Umfiki | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

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

I discovered Il Cappero Italian Restaurant earlier this week, in a most unlikely and hard-to-see location on Barrack Street in town. It is named after the caper, which a notice on the table says should be an essential part of Mediterranean cuisine, but I did not find many dishes with capers on the menu, or much in the dishes that have them. The owners are charming, and try their very best to please their patrons.

What was once the restaurant of the Parliament Hotel, plus one ex-shop added, has become a pure Italian, or more specifically Sicilian restaurant, run hands-on by husband and wife team Aldo Bezzicheri and Cetti Romano (she comes from Palermo). Aldo’s English is better, so he handles front-of-house, and does so charmingly, wanting to oblige all the time, while his wife Cetti is in the kitchen. They opened Il Cappero a month ago, and are slowly becoming known. The hotel guests eat their lunches and dinners at the restaurant, and this leads to one compromise, which is some non-Italian dishes on the menu, such as bobotie, Portuguese chicken, chicken curry, BBQ wings and lamb curry, all contained in a R75 – R85 price band, to cater for the hotel guests.

Aldo and Cetti have lived in South Africa since 2006, and they spent time in their previous career working on a yacht, he being the skipper and she doing the cooking. Aldo has also been a pilot. Cetti has taken the most amazing photographs of South African landscapes, which are mounted, and decorate the restaurant. They reflect their love for their new country. The choice of lilac for the walls is interesting and works, but does not give an Italian feel at all. The colour is picked up in unusual purple, natural and cerise raffia strips which are tied around the material serviette, giving it an unique and neat touch. Cutlery is contemporary, with a butter knife offered with the sideplate. Glassware is good. The chairs are covered with mock-ostrich. The tables have Olitalia balsamico and extra virgin olive oil bottles, as well as ‘extra bold peppercorns’ and ‘Atlantic sea salt’ in small attractive looking grinders from Cape Herb and Spice, which I have never seen before. Lavender glass candleholders are on the table. Airconditioning works well in the venue which has no natural ventilation other than the front door, especially on the south-easter days.

But the neatly bound black menu has more than enough to choose from for an authentic Italian and Sicilian experience. In fact, I knew few of the names of the dishes, other than lasagne and the steak. Aldo told me that Cetti goes to the market every day, to buy the fresh vegetables there, for the simple and healthy food that they serve. They want their guests to feel cosy and homely, and it works, as I came back a second time a few days later.

As a small taste, Cetti sent the Caponata di Melzane for me to try, being eggplants, tomato, capers and olives cooked in a sweet and sour sauce. The eggplant dominated, and as it is not my favourite vegetable, I did not enjoy it, especially as it was mushy and served cold. I did enjoy the crispy ciabbatta. Other starters, such as a parmesan cake, sweet and sour onion wrap, and a tuna and mascarpone mousse, were unknown to me. Starters cost R40 – R75. I ordered Frittura di Calamari, a generous plateful of calamari rings served for R75, which included a separate bowl of rice with red pepper pieces. The batter was delicate, and Aldo told me that Cetti lightly dusts the calamari with flour, and then fries it in hot olive oil to make it crispy. Pasta options include lasagne, carbonara, risotto of the day (the mushroom risotto was sold out by the time we came back the second time), pasta alla “Norma” (inspired by the opera), and a penne served with prawns cooked in Martini (R85), a definite for the next visit! Steak is available, as T-bone, sirloin or fillet, as is involtini di vitello alla Siciliana (stuffed veal rolls). No meat course costs more than R110. One can order side dishes, mostly for R20 each, for example patata alla Sicilana, described as “potato in casserole with capers, olives and onions”, which I ordered instead of the baked potato or chip options that come with the sirloin steak, but I did not seem to get anything more than cut-up potato with the capers, olives and onions removed – I had only wanted the onions removed). Five sauces are offered at R15 each, and the rosemary walnut sauce sounds interesting.

I liked the tiramisu (R40), served in a drinking glass, and obviously pre-made. It had a rich alcohol taste, which comes from the Sicilian Marsala which Cetti uses. It was quite compact and less creamy than I am used to in local equivalents. I liked the chocolate chips on top of the tiramisu. Cetti insisted that I take Cannolo Siciliano home with me, a crispy biscuit which is filled with ricotta cream and a citrus centre (R30). Malva pudding seems an ‘intruder’ on the menu, but probably accommodates the hotel guests. The cappuccino, made with LavAzza coffee, is very strong, but good, and is reasonably priced at R13. Peppermints as well as a mini-Lindt chocolate were offered with the bill.

For lunch a buffet is served, and is meant to offer office workers close by a quick and inexpensive way in which to enjoy a quality “eat all you can” lunch, at a most reasonable price of R75.

The winelist is small, and vintages are not supplied. I was impressed to see Brunello (at R380 for the bottle) on the list, and remembered how I nurtured a R75 glassful at a Tuscan restaurant about five years ago, it having been the most expensive wine I had ever drunk by the glass at that time. Many of the white and red wine brands I had never heard of before but most I found in my Platter’s (Cloverfield, Stellenbosch Drive, Meerhof, Belbon Hills, Umfiki – for the whites – and Gugu for the red). Seven wines-by-the glass are offered, none costing more than R30. Bellanda San Fermo Prosecco is the only sparkling wine served by the glass (R40), with “champagne’s” Pongracz and Pongracz Rosé both costing R150, which is a bargain for the latter.

Il Cappero has the most charming host in Aldo. I felt at home eating there. The waiter needs training about not stretching when placing the cutlery on the table, and his knowledge is still restricted about the Italian dishes, but he is very willing to be of service. Branding is not very visible from outside, and because the door has to be closed when the wind blows, one cannot see if the restaurant is open. I found the lighting inside to be too bright, and missed the Italian music on our second visit. The food is functionally presented, without any attempt at decorating it or the plate. There is ample parking outside at night. I’ll be back for the Italian hospitality.

Il Cappero Italian Restaurant, 3 Barrack Street, Cape Town. Tel (021) 461-3168. www.ilcappero.co.za Monday – Friday lunch 12h00 – 14h30, and Monday – Saturday dinner.

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