Monday, May 24, 2010

Restaurant of The Week: La Boheme in Sea Point

One doesn’t often think of Sea Point when considering good dining places, with the exception of the new Duchess of Wisbeach and the wonderful Posticino, which I’ve loved for years now, and their consistency keeps me going there time and time again, drools, ok back to Sea Point, so now late last year when I discovered La Boheme, I was most pleased, partly for it being somewhat Parisian and more importantly having great food at such modest prices. La Boheme is owned and run by Faisal, better known for his tenure as manager at the fabulous Caveau in Heritage Square; the restaurant is linked to his partner’s Spanish cafĂ©, La Bruixa on Sea Point Main Road. The space is a mixture of comfortable, urban minimalist accented with some browns and a touch of Parisian bistro appeal with an open kitchen. Defined by its owners as both a bistro and wine bar, it comes as expected that they offer a moderately long list of 60 wines available by the glass. La Boheme’s charm continues with their modestly priced menu, they are currently running a special till the end of the year, which I think is amazing value for money, two courses for R90 and three at R110 – for good, flavoursome and well prepared bistro style food. The menu presented on black boards, (some stodgy people might argue Faisal is copying the way they do it at Caveau, but I saw it more as a homage), is not long, which is a good thing as I feel it allows the kitchen to focus on producing consistently good dishes. On my first visit I tried their liver parfait as well as the beef fillet with mushroom risotto, both convinced me the restaurant was worthy for an encore, everyone who was part of our dining party was thoroughly pleased with their meals as well. On my 2nd and more recent visit for mains I tried their pork belly with poached apples, the dish was lovely, except I didn’t care for the use of apple, I would much prefer a poached pear with the pork, but perhaps pears are not in season…hmm. Either way La Boheme has won me over to become one of my neighbourhood favourite places to frequent. La Boheme. 341 Main, corner Main and Albany, Sea Point. 021 434 8797 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              021 434 8797      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, lunch & dinner – closed on Sundays.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Cape Town Winter Dining Special 2010

Some of you will remember last year I posted a list of all the restaurants around the Cape that were offering winter specials (Cape Town Winter Special 2009), well its that time of the year again. Except with the official World Cup season starting next month a lot of these specials are not running for the duration of winter like last year, this time some of them are ending beginning of June, which is a shame for the poor locals on a budget, but with a penchant for fine dining on a shoe string. I must say even I have been done in by the recession, this year I've been quite a fan of the specials myself, so I will follow up with reviews of the ones I've tried, will tell you which ones are worth the bucks and which are basically scams, yes there are a few of those. This is the most comprehensive list of specials, way more than even eatout will give you ;), also you will notice my focus is on restaurants in town (cape town) and the immidiate surroundings, I'll make another list featuring restaurants around the outskirts, winelands, karoo etc

Restaurant

Special

Period

Location

1800°

Choose between matured rib-eye, rump steak or sirloin steak for lunch or dinner for only R99.

Month of May

Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, Green Point

Andiamo

R 89 Breakfast special for 2, and R 125 pizza/pasta + wine for two

All winter

Old Cape Quarter

Ci Casa at Camil’s

2-course lunch on Sat and Sun for R 100 + glass of bubbly,

April & May

Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, Green Point

Five Flies

2-course meal reduced down to R125, 3-course dinner reduced down to R150,

Mon, Wed and Fri for the next 3 months

Rembrandt House, Keerom Street,

Jardine

3 course dinner at R 150

until end May

Bree Street

La Boheme Wine Bar & Bistro

2 courses for R90 and three for R110.

May – Dec 2010

Sea Point

Myoga @ The Vineyard Hotel

R150 for a six Course meal – each course you have a choice between 3 dishes.

Not listed.

Newlands

Nobu

Great value for haute Japanese cuisine. Bento Box offering, for only for R195.

May – Dec 6pm-11pm (Sun –Thur) & 6pm-7.30pm on Fri & Sat

V&A Waterfront

Pepenero

sirloin and chips R 79, seafood platter R 129, prawn platter R 99, oysters R 9 each, half-price sushi

On-going

Mouille Point

Sinn’s Restaurant

lunch plus a fruit cocktail at R 50, 11h00 - 16h00

May

Wembley Square

The Cru Cafe

breakfast for 2 for R 85, 2 pasta dishes + 2 glasses of wine for R 119

all days of week, lunch and dinner

New Cape Quarter

The Roundhouse

7-course dinner for R 245

May only

Camps Bay

Tuscany Beach

50% off second person’s main course, and 1/2 price sushi

12 - 6 pm

in Camps Bay

Sevruga

Sole dishes range from R 89 - R 180

during April

V&A Waterfront

Vanilla

50% off second person’s main course, and 1/2 price sushi

12 - 6 pm

New Cape Quarter

Wang Thai

half-price sushi and cocktails

Mon – Thur 12pm – 6pm

V&A Waterfront, Constantia.