Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Graciales restaurant in the Peddlar's complex

When last we were invited to the Italian restaurant, Volare, at Peddlars Co on the Spaanschemat River Road in Constantia, Chef Brad Ball told us that they had plans to open other restaurants in the complex. Just a month ago, they opened Graciales - the name is a blend of Gracias and Sociales and it's a tapas bar. On Friday, having accepted the invitation, we visited. Generously, they set a cab to fetch us and we had a lovely evening with great food
Peddlars by night
Graciales philosophy
Bright tiles and jam jar lights add a touch of difference
No frills on the tables, easy to clean and the cutlery comes in a tin can with paper serviettes
The sign on the wall near the bar
Craft beers on tap, wine specials, winter Glühwein and daily specials
We like the idea of the Peddlars winter specials! Especially if you finish early on a Friday
We started with a Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc, crisp and tropical
The restaurant starts filling up. We had just arrived, at 7 pm
The Tapas menu
With Tapas, you share all the dishes.Our first dish was one of the platters. Apparently it is one of Brad Ball’s specialities and customers insist it that it should be on the menu. Slow cooked lamb, accompanied by aubergine crisps, tzatziki, humus, a tomato relish with hot harissa paste and mini pita breads. You eat any combination you like, but we found everything together to be the best. De-lish-ous.
Next to share were the very tender, deep fried Calamari strips with a lemon mayo and the Asian Beef Tataki - very tender seared beef cut thin with an Asian dressing, black and white sesame seeds, spring onions and hot chillies. Basically a beef Carpaccio with Asian flavours
And finally, (sadly rather fatty) belly of pork and nicely salty edamame beans cooked in their pods. Edamame are green soya beans. We had this with some red wine. Lynne had Beau Constantia Pas de Nom and John Steenberg merlot. Someone needs to render some of that fat out, please
We shared the Petit Fours plate and had it with double espressos. One chocolate truffle and one rose turkish delight each and we halved the gooey mini lemon meringue tart. That meringue went everywhere
They have some superb aged wines in their vinoteque at quite reasonable prices for these vintages 
and these particular wines
Seating for the bar outside has a winter blind to keep out the weather
or you can enjoy bar snacks in the bar
It looks like a great place to meet friends
Cleaned down for the night as we left, having enjoyed our evening very much. The staff were great, especially our waiter, JP van Eeden. We were sad that Chef Brad was not there, but delighted to hear why. He was on his honeymoon!
The cab was waiting to take us home
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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