Tag Archives: tapas

Viva Cafe… viva!

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photo-3My friend Darryn totally gets the credit for this discovery. 

He stumbled upon Viva Cafe (situated behind the Tafelberg Furnishers in Green Point) a few weeks back and had been raving about it non-stop since. 

So last weekend I was like, right, show me this place.  I’m hungry & ready to be blown away… #nopressure

It’s a little bit hidden.  Basically there’s a whole business complex behind Tafelberg which I had no idea was even there. You have to walk in a little and then take the stairs up to the level above the parking to see it.  But to help you out, you’ll be looking for this:

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A ha!

I instantly loved the look & feel of the place.  It’s fun and quirky with a bit of a warehouse feel.  Lots of interesting things to catch your eye and a biiiig communal table for everyone to come together for the love of good food.  There’s also a little outdoor area to soak up some rays during those freak winter days we Capetonians all look forward to…
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The menu is broken down into: all day breakfast options (hell yeah!), some haute couture sandwiches and then some really creative sounding deconstructed salads & tapas. 

They also have the option for you to build your own sandwich or your own salad, if you happen to be in more of a DYI mood.

On the drinks side, they serve: Deluxe Coffee, freshly squeezed juices, some craft beers and other regulars (that bar seemed pretty well stocked in fact).

To give you a more detailed idea of the menu, this is what we opted for: 

  • To share, the Risotto Truffles (R35) - crisp, white truffle infused risotto balls with Parmesan shavings. 
  • Then the boyfriend went for the Duck Stack breakfast (R40) which is a fried duck egg with bacon strips, haloumi & a tangy sweet chilli and ginger dressing.  
  • I went for the Dirty Mozart designer sandwich (R55) which is pulled pork, sauerkraut and caramelised granny smith apples with wholegrain mustard on rye bread. 
  • And Darryn went for the Karoo Lamb designer sandwich (R55) which is made up of lamb shoulder confit, crumbed feta, sun dried tomatoes, basil & chive pesto on ciabatta.
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Clockwise from top left: Risotto Truffles, Duck Stack, Karoo Lamb, Dirty Mozart.

Then I just also had to share this photo Darryn took of his Tuna sashimi dish (R55) – marinated tuna sashimi with prawn toasties, sesame vinaigrette, pickled cucumber & radish shavings – which he had on his previous visit:

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Photo credit: Darryn van der Walt http://www.darrynvanderwalt.co.za

As you can see, they put A LOT of effort & attention to detail into their dishes.  I wanted to be blown away, and I certainly was.  The food is great.  The service is friendly.  The place is welcoming & laid back.  And the prices are damn good.  For all those reasons, I’m going to give Viva Cafe an all round Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

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Do yourselves a favour and go pay them a visit.  Their physical address is:

  • Studio 30, Somerset Square, Highfield Road

They are usually open from 8am to 8pm Mon – Sat.  Unless there’s some live music happening for example, in which case they stay open until the party’s over. And for more info, you can contact them on 021 418 2619 or info@vivacafe.co.za. 

High 5 to Darryn for this awesome find. :)

xxx

Great wine, tapas & friends makes for the perfect evening

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On Fri eve a bunch of us headed over to Cru Cafe Wine Bar & Restaurant in the new Cape Quarter extension for some after works drinks and maybe a snack or two.

Situated in the main square on the piazza level, tucked away in the corner.

The interior I can only describe as “sophisticated cool”.  Warm colours, unique accent details and most importantly, very inviting:

Love the striped wallpaper behind the bar counter

The art works on the walls are seriously strange, but I kinda really loved it:

The creepy dude in the middle, looking down that lady's dress had our table in hysterics...

For wine, I “thought” I would only have a glass of white, so I just went for their house wine option – Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from the Elgin region:

Now usually I don’t really expect much when it comes to the house wine options.  But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It certainly wasn’t one of the best Sauvignon Blanc’s I’ve ever had.  But it was really quite enjoyable.  In fact, in the end I had a couple of glasses of this baby. ;)

All the drinking & chatting got us a bit peckish – so we opted to get some tapas for the table:

From left to right above you have:

  • Patagonian calamari with garlic butter & mild piri-piri (R48)
  • Marinated olives & feta cheese (R28)
  • Tzatziki with crostini (R28)
  • Salmon fish cakes with a dill tomato salsa (R39)
  • Lamb meat balls (R40)

Everything was really tasty.  But the stand out for me were those meatballs. It didn’t even need a dipping sauce, it was absolutely beautiful just as is.

In the end, quick after work drinks developed into a long, fun evening catching up with old friends and some new.  I only got out of there at around 11pm.

The gang

To me that’s a sign of a brilliant spot – somewhere where you feel at home, not fussy, just easy…  My Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings for Cru Cafe would be:

    • Vibe: 
    • Price:
    • Food (Tapas): 
    • Service: 

I’m now very keen to go back and try out their full dinner menu.

xxx

French Toast Wine & Tapas bar – round two

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The first time I went to French Toast Wine & Tapas bar (199 Bree St) was back in January for a friend’s 30th.   Lots went wrong that evening.   There was a power outage (can’t remember if it was just them or the whole area) and it was one of the hottest days in Cape Town – so that meant we totally melted away due to the lack of air conditioning.  Also because there was no power, the food took really long to come out – which was understandable.  We were quite a big group which made the waiters very flustered.  Our food orders kept coming out wrong and when we finally got the correct dishes, they weren’t great.

I’ve been dying to give them a second try since then.  I so desperately want to love this place.  Why?  Well it’s close to home, I absolutely love tapas & good wine and it’s just so gawd damn pretty.  Check it out:

I finally made it back there on Mon eve with my friend Joe and I was VERY excited…

To drink I had a glass of Springfield Life from Stone Sauvignon Blanc.  I love Springfield wines – it’s a lovely winery in the Robertson Valley and in my books they can’t do no wrong.  So I knew that it would be a winner.

Food wise, Joe and I decided to share some tapas.  We went for the following options:

  • mushroom arancini (crumbed risotto balls) @ R35:
  • saffron & prawn risotto @ R60:
  • pork sausages with mustard @ R45:
  • steak béarnaise @ R45:

We had no love for that saffron & prawn risotto.  It had a really strange taste to it – kinda like a sour, slightly off taste.  Really not good.  The mushroom arancini was tasty – but very dry.  The pork sausages were well… pork sausages, nothing special about that one, but I did enjoy it.  And then the steak of the steak béarnaise was totally flavourless.  You needed a lot of that sauce to make it pop.

So overall, we were left quite disappointed to be honest.  We were considering ordering some more things as we were still a bit peckish – but then I noticed the dessert options… well one in particular:  Chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream!  I knew at that point that I wasn’t going to waste my time with any more blah tapas options – I was going straight for gold!  And boy am I glad I did, just look at this masterpiece:

We had to wait just over 30min for this baby because apparently there was some mess up in the kitchen with the first one they made.   But at least it was worth the wait.  This deliciously evil dessert made me smile again. :)

Sadly, it wasn’t enough to save them food wise.  My Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings for French Toast are:

  • Vibe: 
  • Price:
  • Food:
  • Service: 

I still think it’s a gorgeous venue.  But the food is really average.  It’s a really nice spot for some drinks, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you were looking for a really tasty meal.

xxx