Thursday, April 05, 2012

The perfect weekend away and only a few miles from home

We were spoilt rotten on Sunday night by Lidia Nobrega, who invited us to come and stay at the Chapman’s Peak Hotel, which her family has owned for many years. Many of us have lovely memories of the old hotel, which is still there, and the great calamari they serve on the terrace,
but they have built on a super modern addition
and the rooms are very tasteful and cleanly luxurious, all with wonderful views across Hout Bay beach and bay towards the Sentinel and the harbour
Glass doors to the balcony completely block off any traffic noise and you sleep in great comfort
First, we treated ourselves to a great dinner on the terrace
Fiery hot Peri peri chicken livers and calamari & chorizo were our starters,
followed by 5 fat sardines with very crisp chips for John
and prawns and calamari
and a salad for Lynne
The food is freshly cooked and has always been of a very high standard
We ordered a bottle of Adi Badenhorst’s lovely rich, fruity and crisp Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2011, very reasonably priced at R99,
and then opened a very special bottle of Cape Point Semillon 2006 which we had brought with us in case Lidia appeared
This wine just gets better and better in its fullness of flavour, depth and elegance. We had the rest the following night and it was possibly even better. As we were not going far, we were tempted by the chocolate tart 
and the crème brulée
before tottering off to bed for a reasonably early night
The dinner bill came to R530
including a contribution for our excellent waiter Jethro
Breakfast in the dining room the next morning was a sumptuous spread of everything you could possibly want
you can order a full English breakfast or variations - which is freshly cooked for you. If the weather is great, you can have it on the terrace. John stuck to his usual fruit and muesli, Lynne had a cheese omelette
and neither of us could resist the freshly baked Belgian croissants with our good black coffees
Many of you will remember them; we sold them frozen, ready-to-bake from our shop. If you want to spoil your partner, book here for a very special night away. Lidia gave us a tour of one the two amazing penthouse suites on the top floor
and took us to see the superb swimming pool built into the rocks above the road
We then had a short walk on the beach, after which it was home and back to mounds of work for us
©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor&Bacchus 2012

1 comment:

Cassandrina said...

Great place Chapman's Peak Hotel.
Lydia's father showed me how to drink water (no kidding) as he also owns a water bottling company.
I introduced him to the most expensive water in the world, in a green bottle from Scandinavia, which I just happened to have with me. We polished it off with some prawns (specially cooked by him) some wine and his own water.
Great place.