{"id":6029,"date":"2009-12-29T11:44:59","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T09:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=6029"},"modified":"2009-12-29T11:51:20","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T09:51:20","slug":"restaurant-review-lifes-a-beach-at-the-grand-on-the-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/restaurant-review-lifes-a-beach-at-the-grand-on-the-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Life’s a beach at The Grand on the Beach!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Being a great fan of the Grand Cafe and Rooms in Plettenberg Bay, and The Grand in Camps Bay, we felt lucky to be able to book a table for lunch at the new The Grand on the Beach, literally on its own private beach between the Water Club in Granger Bay and the V&A Waterfront, during the busy festive season.\u00a0 \u00a0The restaurant has a waiting list of up to 2 weeks for bookings for dinner, but it is a little easier to make a lunch booking.<\/p>\n

The first impression is not very grand, when one drives down a dirt track, with huge mounds of soil just left there from some earthworks.\u00a0 Being close to the Oceana Club launch area, the smell of fish greets you, adding to the unsavoury first impression.\u00a0 If you are lucky enough to park inside the gates, everything changes, with multi-million Rand cars parked inside, and the familiar Grand branding being\u00a0visible.\u00a0 One can see the beach,\u00a0with tables and chairs, and even couches, on it.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is set inside a massive old warehouse, with no attempt made to touch it up outside.\u00a0 Inside it has had a coat of paint, and has shelves near the bar area.\u00a0\u00a0 A long steel table, maybe seating 30 persons, dominates the main restaurant area, over which hangs a huge chandelier, shabby chic with its new-like-old dust.\u00a0\u00a0 Pinkish cane-style chairs dominate inside, and the interior comes together with little effort.\u00a0\u00a0 A side section of the building houses a shop selling towels, hats, dresses, bathroom products, etc.<\/p>\n

First prize in eating at the Grand on the Beach is to book a table outside, either on the terrace, or even better, on the beach itself.\u00a0\u00a0 Justin, the Manager, organised us such a table with umbrella – he was previously at the Camps Bay branch, and is a lovely helpful Manager who makes magic happen.\u00a0\u00a0 The owner Suzie Main was also there, and attracted a lot of attention from Justin.\u00a0\u00a0 He did make time to check on\u00a0our table regularly.<\/p>\n

Dax Villanueva (RelaxWithDax) was our guest and told us more about himself.\u00a0\u00a0 He grew up in Port Elizabeth, where his mother runs a guest house.\u00a0\u00a0 He studied in Durban and a lucky job offer brought him to Cape Town 10 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 Dax started a newsletter nine years ago,\u00a0about restaurants to eat at and things to do in Cape Town.\u00a0\u00a0 He is also a Blogger and a Twitterer\u00a0(www.relax-with-dax.co.za<\/a>).\u00a0He does not like the question\u00a0about his favourite restaurants, and sidesteps it neatly, saying that he has different favourites for different occasions.<\/p>\n

The private beach of The Grand is about 200 meters wide, and has some tables and chairs, a collection of white couches (for the owner and her friends), a pink “kiss” couch, 2 porta pools, and some showers.\u00a0 While it looks inviting to swim, one cannot get into the water, as ‘dolosse’ and barbed wire cover the length of the beach, without one seeing it from the tables.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It took an unreasonably long time to get the table set up outside and to serve the drinks, with a waiter change taking place too.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the problems is that the waiters did not seem to know which brands of beer they stock – we got the full\u00a0list of Castle, Amstel, Black Lable, Jack Black, and Corona, but every beer we chose\u00a0was out of stock.\u00a0 In the end, it appeared that they only stock Corona and Jack Black, but that they were fresh out of Jack Black, so that we could have any beer we liked, as long as it\u00a0was a Corona!\u00a0\u00a0 Once our waitress took over, things moved a little faster, and given the beach setting, the slow service seemed less of an irritation than at a restaurant where one expected to leave more quickly.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact we lost track of time, sittting\u00a0on the beach for 3,5 hours.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu of the restaurant is the same as at The Grand in Camps Bay. The first choice starter of Avocado Ritz (R 75)\u00a0could not\u00a0be ordered, as the restaurant had run out of avocado.\u00a0\u00a0 The Caprese Buffalo salad was lovely, exactly how it should be served, slices of mozarella on\u00a0slices of tomato, and some basil, drizzled with olive oil.\u00a0\u00a0 Dax’s Waldorf salad with bacon was served in a slice of lettuce, an attractive presentation.\u00a0 Both salads cost R65.\u00a0\u00a0 Alex loved his grilled chicken breast with yoghurt dressing (R 85), Dax his Steak Bearnaise (R 130), and\u00a0I the grilled calamari (R 80).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Other mains are entrecote (R 140), mussels and chips (R 80), line fish (R 120), sugar salmon (R145), grilled crayfish (R240), LM prawns (R 200), “Grand crayfish pasta” (R 200) and a seafood platter for 2 at R 695.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shrimp tempura (R 75), prego roll (R 75) and caviar (SQ) can also be ordered.\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike its other Grand sisters,\u00a0The Grand on the Beach has\u00a0a pizza oven, and serves a large margarita at R 90 and a margarita + anchovies and artichokes at R 120.\u00a0 We were not offered the pizza options.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Affogato (R28), an espresso poured over\u00a0ice cream,\u00a0went down well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We are charged for a green salad that was meant to come with the calamari, but which we did not receive.\u00a0 We missed the trademark excellent music compilation which is played at strong volume at The Grand in Plettenberg Bay.<\/p>\n

Despite all the hiccups, the service was attentive, and the food good, so it was an overall enjoyable experience.\u00a0\u00a0 The beer stocking and supply needs to be addressed however.<\/p>\n

The cost of 3 Coronas, a glass of house wine, two salads, the steak, the chicken and calamari, as well as\u00a0one dessert\u00a0was R 602.<\/p>\n

The Grand on the Beach, off Beach Road between Water Club and V&A Waterfront, \u00a0tel 021 425 0551. www.thegrand.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Being a great fan of the Grand Cafe and Rooms in Plettenberg Bay, and The Grand in Camps Bay, we felt lucky to be able to book a table for lunch at the new The Grand on the Beach, literally on its own private beach between the Water Club in Granger Bay and the V&A […]<\/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":[15,3,124,592,20,21],"tags":[3152,3156,3149,32370,32378,3147,3153,3144,3148,3151,32390,3154,3146,3143,252,3155,3145,3142,3150,32393,2651,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\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\n\t\t