I’ve been dying to have a meal at The Roundhouse for aaaages now…

It’s got a pretty good rep around town and it’s been on Eat Out‘s Top 10 restaurants in SA list twice in the last 4 years with another nomination in for this year’s list I see (the 2012 awards haven’t been held yet, so there’s possibly another top 10 nod on the way).  I think the thing that was really holding me back was all the hype around the place.  You see, as with a lot of things in life, the more it’s hyped up, the more likely it is to disappoint.  So I was a little worried I’d be forking out the cash for this fine dining experience and then leave grumpy.

BUT with DiningCity’s Cape Town Resaurant Week running restaurant specials all around town from 22 – 29 Sep, I figured I finally had the perfect opportunity to give it a bash without breaking the bank…

Upon arrival I totally regretted wearing sky-high wedges, it’s quite a steep property, but it’s soooooo beautiful.  Perched right up on a hill, the restaurant peeks out between some lush trees.  The building kinda reminded me of a refined lady, not flashy, simply elegant.  The interior matches that outter impression as well with clean, simple decor.  Luxurious without being too fussy.  I really liked that about it.

But the real drawcard (other than the food of course) is definitely the incredible view:

FYI: In summer they apparently do picnics on the lawn…

At The Roundhouse, personal attention is kinda their thing.  They called me the day before to get everyone’s names.  I didn’t really understand why they needed this info, they mentioned something about our menus, but I thought to myself: Did they perhaps want to do a background check on all the guests???  Oh the pressure!   Luckily when we sat down and were handed our menus, it all became clear:

How cool is that?

From the bread serving I already knew we were in for a treat, because even that was an experience:

Fresh, warm bread rolls with salted butter and some kind of spiced cheese spread. Yum!

Now having booked as part as part of Restaurant Week, we were eating from a special menu, not their normal menu.  There were three courses with two options for each course.  For starters you could choose between:

• An organice vegetable patch, raw and pickled with mushroom soil and herb emulsion
• White bean velouté with sourdough and caramelised pear

The table was split on this one, half went for the veggie patch and the other half went for the soup.  I opted for the veggie patch and the flavours were just beautiful, as for presentation, check this out:

Bjorn let me try a little bit of his soup (not that he had a choice hehe) and this dish too was incredible:

For mains our options were:

• Goat’s butter-roasted celeriac with juniper purée, cider-fermented apple, Huguenot cheese and hazelnut milk
• Lamb ragout with soft polenta, baked prunes & goat’s cheese snow

Nobody went for the vegetarian dish – the pull of the lamb ragout was just way too strong – but it did sound very interesting though.  The lamb made us all smile as it was cooked to perfection and the sauce, polenta, veggies & cheese all this worked so well:

Then for dessert:

• Apple and rhubarb crumble with buffalo yoghurt sorbet
• Chocolate and hazelnut “Kit Kat” with orange ice cream

I’m not a fan of apple crumble, but Bjorn opted for that one and was very happy with it:

Me being a hectic chocoholic went for their “Kit Kat”, which is only named after the well known chocolate bar because of it’s presentation, not actually because the dessert contained any Kit Kat pieces or anything:

I absolutely love chocolate combined with orange, so this was right up my alley.

I’m happy to say that the food totally matched up and maybe even slightly surpassed my expectations.  As for service, they are faultless as well.  I mean to give you an example, upon return from the ladies, I motioned to sit down again and outta nowhere, like a stealth ninja, our waitor pulled out my chair.  I was totally taken by surprise, but also seriously impressed.

For an all round 5 star experience, I’m going to give The Roundhouse a top Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

I guess the only thing that could have possibly slightly dented my view is if we were paying normal prices.  We paid R175 for our 3 course lunch because of the whole Restaurant Week thing.  But I had a look at their other menus on their website and I saw they were running a 3 course Winter lunch menu for R220 which pretty much had all the options we had here.  Even at that price I still would have been a very happy chappy.  Some of their other dining options include a 4 course meal from their à la carte menu at R490 or a special tasting menu at R650.  So that’s a little pricier, but now I can at least say with confidence you’re definitely getting what you paid for.

I’m very happy that I finally got to try this restaurant.  Now I will just have to make plans for a dinner at some point as well…

To make your own booking, contact them on 021 438 4347.  They are situated on The Glen in Camps Bay.

xxx