Tag Archives: Atlantic seaboard

Restaurant Review: There are no Koi at KOI Bantry Bay! Poor service, faux Asian!

KOI Entrance Whale Cottage PortfolioThe opening of KOI Bantry Bay at The Ambassador Hotel has been eagerly awaited, after it was announced that Salt Restaurant would be replaced with a Gauteng-based group restaurant, KOI restaurants already operating in Sandton, Rosebank, and in Pretoria. The KOI restaurants are sister restaurants to the Wakame (with Wafu) restaurant group in Cape Town, which was founded 15 years ago, and is headed up by co-directors Stewart Bond and Rory Jossel.  There are no koi at KOI, and other than a logo on a business card, there is no representation of the decorative carp in the restaurant.  The website defines the KOI name as being Japanese for ‘Come, Love, Fish‘.

Always on the lookout for a good restaurant on the Atlantic Seaboard, a rarity, I was looking forward to seeing how the restaurant group would give the hotel restaurant space new life. Despite having the most magnificent location, ideal to see sunsets as it faces west over the Atlantic Ocean, the restaurants at The Ambassador just do not seem to have staying power, and neither do their chefs and staff for that matter!   Some decor changes have been made, wooden grids guiding one to the end of the passage, with only one entrance now, the previous entrance to the lounge KOI Interior Whale Cottage Portfolioand bar area having been closed. The lounge area now is restaurant seating too, with space for a total of about 100 patrons the Manager Chris Somhohlo said. Wood dominates the decor style (Chris couldn’t remember the name of the decorator), with wooden table tops, wooden chairs with woven seats, and the woven grid theme picked up in the visual display covering an entire wall, in the new ceiling lighting, and in the lampshades too.  The Continue reading →

City of Cape Town wins court bid to halt Winelands N1/N2 toll roads, for now!

Brett Herron, the City of Cape Town Councillor and Mayoral Committee member for Transport, Roads, and Stormwater, is a busy man, fighting the Golden Arrow Bus Services on the one hand, and the South African National Road Agency Limited’s (SANRAL) proposed N1/N2 Winelands Toll Highway Project on the other.

Yesterday we heard in a news broadcast that Golden Arrow is taking its appeal of a recent court decision to allow the roll out of further MyCiTi Bus routes in Cape Town to the Supreme Court.  This will mean a further delay of the eagerly awaited and heavily delayed launch of the Atlantic Seaboard route from Hout Bay through Camps Bay, Sea Point, Tamboerskloof, to the city centre and the V&A Waterfront.  Last month the City’s bus service did not run for three weeks due to the SA National Transport and Allied Workers Union calling a strike over wages, and caused traffic chaos when the Justin Bieber and Bon Jovi concerts were held in the Cape Town Stadium!

Today the Councillor has issued a media statement, triumphantly announcing that the City’s urgent interdict to stop SANRAL from going ahead in developing its proposed Winelands N1 and N2 toll roads has been successful, due to then national Transport Minister Jeff Radebe not having been fully informed about the costs of the toll road development.  The N1 toll road is planned from the R300 turnoff to Sandhills near Worcester, and the N2 toll road from the R300 turnoff to Bot River.  We have written previously that wine farmers and estate owners, and agricultural producers, were up in arms when the toll road announcement was first made public 18 months ago, driving up food costs and being bad for tourism!

The City’s interdict application was assisted with some toy-toying outside the Western Cape High Court by his fellow Tourism, Events and Marketing Mayoral Committee member Grant Pascoe, and a rent-a-crowd. Pascoe is better at marketing the DA than he is at marketing Cape Town via his newish Tourism, Events and Marketing Directorate, having announced the interdict victory on his Facebook page, and linking the victory to the DA!

Councillor Herron’s media statement is as follows:

“STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR TRANSPORT, ROADS AND STORMWATER, COUNCILLOR BRETT HERRON: City wins again in fight to halt proposed N1/N2 Winelands Toll Highway Project.

The City of Cape Town scored two victories in its attempt to halt the proposed N1/N2 Winelands Toll Highway Project in the Western Cape High Court this morning.  The court has granted the City’s application for an interdict against the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), seeking to halt the Agency from taking any steps to implement the proposed project, pending the final determination of the City’s review application. The City was also successful in its application that SANRAL be compelled to provide a number of documents which formed part of SANRAL’s decision making process; and which SANRAL have been refusing to provide.  The City’s people and its economy simply cannot be burdened by unnecessary toll roads.  SANRAL’s decision is one that affects us all, but that will have a particularly profound effect on the poorest and most vulnerable groups that call Cape Town home”.

The toll road project would place a R10 billion financial burden to provide services to SANRAL, which the City of Cape Town’s ratepayers would have to bear.  The bulk of the Western Cape wine estates and its visitors would be affected by the implementation of toll roads outside Cape Town.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Restaurant Review: Goloso Deli and Restaurant in Sea Point a homely taste of Milan!

I have been to eat at Goloso Deli and Restaurant on Regent Road twice in ten days, and have been impressed with how popular this eatery has become amongst Atlantic Seaboard locals and tourists walking past in four short months.  Chef Alessandra Masciadri and her husband Chris Kennedy have created a rustic eatery that brings the best of Italian home cooking to our city.

Chef Alessandra is a qualified lawyer, and left her practice in Milan to follow her husband Chris’ dream to come back to his home country, on condition it was Cape Town, to be near the ocean, and because it is more continental.  Chris grew up in Johannesburg, where he had worked at an international law practice, and was sent to Milan.  This is where he and Alessandra met.  Chris now practices as an advocate in Cape Town, but is hands on in chatting to the guests. Alessandra is not so confident in her English, and asks Chris to translate if she cannot think of the right English word.  She told me that her family loves cooking, and it was her grandfather making charcuterie and selling it in a deli near Como that shaped her family’s love for food.  She and her sisters were taught by their mother to cook, ‘deepening their passion for cooking’, and they went for cooking lessons too, which expanded their repertoire.  Chris and Alessandra love travelling around the world, as well as in Italy, and it is here that they focused on the small villages where they picked up unusual Italian dishes, and have brought them to Cape Town, finding the right ingredients locally being the only impediment.  She loves her restaurant, and says the immediate feedback from her customers makes this new career much better than the law one she left behind in Italy.

‘Goloso’ means ‘a little bit greedy’ or to be a glutton, Chris explained, and this was the name given to the outlet by the previous owner, who ran it mainly as a deli, and offered a few take-away and sit-down Italian dishes.  Chris and Alessandra bought the restaurant five months ago, and took over the neighbouring shoe shop space too, painted it red and yellow, and decorated it simply with wooden shelves to house the wines and Chef Alessandra’s cook books.  The red Vespa photograph says ‘Italy’ better than anything else!  The wooden tables have a table cloth,  with sheets of paper over them. Cutlery is unbranded, and a Goldcrest coarse sea salt grinder, a Natural pepper grinder, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar imported from Italy are on the table, with a paper serviette.  The restaurant can seat 43 inside and out.  Most of the deli part of Goloso has been removed, but they will be selling Chef Alessandra’s home-made pasta to take away.  The chef is also making basil pesto, tomato paste, aubergine paste, as well as olive paste, for customers to buy. Their pastes and pastas are freshly made, and do not contain preservatives.

Before my order arrived Chef Alessandra sent out tomato bruschetta, as well as a brown paper packet of bread slices, an unusual way of serving it. Preparation space is very limited for Chef Alessandra and her team, and a dry wall section taken out of the restaurant seating area has an open top so that one can hear the plates clanging as the dishes are prepared, the only negative of the restaurant. The Chef pops in at the tables, greeting her guests, many being locals, and some having become regulars and friends already.  It is no surprise that Goloso is fully booked most evenings.  I asked Alessandra what she enjoys eating, and she likes plain pasta sprinkled with olive oil, with chili, garlic, and parsley.  Her favourite pizza is a Margherita.  She rarely has time to go to a restaurant, but has enjoyed the Cape Malay restaurant in the Old Cape Quarter the most.

The menu comes in a black plastic cover, with plastic pockets, with a dish scratched out with a coki pen. It is changed regularly, and there is always a dish of the day.  I ordered the Polla al Limone, but did not like the sound of chick peas for the vegetable served with it, so Chef Alessandra offered some lovely fresh pasta and butternut with an assortment of nuts roasted in olive oil. The chicken was prepared in lemon and wine, and the sauce was heavenly, the dish being excellent value at R100.  The specials board on the day I ate at Goloso offered a special of pasta and chicken with mussels in white wine sauce, at R70. The menu offers Antipasto of carpaccio of beef (R70) and vegetables (R50); seven salads, including Caprese (in two sizes R27, R50), salmon, and Sicilian; sixteen pasta dishes, with Tagliatelle, penne, and Tagliolini, served with a range of ingredients, including bacon, smoked salmon, gorgonzola, chicken, mushrooms, eggplant and more. Main courses include rump steak, chicken, veal, and beef fillet.

The Tiramisu (R35) was excellent, a generous portion topped with cocoa and roasted flaked almonds, and thick and creamy.  I ordered a Hausbrandt (Italian coffee supplier from Trieste to Goloso, and also supplying their gelato) Cremoso (R25), a liquid coffee gelato, Chris explained, to which one can add a liqueur.

Chris and Alessandra are making the most of their space, and offer an extensive Breakfast menu, with add on items charged separately. Scrambled eggs cost R28, for example, and R32 with chorizo, and R55 with salmon.  Omelets (plain at R28, with a bolognese sauce at R36, or with three fillings out of a choice of nine R55), fried eggs, French Toast (plain at R25, or with a bolognese sauce at R36), muesli, fruit salad, yoghurt, smoothies, continental breakfast platters, antipasto platters, muffins (choice of carrot, honey and date, mixed berry, Lindt, banana, apple), and Swiss Lindt brownies are some of the Breakfast choices.

Goloso is licensed, and offers a mix of reasonably priced wines and liqueurs.  Chris showed me their Limoncello on Sorrento, which comes from Franschhoek, as well as the Organic liqore du cioccolato, which is available in mandarin and raspberry flavours too.  The wine list is a laminated sheet, not specifying vintages.  A fair number of the wines are served by the glass.  Arabella from Robertson serves as the house wine, the Sauvignon Blanc costing R25 per glass and R90 per bottle. Sauvignon Blancs from Noble Hill, Cederberg, La Motte, and Graham Beck are also available, a Graham Beck Unwooded Chardonnay (R20/R80), Amani (R140), and Ken Forrester Petit Chenin (R25/R90) on offer too. Red wines include a Fairbridge red blend (R20/R80), Umfiki Cabernet Sauvignon (R20/R80), Arabella Shiraz (R90), and Secret Cellar supplying the Merlot (R25/R95), and the MCC (R100).  Corkage costs R30.

Chris and Alessandra are having such a good time in what they do that they are opening Goloso Pizzeria across the road, closer to the refurbished Checkers, in March. The flour will be imported from Italy, being ‘doppio zero‘ finer flour, as will be the tomato base and most of the toppings, such as artichokes, olives, mozzarella di buffalo, sun-dried tomatoes, and olive oil and balsamic from Modena.

Goloso is a very friendly homely eatery without any airs and graces, at which one can enjoy genuine Italian fare prepared with love and passion, at good value.  Chef Alessandra and Chris would like their restaurants to feel like ‘mother’s kitchen’, with customers feeling at home, and well cared for by Alessandra and her team.  It looks as if they have achieved this in a very short period of time, being full most nights.

Goloso, 90 Regent Road, Sea Point, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 439-2144.   www.goloso.webs.com Monday – Sunday 7h00 – 22h00.  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Will the Atlantic Seaboard MyCiTi Bus service ever get off the ground?

A question on Twitter over the weekend about the likely commencement of the MyCiti Bus service on the Atlantic Seaboard generated a most surprising response from the City of Cape Town’s Councillor for Transport, Roads and Stormwater Brett Herron.   It seems that it is unsure when the MyCiTi Bus service will be rolled out on the Atlantic Seaboard, having been announced to commence last November, and now in February!

Councillor Herron (surprisingly) referred me to a link to ‘Future Cape Town‘, a blog written by a duo of childish unprofessional Tweeters, in which Rouen Smit has written about the ‘event kidnappers’, who are ‘hijacking the expectations of entire cities and countries to their eleventh-hour demands‘.  The bottom line appears to be that in Cape Town ‘transport monopolies’ are the ‘event kidnappers’, being the taxi industry and Golden Arrow bus company, the latter objecting to the City of Cape Town’s application for operating licences for all nine feeder routes into the city.

Herron on Twitter and Smit in the blogpost call for commuters to raise their voice about the delays, so that they can mobilise and speed up the introduction of the MyCiTi Bus service in the areas where the service is ready to roll, as in Camps Bay for example.  Smit argues that not having the service is too small a cost to mobilise the community into protest action, as appears to help other causes.

The end result is that the alleged monopolistic transport providers are denying commuters the benefit of the new service, millions of Rands of ratepayers’ monies having been paid to set up the service, and designed to save them time and money, and provide a safe route to work, shopping and entertainment.  Herron Tweeted that the City of Cape Town needs help to get the service introduced, and to get the operating licences approved, requesting commuters to ‘demand the service. Write the operating board. Make noise about the objections’.

It would be a shame if such an efficient modern bus service, which would benefit not only residents but many tourists who do not want to rent a car, and who expect a transportation system which they deem to be missing in our otherwise world class city!  Atlantic Seaboard Councillor Bev Schafer Tweeted that the MyCiTi Bus service can now be expected to be introduced in April or May, just when the tourist season has come to a grinding halt!

POSTSCRIPT 18/2: Councillor Herron sent the following additional up-to-date information via e-mail: this afternoon, sounding very optimistic about the hold-up coming to an end soon:

“Thank you for engaging with me on Twitter, over the weekend, about the roll out of the MyCiTi service on the Atlantic Seaboard.  I referred you to a piece published on Future Cape Town’s website simply to provide you with some quick context for the delays and to underscore a concern that I have that in the debate about operating licences the most important voice, that of the commuters, is missing.

In order to commence the permanent feeder routes that make up the bulk of Phase 1A we require operating licences. The licensing board is an independent body established by the Provincial government. The City’s vehicle operating companies, formed as part of the industry transition process (and made up of directly affected taxi associations), commenced the licensing application process in good time – in August last year. Three taxi associations (who claim to be partially affected by the proposed new MyCiTi service) and Golden Arrow Bus Service submitted objections to the licences applied for. The tribunal scheduled hearings in November and January, but these were postponed by the tribunal at the request of the objectors. The hearings eventually took place in early February 2013 and the parties had until Friday 15 February 2013 to submit their respective written arguments. At the commencement of the proceedings two of the three taxi associations withdrew their objections. I think it is safe to say that the process has now closed and the tribunal must make its decision.  As I indicated, the tribunal is independent and exercises an administrative justice type role. I trust that they will do so expeditiously but I have no way of knowing when they will make their decision. Assuming licences are in fact approved we will then commence the roll out of the new services in a phased manner as soon as possible“.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage