{"id":4754,"date":"2009-10-19T00:33:35","date_gmt":"2009-10-18T22:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2009-10-20T01:03:18","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T23:03:18","slug":"cape-town-restaurant-news-whos-hot-and-stirring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/cape-town-restaurant-news-whos-hot-and-stirring\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town restaurant news: who’s hot and stirring?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Cape Town restaurant scene has been buzzing this month, with a number of new restaurants opening, and an e-mail exchange creating the biggest restaurant stir ever\u00a0experienced in the city.<\/p>\n

The opening of the Cape Quarter extension on Somerset Road in De Waterkant has seen two restaurants open in the centre to date: Cru Cafe, a restaurant which has created “its own terroir” in the centre, says director Elsie Pells, in serving a selection of 150 wines hand-picked by Pells, a Cape Wine Master.\u00a0\u00a0 Voila, an all day breakfast and light meal\u00a0restaurant, owned by the owners of Wakame, is a friendly addition, with cakes, muffins, croissants, fudge, toffee apples and many more treats prepared on site.\u00a0\u00a0 A clever touch is that glass domes presenting the treats are\u00a0placed upon stacks of cookery books!\u00a0 Downstairs, at the entrance, is an Andiamo\u00a0Espresso, which is a sister coffee shop to the one in the original Cape Quarter, but on a very much reduced scale, only selling coffee, ice creams, juices, sandwiches and muffins.\u00a0 It belongs to the same owners as the amazing Spar Gourmet Food Store at the entrance to the center.\u00a0\u00a0 Vanilla will open at the end of the month, and is owned by father and son duo Nigel and Simon Newhouse from Tuscany Beach in Camps Bay.\u00a0\u00a0 It will be the lead restaurant in this centre, with 180 diners catered for on two levels.\u00a0\u00a0 The chef\u00a0 Evan Coosner worked at Reuben’s\u00a0 and Ginja previously.\u00a0\u00a0 Kuzina – Greekooking, LAZARI, and BICCCS (Bread, Ice Cream, Cakes, Coffee, Croissants, Sandwiches) are restaurants still set to open in the centre.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To celebrate\u00a0its opening, the Cape Quarter has organised a Food & Brandy Festival on 13 and 14 November, with\u00a0Giggling Gourmet\u00a0Jenny Morris, in conjunction with the Alchemy of Gold (Klipdrift, Flight of the Fish Eagle, Oude Meester, Nederburg, Uitkyk and Van Ryn’s brandies), talking and preparing food all day long.<\/p>\n

The talk and tweet of the town has been an e-mail exchange between\u00a0Cormac Keane,\u00a0owner of new restaurant Portofino, and a client, who cancelled\u00a0a 5 pm dinner reservation one hour before time of arrival.\u00a0 Keane expressed his frustration to the client in\u00a0no uncertain terms and\u00a0with true Irish directness.\u00a0 The client was not happy with the replies he received from Portofino, and made contact with\u00a0some websites that had written favourable reviews of the restaurant, including WhaleTales<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He also sent it to a hip website called 2oceansvibe, which decided to post the e-mail exchange on\u00a0its blog, leading to an outburst of mainly critical and at times extremely\u00a0crass and defamatory attacks against Keane.\u00a0 On the other hand, many readers of the exchange admired Keane for standing up to an inconsiderate customer, and lauded him for his bold and direct stand. The end result:\u00a0 the customer has gone into hiding, and has requested that his name be deleted from the exchange on the 2oceansvibe website.\u00a0\u00a0For Portofino, it has meant a fully booked restaurant ever since the e-mail exchange was circulated around the city, reinforcing that there is no such thing\u00a0as bad publicity!\u00a0\u00a0 The WhaleTales’ review of Portofino<\/a>, which was written shortly after Portofino opened, was offered as a link in some of the website comments, and\u00a0the review attracted more than 2000 readers in the past week, a record readership.\u00a0\u00a0 A vindictive customer tried to show up\u00a0what he felt was a rude restaurateur, and got more than he bargained for.\u00a0 Instead of spreading the word to prevent others from going to Portofino, he has done the restaurant the best possible\u00a0favour by creating wide-spread exposure for it, a bonus for a restaurant which only opened 6 weeks ago, and now has become the best known restaurant in town!\u00a0\u00a0 Portofino is not the first restaurant to have told a customer to not return: Le Quartier Francais, Carne, Beluga and Sevruga are known to have done so too!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carne and Le Quartier Francais are finalists for the Prudential Eat Out Top 10 restaurant awards, and it begs the question whether such poor restaurant customer care should make\u00a0them eligible for such a sought-after award.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another restaurant that is on the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant shortlist is The Roundhouse in Camps Bay, which has demonstrated its arrogance almost since its inception, stating at the outset that its goal is to become the best restaurant in Africa.\u00a0 A response of the owner Fasie Malherbe to a customer comment on the Eat Out<\/strong> website is a scary reflection of what one might encounter at this ‘Big Brother’ restaurant: “every guest that has ever walked through our door and dined with us is on record to the extent that I will outline your exact time of arrival, what you ate, what you drank as aperitif’s, digestif’s wine that was served to you, the guests comments made on each dish, positive or negative feedback, special dietry (sic)\u00a0requirements, the guest interaction between staff is noted, what car you drove, whether you smoked or not, how many times you went to the restroom and any other details that we could use to ensure that when you return that we may ensure consistency in offering or if you have complaints as we have here that we have all our ducks in a row and can learn from the ordeal”!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce Robertson, the previous owner of The Showroom, which is where Portofino is now located, has confirmed that the Franschhoek restaurant that he is consulting on is that of La Motte, which is due to open in May.\u00a0\u00a0 The wine estate has just opened its new tasting room.\u00a0\u00a0 Robertson is also working with Warwick wine estate outside Stellenbosch on their gourmet picnic offering, which will be available from 1 December.\u00a0 Robertson is also a gourmet food tour guide now, and he led the editor and 8 readers of USA foodie magazine Bon Appetit <\/strong>around the culinary delights of the Cape, including Reuben preparing a meal at Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek; a winepairing dinner at Grand Roche with Cederberg Wines; a malas tasting at Paul Cluver matched to organic farm foods; a seafood braai paired with Hamilton-Russell wines at Birkenhead in Hermanus, with the Southern Right whales frolicking in the ocean as a backdrop; and an interactive Cape Malay cooking demonstration with Cass Abrahams and paired with L’Omarins wines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OYO, the restaurant in the V&A Hotel in the Waterfront, is offering a crayfish special at R 185 for\u00a0500 grams.\u00a0 A choice of hot or cold crayfish is offered.\u00a0 Sister restaurant SALT at the Ambassador Hotel in Bantry Bay is also offering this special.<\/p>\n

Alle’e Bleue wine estate has opened its beautiful top class winetasting room, and has a new outside courtyard restaurant seating about 80 linked to it, serving only five options:\u00a0\u00a0 Flammkuchen, Bobotie, a cheese platter, a chicken\/spinach salad and a mixed grill.<\/p>\n

Delaire Graff has made three changes after only being open for four months:\u00a0 its prices have increased,\u00a0its staff have changed, losing their exceptional Maitre’d, and their menu has changed.\u00a0\u00a0 Read a report on the latest visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Italian restaurant Alla Posta is to open at 51 Kloof Street shortly.\u00a0 It will not only offer Italian delicacies, but also Italian furniture, decor and books, and show Italian movies.<\/p>\n

Two new restaurants are set to open in Franschhoek soon, both owned by one of Franschhoek’s largest retail and hospitality landowners Robert Maingard.\u00a0\u00a0 In the old station building once hosting the Tourism Bureau,\u00a0a sports bar is set to open, while a creperie should have opened a few months ago already close to the Huguenot Fine Chocolate shop.\u00a0\u00a0 A Franschhoek branch of Gelato Mania, which already exists on Somerset Road, in Green Point, opened recently and is tucked away alongside Col’Cacchio.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cape Town restaurant scene has been buzzing this month, with a number of new restaurants opening, and an e-mail exchange creating the biggest restaurant stir ever\u00a0experienced in the city. The opening of the Cape Quarter extension on Somerset Road in De Waterkant has seen two restaurants open in the centre to date: Cru Cafe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[15,3,124,14,20,21],"tags":[2426,2424,2431,577,115,2423,1508,2414,389,2174,484,32370,914,2409,32366,2421,1434,911,1373,32378,2436,2059,1484,2432,2077,1736,2420,154,2438,32369,2435,141,2429,144,1958,2434,1461,2437,2425,2413,1540,2412,2427,399,2439,2430,58,2294,2428,13,41,2433,1403,1654,1560,2415,607,32,1157,2440,116,2441,1775,2411,2422,2172,482,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t