Ginja

Well, what a little gem. It has been highly rated before and one can see why. You get a distinctly old world feel when walking down the passage to enter the restaurant and there is a mixture of modern with old world inside. It looks good, at night anyway.

There was only going to be one menu that would interest us and that was their winter tasting menu. The menu certainly is a wonderful mixture of tastes starting with something creamy, then moving on with clean Asian flavours, blue cheese without the bite with some interesting accompaniments, a great apple sorbet, then onto rich lamb and ending with a wicked banoffee dessert.

Their wine list is curently being updated, but we certainly found some good wines to enjoy at a reasonable price. The service was also very good and the restaurant is certainly highly recommended as they deliver good food at a reasonable price. The most amazing thing is that the price of this tasting menu was less than what I paid for a steak meal in one of the V&A waterfront establishments. It really makes you think, doesn't it.

Bouillabaisse - Franschhoek

A friend of mine was travelling to Cape Town on business and we decided to go to Bouillabaisse for lunch as there certainly has been a lot of coverage regarding the original restaurant and subsequent add ons in Cape Town. One's first impressions are good as the restaurant, although small, is well laid out and looks upmarket. Studying the menu, there are some very impressive looking dishes and we both selected a variety of starters and mains.

We waited eagerly for our food to arrive, but unfortunately none of the dishes delivered on the palate what our eyes had seen on the menu. It really was rather disappointing and the dishes are certainly not cheap. I must admit that if I had to choose an Asian influenced meal I would far rather recommend Haiku as the food is far better and probably a little cheaper.

One other annoyance was the fact that goods were being delivered while we were eating so the door kept on being opened, allowing freezing air into the restaurant. Unfortunately this was a long drive for not much at all, more hype than passion on a plate.

Monneaux Restaurant

On a cold and rainy night we ventured out to Monneaux Restaurant in the Franschhoek Country House and Villas and were soon ensconced in a comfy couch in front of a roaring fire sipping some sherry.

After thawing we escorted to our table alongside another fireplace. Despite the other tempting items on the menu we both opted for the 5 course gastronomic menu at R325 per head. On the menu was vegetable spring rolls, mussels in a lovely spicy oriental sauce, my husband enjoyed the venison (gemsbok) with an unusual pumpkin pie while I had the salmon trout, this was followed by Gorgonzola and fig parcels, and for desert we had passion fruit creme brulee and apple tart.

This was a lovely meal out, but not exceptional!