We were invited to stay at the Tulbagh Hotel on Sunday night but our car challenge meant that we could only accept their invitation to have dinner on Tuesday night. This hotel is somewhere we have stayed in the past and we
were really impressed with the improvements that the British owner, Alasdair McRobbie, who is a pilot with Virgin Atlantic, has made and they continue.
It is apparently the go to place for all the Tulbagh residents we met for a good dinner. We agree. They also invited us to come back for
breakfast the following morning. Another good meal
The outside of the hotel, early evening.
During good weather you can eat on the terrace
The restaurant still has some of that old
fashioned country hotel bar feel and we assume that this will be updated in the
future
Hotel guests and outside customers do come and use
the bar. We had a nice table next to the fire, it was another chilly night
Lynne's starter was a familiar smoked salmon and
cream cheese parcel - enough to feed three! with a tomato, avocado and raw onion
salsa (sorry, raw onion is still a crime in our books) with some really good Banting
crackers. Very crisp with a good nutty baked flavour
John opted for the springbok carpaccio with feta,
olives and beetroot, topped with rocket and crisps
Lynne's main course was a good spicy lamb Rogan
Josh, with steamed rice and a poppadom. This came with three sambals: a hot
sweet chutney (Mrs Balls?) a cucumber raita and a rather strange atchar of
unidentified vegetables that were very hard
We were told by our winemaker friends that the
hotel is known for its great steaks, so John had the rump, which was coated in a
good barbeque sauce. It came with chips
and a Greek style salad and was very good meat, tender and delicious. We had no room for anything else so passed on
dessert and coffee
We returned the next morning for breakfast and it
was excellent. Lynne had the full country breakfast with local sausage,
mushrooms and fried potatoes. The eggs were a little overdone, but lovely and
fresh
John chose the triple egg omelette stuffed with
cheese and bacon, it was light and fluffy, just the way he prefers it
We then did a quick tour or the hotel and were
shown this newly renovated Protea room. It is very spacious and we loved the
soft decor
Fitted with
all the necessities of life, a desk, aircon, a flat screen cable TV, a mini bar
and a kettle
It has a very modern clean lines bathroom with
bath and walk in shower
In the hallway, a lending library
There is a courtyard extension of the restaurant
at the back for good weather, near the swimming pool
The top floor also has this lovely sunny deck ...
... which runs the length of the hotel
A comfortable chaise longue next to the new
staircase
The downstairs courtyard
The newly built staircase in the hallway
Across the road from the hotel is this annex in
the historic buildings that lead down to
Church Street
It has its own courtyard
Tulbagh's main street. It is still wide enough to turn an ox wagon.
The outside of The Tulbagh's annex
It is a very pretty town
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016
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