 40 minute drive out to Paarl  from our home in the Northern Suburbs. We were pretty lucky to get parking inside as the drive way was scattered with cars. It was just after 10.30am and the market was already buzzing.  The sun was beating down and hubby and I both wished we had opted for shorts instead of jeans. But all the more reason to explore the clothing in the market.
We had however made one fundamental mistake, we hadn't drawn any cash, other then the lovely lady selling scarves, none of the other traders had hand held terminals. Always the gentlemen, my hubby left me browsing stalls as he trotted over the road to the ATM at the garage (maybe an idea to have one on the premises for the markets?)

Armed with cash we decided refreshments were in order, I opted for a glass of the good stuff from the Laborie wine stand. A glass was R15 with a R20 refundable deposit on the glass. Amazingly enough the lady at the stand recognized us from a previous wine and food pairing we had attended at Laborie back in November. Hubby opted to try one of the German beers available from another stand. We managed to find a cool cotton shirt for hubby, there was only one stand that had any menswear, so he was pretty lucky. No such luck for me, I found the range of ladies clothing a little pricey and all a bit "same old same old"

We nibbled on delicious lamb kebab just R10 and after refilling wine and beer (a bottle was only R45) we headed for the shade to devour the 6 oysters we purchased. R70 for 6. We relaxed on the lawn and listened to the sounds of River Dance being broadcast over some rather large speakers, I wonder if Laborie are considering some live music for the event? Not that the DJ was doing a bad job at all, but live music always has a more festive feel.

Feeling a little cooler we headed for the under cover area of the market. Here we found tons more food stalls, lots of homemade quiche, biltong, and some delicious ostrich droewors, perfect for me and my low fat - heart diet, I had to have some. We were contemplating stocking up on food  at the market and heading for the lawn again versus going to the restaurant for lunch. Sadly  the one thing we would of both enjoyed, the Shawarma's were swamped with flies. For some strange reason there were no candles or nets. An enthusiastic young man was desperately waving his had over the food but he was clearly fighting a losing battle.

We wondered back out into the sunshine, the stalls had suddenly started to empty, it was only 12 O'clock but already some of the exhibitors were packing up. We had browsed all the stores by then and decided to head for the cool of the restaurant. We packed our goodies into the car, I begrudgingly let go of my bottle of wine, promising myself to revisit it later that evening.


As I mentioned earlier, we had visited Laborie prior for wine tasting, but this was our first visit to the restaurant. I had very high expectations and boy I certainly wasn't disappointed. We found a table under the oaks and gratefully sank into our chairs in the shade. We were soon greeted by the amazing Flora, an absolute joy of a women with a smile that lights up her whole face. We ordered water to rehydrate ourselves and a couple of G&T's as you do! Hubby opted for the blue cheese and biltong salad, I decided on the chilled seafood platter. We picked at the fresh, warm olive bread basket, very grateful to have the choice of butter or olive oil and balsamic vinegar with our bread.

Both our lunches were beautifully presented, Hubbys salad boasted huge chunks of blue cheese and biltong and the freshest greens, my fish platter was delicioius, I particularly enjoyed the pickled calamari, again the greens were juicy and fresh, neither of us could finish the large portions. We sipped our gins...

Way too soon, it was time to leave. We called for the bill, which was an extremely reasonable R255 and headed back to our car. Will we go back to Laborie Restaurant? - A resounding Yes - We cant wait ! Maybe next time we will make an evening of it and stay over... We will also be coming back to the Lazy Days Market at some stage, if only for more oysters and wine.

It's still early days for the market, "this was only the second one"  and I'm sure the organisers will re-look the mix of exhibitors. It would be great to have a wider clothing selection and possibly some more gift type items, maybe they would even consider some buskers to add to the Lazy Day feel. As a morning out, I can highly recommend it. See you soon Laborie.

Mid Week Fishy Treat

Yesterday saw the mercury rise to well above 31 degrees in Cape Town. Sticking pins in my eyes sounded more thrilling then the thought of cooking an evening  meal. The decision was mutual, and by 6.30pm we were on our way to our local Ocean Basket in Edgemead. Why Ocean Basket? you may ask, well two reasons. One the low fat diet "least we forget" and secondly they have an air conditioned smoking section which every time we have been has been set to Eskimo cold.

On arrival we ask for seats in the smoking area, and waited with anticipation as the door was opened, expecting that welcoming ice blast - the door opened, and a wall of heat and the faint smell of smoke greeted us. Noooooooooo !!!! We were told by our waitress that the air conditioner had packed up and would cost over R30k to fix ( way to much information  - I just wanted a cold room and seafood )

Not to be defeated, we sat right next to the one and only fan and the air cleanser, at least we would still have our sushi and seafood fix. We had a voucher from Cape Coupons which gave us a free mussel starter, we topped this up with a Zen Sushi Platter, and a seafood platter for one. There was no fuss made about having a "voucher" it was excepted politely and even cut out by our waitress. We were both too hot for wine so had  soft drinks.

Our waitress was very friendly and efficient, our table was set with two types of soy sauce "including Kikoman low salt - thank you, thank you" and hygienically wrapped disposable chop sticks. We always love the bread basket and the three sauces - in particular the chilli, that Ocean Basket serves with every meal, small things make such a difference.  We asked for all our dishes to be served at once so we could pick and choose.

The mussels were delicious, maybe a little to much of the sauce, but very tasty. The Platter for one was perfect, great line fish, succulent prawns, and my all time favorite deep fried squid heads. As for the sushi, it was very well presented, generous portions, and extremely tasty. To our joy we were also given 4 addition pieces of sushi, as the platter was over R100. The extra sushi was an interesting  prawn, feta and pepperdrew combination - delightful! For a brief time even the heat wasn't so bad!

The restaurant filled up very quickly, "just us in the smoking area" we were told by our waitress that Wednesday night was "children under 12 eat free night" We will definitely make use of this special when my son is here for his school holidays.

Would I recommend Ocean Basket Edgemead. A Big Yes, Would I go there again, Yes. This branch of Ocean Basket displays the right attitude towards its clients and the standard of food served revels that of some much more pricey seafood restaurants. Our total bill was a mere R233. We really did "feel da love" Only one negative ... PLEASE get your air conditioner fixed guys!!!

Shop 32 Edgemead Village Centre,
Letchworth Drive, Edgemead

Telephone : 021 558 0266

Sushi, Plastic and Water

The last weekend of January was a touring disaster, the highlight of the weekend was a trip to the supermarket to stock up on all my new low / no fat food items that I've been forced to eat due to an excessively high cholesterol level. Life has a funny way of reining us in, just as we think we have it all sorted. But hy ho enough about that.  This weekend was definitely an improvement on the tourist front. We were a little pushed for time and had a family commitment on Sunday, so the Sunday tourist became the Saturday Tourist.

After consulting my WiningAndDining specials email, very useful little email I might add, we decided on Sushi from Taiwan City - Chinese Cuisine at Canal Walk. We live relatively close to Canal Walk, and sushi is wonderfully low in fat, so it seemed like the perfect choice.

The restaurant is situated on the upper level of Canal Walk, it has an outdoor area, right next to the fountain court, which is like a magnet for kids who want to play in the water. The management of Canal Walk would do well to alter the design of the fountains area to make it child friendly. During our visit we saw 3 separate incidents of kids falling flat on their backs after slipping on the tiles. Come on Canal Walk, it wouldn't cost a huge amount to put some non slip paving down and remodel the area with water play equipment, in winter the fountains could be switched off leaving just the play equipment. All the restaurants have outdoor seating, and there were numerous families at the outside tables, I'm sure its just meant to look pretty, but -  water / children "in particular spraying water" It's a match made in heaven. We even saw one blissfully happy little girl wade in with a bucket and spade in tow. Mommy and Daddy actually got to enjoy an uninterrupted lunch, bonus!


But I digress, back to Taiwan City. We had booked a table, which proved to be a bit pointless as we were the only people there, by the way this was 12 o'clock on Saturday. We were shown to our outside table and left with the menus. I opted for the Sushi Platter "R99.00 for 20 pieces Sushi Combo" and my hubby decided on the set menu R75, two starters, two main courses and fried rice, dessert. A waitress arrived with a bowl and side plate and a very well used set of chop sticks for each of us. I was a little taken aback to see the bowl was plastic, as was the plate, very tacky. But we were hoping the food would make up for the lack of finesse.

We waited about 10min for my husbands first course to arrive, "in another plastic bowl, with plastic soup spoon" - bizarre! It was a traditional Chinese chicken soup with noodles and egg. My hubby fell in love with it, to quote him it was "divine" My Sushi arrived at the same time as my hubby's main course which was chicken noodles and deep fried beef strips, served with egg rice, again he was very impressed with the taste and the size of the portion. As he demolished his plate "this one wasn't plastic" we did have to giggle when we noticed the logo and name of another Taiwanese restaurant revealed on the middle of the plate. Must of been a closing down sale...

My sushi was in a word, "disappointing", the best item was the sashimi but even that was badly cut. There was little to no presentation. I did have an oblong plate of sorts, but it had seen better days. The rice didn't hold together at all and the seaweed was chewy. I was also annoyed that the only soy sauce provided, was the red capped Kikkoman, I was told by our waitress they didn't have the  lower salt green cap option. I landed up giving 8 of my 20 pieces to my hubby who agreed it was far from the best we have eaten. Of the remaining 12 I only managed 8, I can normally whiz through 20 pieces so this was a first for me.

My hubby's set menu was completed with a choice of, you guessed it, bow ties or ice cream. He choose the ice cream, which was just that, a spoon of shop bought, vanilla ice cream plonked it yet another plastic bowl with a teaspoon, oh dear! I drank more wine and watched as yet another child was lured in by the fountains.

Ice Cream done, "my hubby actually managed 2 teaspoons" We called for the bill, which came to just over R260. My opinion of Taiwan City, well as far as traditional Chinese food goes, they make a tasty honest meal. I would suggest they stick to this and leave the sushi to the experts. But the plastic bowls, second hand plates and tacky chopsticks, they are just unforgivable, one could expect this from an out of town Chinese restaurant but a restaurant in Canal Walk... ah no, unacceptable. 


Would I go back? No, would I recommend it, No. Sorry, I love sushi way too much for a repeat visit.