Restaurant
Week now happens nationally twice a year, April and October. Selected
restaurants enter and often they are new venues needing exposure. For 10 days
you can have a 2 course lunch starting from R150 and a three course dinner for
R250 Better restaurants add stars and that means they can add R50 in increments
or stars, according to how good they think they are. You can view the limited
menu on offer on line and if you register early as a VIP you can book before
others. One thing we don't like is when restaurants don't publish a menu and
just say, "We will surprise you". We won't go to those. What if they
served only something we don't eat, we dislike or are allergic to? Try harder,
it is all about attracting customers to what your style of food; often we have
no idea what you serve. You will get more guests
We
are generally so busy doing media functions that we don't often get a chance to
eat out at newer restaurants and as we had a bit of a window between events, we
grabbed the chance to visit two that attracted us this time. Raya was originally
an extension of Kitima, the very popular Thai/Asian Restaurant in Hout Bay, but
is now independently owned. Now you can eat the same style of food in the
centre of Cape Town, as they are in the Mandela Rhodes Building on Wale Street
Glass and steel outside and inside
Comfortable chairs and small tables make it a
versatile space upstairs
We were sent two amuses bouche of a noodle and
chicken dish, which were extra to the four courses on offer for R300, which
should have included a free glass of house wine
Asian touches are purely in the ornaments and some
lights
There were three choices of starter. Lynne chose
the dim sum option, which had one Ho Jaw Goong (tofu skin dumplings filled with
minced prawns, water chestnut, spring onions and glass noodles), a open minced
lamb and ginger sui mai and a pork sui mai. The dipping sauce was rice vinegar
based and there was something crunchy. Luckily, John had a soy based dark sauce
which she borrowed for the dumplings. John had a Duck spring roll, a beef satay
and a golden money bag
We both chose the same entrée, the Prawn Tom Yum Goong soup,
redolent and spicy, made with a good tom yum paste, lots of fish sauce, galangal,
lemongrass and lime. Lynne's came with mushrooms. We always choose the medium
chilli option
We had been give a bottle of Springfield 2015 Miss
Lucy, a blend of a blend of Sauvignon, Semillon and Pinot Gris to try and were
happy to pay the R50 corkage. It's a lively, refreshing wine, good to drink on
its own and also great with the spicy food
The downstairs area from above! Small ponds filled
with floating plants
Main course of Phad Ka Phrao Ped - stir fried duck
with green beans, sweet peppers, onions basil tossed with fresh red chilli and
lots of garlic was Lynne's choice. Good vegetables and plentiful duck
underneath
John stayed with prawns for his main course, the
Gaeng Phed Goong - a red curry with prawns coconut milk, courgette, carrots
lime leaves basil and bamboo shoots. We like the traditional serving bowls with
lids, We both ordered egg fried rice and really would have been happy to share
one, the portions are large.
A serving of John's dish
A serving of Lynne's dish, there was lots more. We
did share
Dessert was Lynne's first experience of a crème
brulée made with coconut cream. It was good, lighter in texture than one made
with cream and the coconut flavour was almost not there
John just had an excellent double espresso
The bill
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016
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