I’ve been dying to try out Bizerca Bistro for quite some time now as this restaurant has raked up quite a few awards to date.  Check it out:

• Eat out awards 2009 – top 10
• Eat out awards 2010 – best bistro
• Rossouw’s restaurants 3 star award in 2010 and 2011
• American Express Platinum fine fining award in 2010 and 2011

Impressive, right?  Naturally there’s been a lot of buzz around it for a while and I’ve spoken to several people who absolutely rave about it.  Last week I decided it was finally time to check it out for myself.  I made a booking through Table Magic (which was super easy) and popped over there last Mon eve with my friends Darryn & Lara who decided to join in for the ride.

The restaurant is situated in the Foreshore in Jetty St (from CTICC, go up Lower long, immediately left into Wharf and then right into Jetty – Bizerca is on your left, across the road from the Virgin Active).  I’m not gonna lie, the area felt seriously dodgy.  We were all harrassed by this car guard outside who wanted his money up front, which was not cool.  But once you pop the around corner towards the entrance of the restaurant, everything’s all good again.

Bizerca has a lovely, cosy feel.  It was nice and warm inside, with perfect “romantic” lighting and a fresh, modern look.  I loved everything about it.

You can pick from two menus.  They have their “Bizerca Classics” menu, with items which I guess are solid favourites and have therefore earned a permanent spot and then they have the daily menu written up on chalkboards with items which have that “limited time only” charm.

For starters Darryn had the seafood soup with crab creme (R68) from the daily menu:

And I opted for the beetroot tart with cheese (R65):

Lara got the Butternut Pumpkin Gnocchi with fresh tomato coulis and Parmesan from the classics menu (sorry – didn’t get a pic – she dug in way too fast. ).  It’s not normally a starter, but they did it for her in a starter portion as she really wanted to try it, but didn’t want it as her main.  I thought that was very cool of them.  The soup & gnocchi were delicious.  But that beetroot tart of mine was a dud.  I really didn’t like it, the flavour was quite bland and I couldn’t finish it.  I passed it around for 2nd opinions and everyone agreed that this one was a bad choice.

For mains we all ordered from the daily menu.  Darryn & I had the grilled Impala loin with spinach, sweet potato puree with kumkat tart with ginger spice sauce (R165):

Kumkat (aka Kumquat) is a fruit kinda resembling an orange, but much smaller, alsmost the size of an olive.

Lara went for the grilled beef fillet with dauphine potatoe, tomatoe, green veg & cognac sauce (R165):

We all agreed that our mains were good, but disappointing when you compared it to the price.  I mean for R160/R165 we were expecting to be absolutely blown away.  We weren’t.  It was just good.  Had I paid R110 – R125 (especially for the fillet – I realise venison meat is expensive), I would have felt better about it.

Dessert had me smiling again though.  I went for the dessert option which actually gives you 3 desserts in 1!  That’s cause I’m a very clever girl and I know how to maximise my sugar indulgence.

Soft centre chocolate pudding with berry sorbet & white chocolate crème brûlée

It was really yum.  The bitterniss of that decadent dark chocolate pudding with oozing chocolaty inside was perfectly balanced our with the punch of the sorbet.  And that creme brulee was just heavenly…  could have totally licked the plate clean.

So… onto the scores.  I would give Bizerca Bistro the following Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings:

• For ambience, decor & service:
• For food:

I think if price really doesn’t matter to you, you’re going to love this restaurant.  To me I just felt it was quite pricey for what we got.  I enjoyed the evening overall, but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing back for another meal.  Places like La Boheme or La Mouette (just as examples) I feel are better priced and I’ve also had better meals there.

But hey, I leave it up to you to decide.  If you’ve been, or you’re planning on going soon, please let me know what you thought.

xxx