Tag Archives: De Waterkant

Restaurant Review: Lazari Foodgallery is a passionate pink place!

There are two Lazari Foodgallery restaurants in Cape Town.  The Cape Quarter branch is a passionate pink place, focused on the colour pink, perfect for its location in and therefore attraction to the residents of De Waterkant, known as the pink capital of South Africa.   It makes the most fabulous thick and foamy cappuccinos, and is a “European café-style restaurant offering hearty easy meals”.

My first experience of Lazari (named after its owner Chris Lazari) soon after opening a year ago was not a positive one, with poor food quality and service.  I did not bother to review it at that time.   A cappuccino enjoyed earlier last week after the Marine Stewardship Council workshop at Jenny Morris’ Cook’s Playground across the road led me to return for brunch on Sunday.   The place was heaving, with families, couples, and De Waterkant residents enjoying themselves.  I received perfect service from a character called Willie.  Willie was focused on wearing as much pink as possible, including a  pink T-shirt, pink watch, pink slip-slops, pink bangles, with a pink and a white striped dishcloth over his shoulder, a self-made name tag in pink, and offering a pink pen with the bill!   He is a graphic designer, he told me proudly.  Willie’s colleagues wore pink or white T-Shirts, without the other pink additions, all wearing white pink-branded Lazari aprons.   Sugar stick holders are pink.

The furniture is a mix of white and …. yes, pink chairs, looking like kitchen chairs of the ‘Fifties, around white square tables.  The outside black chairs with see-through plastic backs looked very modern and chic.  Lazari has two terraces, a smallish non-smoking one, and a large smoking one, a good call.  Some walls are painted pink, and others red.  I wasn’t sure about the addition of red in the paint and curtain colours to the pink interior dominance, but it all works somehow.   The entrance wall from the centre has “flower power” wallpaper.  Raw cement walls are a contrast, but one of them has been used as specials board.  The cutlery is “cheap and cheerful”, rolled in paper serviettes.

What is great is that breakfast is served until 15h00 at Lazari.  The menu is an unimpressive poorly photocopied page, so badly copied that all the prices on the right hand side of the menu were cut off.   Breakfast options are fruit and yoghurt (R37); French Toast (R49); Flapjacks (R46); Health muesli, fruit and yoghurt (R45); eggs and bacon (R39); a most reasonably priced and lovely generous 3-egg omelet at R28, served with wholewheat toast, to which one can add 15 fillings, priced between R 9 – R14 each; croissants with cheese and preserves (R28), or with scrambled eggs and additions (R35 – R52).   Eggs Benedict with spinach costs R38, and R52 with salmon.    Lunches consist of interesting salads (a range of R48 – R65); a meze platter of four with toasted pita costs R65;  pitas can be ordered with numerous additions, even bacon and eggs (R38); and ciabatta can be ordered with haloumi (R48), sweet Thai chilli chicken (R50) and as the “Ultimate Club” (R58).   At night soup can be ordered at R35; camembert (R40); as well as mains such as schnitzel (R65); pasta (R60); lean beef, chicken and veggie burgers at R60; and pork and beef bangers (R50).  Desserts are unusual too, and lemongrass, coconut and vanilla pannacotta costs R 34 and yummy sounding molten chocolate cake R50.

I loved the Italian-made beautiful cappuccino cup design, with the words “Collezione Portioli” written inside the cup.   No one seemed to know the origin of the cups, and it was thought that they were supplied by the coffee suppliers Roastwell.   Pink cupcakes eaten by patrons reinforce the colour scheme of Lazari.

A week ago I went to the Gardens branch of Lazari, and had exactly the opposite experience.  I stopped there because it was only one of few restaurants open in the area.  I sat outside as it was a beautiful summer’s day.  A waiter grumpily told me to come inside if I wanted to order, and refused to tell me what was on the board, so that I could stay seated.  I decided to leave, and so found The Sidewalk Cafe, subject of a future review.

Lazari will be my new favourite cappuccino stop, when I am in town.

Lazari Foodgallery,  Cape Quarter, Napier Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 419-9555.  www.lazari.co.za  (Website is short and sweet, and contains the menus for both Lazari restaurants).   Twitter @Lazari_CQ.   Mondays and Tuesdays 7h30 – 17h00, Wednesdays – Sundays 8h00 – 22h00.

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

Vineyard Hotel Sweet and Pick’nPay Express Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Rick Taylor, Group Marketing and Sales Exewcutive of the Vineyard Hotel, who came to the rescue when an ordered lamb burger had not been brought to the table at the hotel’s The Square restaurant after half an hour, the waiter coming back to say that the kitchen had run out of seeded rolls, and needed to bake more, requiring another 15 minutes.  I was not happy that the Restaurant Manager nor the F&B Manager understood how poor the service in the restaurant was, and therefore asked to speak to Rick, a friend of many moons ago, in our advertising industry past in Johannesburg. With his charm and chattiness, Rick made me forget my frustration, I stayed far longer than planned, and I left with a positive attitude towards the hotel. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Pick ‘n Pay Express in De Waterkant, the second Sour Award it has received for exactly the same reason – the problems in taking EasyPay payments.  I had brought a cheque, and wanted to pay the balance with my credit card.   It took half an hour to put through the 20 payments I was making, due to the slow Pick ‘n Pay EasyPay system.   The real challenge came when it took the manager Trevor another half an hour to try and put through the cheque payment – first he had to call for special permission to accept my cheque, and once he had received this, he did not know how to deal with a cheque payment on the till.  Trevor called the Pick ‘n Pay helpline, and they confirmed to me that the total amount can be paid by two payment methods.    I noticed that the Manager was not answering the questions the screen was asking, i.e. the branch number and the account number, questions to which the manager kept entering the amount to be paid, and therefore was getting an “input error” message each time, at least 20 times!  It took an hour to make the payments.  For a 24-hour outlet, one would expect a more competent manager to be on duty when the owners have gone home.   

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website. 

Warwick/Vilafonte wine and Scrumptious food bloggers paired

The third Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting takes place next Wednesday 28 July, from 18h00 – 20h00, and will pair Jane-Anne Hobbs Rayner of Scrumptious food blog, and Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick and Vilafonte wine blog.

Mike Ratcliffe is the Managing Director of Warwick wine estate and Managing Partner of Vilafonte.  He has a B.Comm (Economics) from the University of Stellenbosch and a Graduate Diploma in Wine Marketing from the University of Adelaide. He is a Board member of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), has been involved on the marketing committee of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, is the Deputy Chairman of the South African Wine Industry Trust (encouraging black economic empowerment and land redistribution), and is President of the United States/South Africa Foundation, a fundraising charity based in the USA.  He is an international wine judge, industry commentator and marketing co-ordinator, and is an industry leader in embracing social media marketing in the marketing of his wines.

Jane-Anne Hobbs Rayner of Scrumptious blog is a freelance journalist, editor, author of three books (on local touring routes, and on raising toddlers), cook, food writer and recipe developer.  She writes as Juno, and her blog is independent, in that she does not accept any advertising or sponsorship, nor does she accept freebies.  She does use Google Adsense.  She is passionate about “food, fresh local ingredients and punchy flavours”. She loves writing recipes.  Jane-Anne was a speaker at the Food Bloggers’ Conference earlier this year. 

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines.  Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others.   Each of the two bloggers will talk for about half an hour about their blog, and what they have learnt about blogging.  The Club will give fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and to share their knowledge with others.  Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers.  The Club meetings are informal and fun.

Other writers that will be talking at future Bloggers Club meetings are the following:

Wednesday 18 August:       Sam Wilson of Food24 Blogs, and Rob Armstrong of Haut Espoir 

Wednesday 22 September: Dax Villanueva of Relax-with-Dax Blog, and Hein Koegelenberg of La Motte and Hein Koegelenberg Blog

Wednesday 20 October:     Clare Mack of Spill Blog, and Simon Back of Backsberg Blog

Wednesday 24 November:  Marisa Hendricks of The Creative Pot Blog, and Emile Joubert of Wine Goggle Blog

Wines are brought along by the wine blogging speaker, and Mike will introduce the Warwick wines served.  Snacks will be served to match the Warwick wines.  The cost of attendance is R 150.  Bookings can be made by e-mailing info@whalecottage.com.

The meeting of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club will be held at Cafe Max, 126 Waterkant Street, in De Waterkant, Cape Town.   From Somerset Road turn up Highfield Street (opposite Green Point Traffic Department), alongside the Tafelberg Furnishers/Kfm building, and turn left into Waterkant Street.  Cafe Max is about 200 meters further down the road, on the left.

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

Restaurant Review: Piroschka Kitchen’s Hungarian food for hungry appetites

A little hidden gem in the center of Cape Town, that offers a warm and welcome escape from the cold winter, is the recently opened Piroschka’s Kitchen.   It offers a very small selection of only four dishes, inspired by the Hungarian grandmother Piroschka of sisters Jutta Frensch and Inge Niklaus.

I had heard about Piroschka’s Kitchen a few months ago, but could not find it when described as being opposite the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, but I was looking on Loop Street.  It is one of a collection of outlets underneath the Saint Stephen’s Church on Bree Street, near Cheyne restaurant and &Union.  Jutta was on duty, and our German roots and guest house experiences connected immediately.  When the other guests had left, she sat down, and told me about herself.  She came to South Africa to follow her sister Inge, who came to live in Cape Town fifteen years ago.  Jutta is an architect by training, and worked on a house she saw in De Waterkant, which became the guest house Cedric’s Lodge that they created, followed by another in Greyton.

As if the two guest houses are not enough to challenge them, the two sisters took on the responsibility of looking after the two children of their late housekeeper, and put them into private schools.  To pay for their education, the sisters had to earn extra income, and they decided to start at the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, selling Flammkuchen there.  The downside for them was that their home smelt of onions, and so they sought a venue in which to prepare it.  They found the Bree Street premises, and loved the space, its natural stone walls, and the fact that it offered them a small and cosy space in which to set up a tiny restaurant with a few tables inside.  A bar counter takes four chairs, and one can sit outside when the weather is good.

The first thing you feel on entering is how warm it is inside, a modern gas fireplace creating the heat.  A welcome sight is the sign that says that Gluehwein is served – a good start to the weekend on a Friday afternoon.  The menu is on a flyer on the table and also written on a blackboard, the latter containing the prices.  The tables are covered with a sheet of white paper, and a small container with crayons encourages the inner child to come to the fore, and to decorate one’s own table cloth.   Jutta tells me that they will photograph the best designs, and make tablecloths from them.  Mine served as a handy sheet on which I made all my notes while we chatted.

I ordered the “Hungarian Original Puszta Goulash soup”, which one could say is expensive at R 50, but it was a broth with lots of shredded beef, slow cooked with seven paprika spices in Gypsy style, says the menu.  I found the broth a bit thin, and would have preferred it thicker and creamier.  It was well matched to the Gluehwein (R25).  The Goulash soup is served with a slice of delicious rye bread from Jardine Bakery, but no butter is served with it.  The split pea soup costs R 40, while the Flammkuchen costs R 50.   Flammkuchen is a thin crispy base covered with creme fraiche, smoked ham, baby leek and red onions, for the savoury option.  I had the sweet one, containing vanilla cream, apple slices with cinnamon and sugar, and topped with almond shavings.   It was huge, served on a wooden board, and I could only manage a few small pieces, taking the rest home with me, Jutta generously giving me the board as a memento of my visit.

Excelsior and Arabella wines are sold, both being from Robertson, in fact from two neighbouring farms owned by two brothers who do not get on, Jutta tells me, and both love horses and have these as the logo on their wine labels.   Pierre Jourdan bubbly is sold at R 160.   I missed a cappuccino to have with my Flammkuchen, and Julia quickly organised a good one for me from another restaurant close by.  We discussed Social Media Marketing, and I encouraged Jutta to embrace Blogging and Twitter – they are already on Facebook.

Jutta and Inge do private catering, and also offer private functions for up to 30 persons in their restaurant.  I will be back, to try the savoury Flammkuchen and the split pea soup, especially on a cold winter’s day, Piroschka’s Kitchen being the warmest place in Cape Town, in its temperature and its welcome!  On Saturdays the Piroschka sisters can still be found at the Old Biscuit Mill.

Piroschka’s Kitchen, 106 Bree Street, Cape Town.  Tel 083 327 3203.  www.piroschka.co.za.  (The website is more focused on the activities at the Old Biscuit Mill, and does not have the menu or the wine prices.  A large part of it is in German).  Open Mondays – Fridays, 11h00 – 19h00.

POSTSCRIPT 27/7 : I returned 10 days after my first visit, and Jutta proudly told me that they have addressed some of the issues raised in this review.  Bread is now served with butter, and they have added the menu to the website.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottge.com