Supper at Mondiall, V&A Waterfront

A friend visiting us from Europe took us out for dinner on Friday to Mondiall in the Waterfront which opened just before Christmas. Owned by Chef Peter Tempelhoff of the Cellars Hohenort, the resident chef is Oliver Cattermole (he was not on duty the night we were there)

This modern, smart and fairly industrial themed restaurant is situated in the building that used to be the Green Dolphin jazz club and is on the dockside at the end of the Victoria and Alfred Hotel building. 

Mid-century modern, comfortable dining chairs and slate tables without cloths keep the feeling informal and clean. If you sit inside you get a full view of the open kitchen with very busy industrious staff. We had really great and attentive service and met another young and going places sommelier, Elton Damon and our waiter, Scott Lewis

They also have a popular bar area and when the weather is good you can sit outside.

The fairly straightforward menu has something for everyone and the food is slightly more complex than the menu indicates. A three course menu worked out at approximately R330 per head, but we only had one bottle of wine, a superb Paul Cluver Chardonnay our host had bought, which we took with us and paid corkage, and two glasses of the house red, a shiraz from Vondeling, which was good and suited the food. Lynne’s main was a salad, so it is in the mid to getting pricey range for the Waterfront

Warm French bread, humus, good unsalted butter and flaked salt are brought to the table when you sit down and they were happy to serve us tap water, which we prefer. Our host had a bottle of sparkling mineral water.

Three wild oysters from the West Coast with a vinegar and shallot dressing

Peruvian inspired seafood ceviche was a very intriguing starter of salmon, calamari, mussels and another fish. It had great fresh tastes of the sea, enhanced by lime and tomato, sour cream panna cotta and tiny sesame wonton pastry triangles

Lynne opted for a large Caesar salad for her main course and was a little underwhelmed, as it had not much flavour apart from the few white anchovies and slices of parmesan cheese. Terrible soft ‘croutons’ need more attention and the poached egg was overcooked.

Our host said his Cape Malay curry was very good indeed, the best he has ever had. It was accompanied by a tomato and onion sambal and a rather interesting lime-flavoured sauce which, we think, was a dip for the poppadom.

John’s Café de Paris Sirloin Steak, ordered medium rare, was a little bit more done than that, but had very good flavour and was tender. The steak is not enormous at 300g (we prefer it to be that size, anyway) and is served with crisp French fries. If you want any vegetables or salad, they need to be ordered as extras on the menu, something we did not notice and it was not pointed out to us. It also normally comes with mushrooms, but John asked for them not to be served to him.

For a change, we could not resist dessert. Our host loved his small slice of the Maple and Pecan pie with bourbon syrup, blueberries and milk ice cream

Looking for a light dessert, Lynne ordered the delicious pineapple tart tatin with superb sticky lemongrass caramel sauce. We see from the menu that the ice cream was supposed to be a tonka bean flavoured, a fairly new and exciting flavour for us. Hmm, just creamy vanilla, but the tart was wonderful and the pastry very crisp

John ordered what looked like a Knickerbocker Glory, a kids layered delight of nut tablet, chocolate, strawberries, cream, ice cream and more chocolate, called the Mondiall Chocolate Sundae. His one complaint? The soup spoon which came with it was too broad to reach into the bottom of the glass, and could not scoop up the last of the delicious, gooey chocolate sauce and fruit syrup. The manager made a plan and got him a sundae spoon. You might need a bib if you are younger than a certain age... Or older.

How to serve an Espresso coffee so you know you have a correct measure! A little tricky in the glass though, as you need fireproof fingers if the coffee is as hot as it should be. Little biscuits to accompany.

Rating: Would we go back? Yes, for informal special occasions we might. It has a very easy vibe and we felt very relaxed. A large party of wine industry people whom we know arrived while we were there and they were having a ball. We calculate that the meal came to somewhere in the region of R1000 for the three of us, so fine dining prices. With a tip, that means the whole meal cost £54, €65 or US$88 at today’s rates (30th January 2014), for our overseas readers, good value if you are visiting Cape Town
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Lunch aboard Queen Mary 2

There are some invitations we receive that really, really make us happy and a tour on Monday of Cunard’s magnificent ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, including lunch while she was in port in Cape Town, had us jumping up and down with excitement.  Now 10 years old, she is Cunard’s flagship and was the world's largest passenger liner until overtaken by the Oasis of the Seas. She is not just a cruise liner and she is really the best built ship to tackle Transatlantic waters. Once a year, she leaves her regular beat on the Atlantic crossing and cruises the world. When she left Cape Town, she was headed to Durban, Mauritius and onward to Fremantle in Australia, then to China, and back through Suez to Southampton on a 119 day cruise

The Grand Hotel of the seas looks absolutely enormous as you approach her

With our ID’s ready, we wait in a very short queue to board, while many of the 2500 passengers queue for coaches to go on tours of Cape Town while they are here for two days.

Security is necessarily very thorough and tight but they do welcome you on board at the top of the very steady “gangplank”

We started on Deck No.2 of her 23 decks

and assembled in the Grand Lobby near the Pursers' desks

Our guide, Jessica Burke, shows us some magnificent bronze ‘tapestries’ (their words) showing all the continents Queen Mary visits

As an amusing signature, the artist hid a tiny depiction of Homer Simpson in the Northern American bronze

in which many North American places and activities are depicted

The Popular Golden Lion British pub where they hold quizzes and game shows each evening, there is a pianist and the pub lunch is free for passengers every day.

The Empire casino, closed while in port

The stairway map helps you to find where you are going.

This diagram by the lifts shows only 14 of the 23 deck levels. Some are mezzanine decks and others are crew and engine levels

One of the levels of the huge Britannia restaurant.  Breakfast and lunch are open sittings, Dinner is in two sittings. Dinner is in formal dress approximately every third night and smart every other evening. There are several more restaurants to choose from and some more relaxed options on the ship.

The Captain's and Officers' Tables in the Britannia Restaurant

Some of the wines on offer: They say they are mostly priced between $30 to $50 a bottle.

Another view of the Casino showing the slot machines

Paul Clarke, the director of Cunard’s office in South Africa, which is in Johannesburg, helped to lead the media tour. We are in the photo gallery which has concessions behind each of those boards, closed in port.

A model of the ship

The Queen's Room, which Jessica runs, They have a proper ballroom floor as this is where they hold the balls, the crossing of the Line, Neptune Ball, Black and White Ball, New Year’s Ball. They even have dance hosts to dance with ladies travelling on their own. They have bands and an orchestra, they do lectures, dance classes and bingo. And this is where they hold the famous White Star Line Afternoon tea from 3.30 to 5pm

One of the many pieces of art on display and for sale on the ship in the Clarendon Art Gallery

They sell an amazing amount of art on every cruise

The Boston Cup, c.1840. Presented to Sir Samuel Cunard in Boston on the arrival of his first vessel, RMS Britannia

The Royal Court Theatre is larger than many of the West End theatres in London

Illuminations Cinema is also the only floating Planetarium at sea. This is also used for mass in the morning, 3D and other movies and three lectures a day

The dome is lowered over the middle 150 seats and they can see five different half hour programmes.

The makers mark!

And then it was time for lunch

Our menu offered some tempting choices.  Most people went for the crab, as it is such a luxury in Cape Town. We do not have edible local crabs

Red wine was a Syrah from the Pays D’oc in France

We get seated. Our waiters were apparently mostly Filipinos and it was all Silver service, prompt and efficient with a little oriental cheek thrown in for amusement

The white wine was a palatable Sicilian Chardonnay, which went well with the fish and seafood

We both started with the Tian of crab with avocado and tomato vinaigrette. Scrumptious

Lynne chose Halibut for her main course and it was perfectly cooked, set on a Thai purée with lemongrass and topped with shiitake mushrooms. This large North Atlantic / Pacific fish of the flounder family was also a popular choice as we do not get it in South Africa.

John’s choice was the fillet steak with mash, vegetables and a great jus. Yes, Lynne enjoyed the mushrooms on top

Desserts had to be tried. Lynne chose the Passion Fruit Mouse cake with coconut ice cream and a tropical fruit salad. Light and gentle, a great ending to a good meal

Of course, John could not resist the Dark Chocolate Fondant with caramel ice cream and a coffee anglaise

A long walk down the stateroom corridors took us to

the huge library, which is situated right in the front of the ship and has seats with superb views

of the spare propeller blades, the prow of the ship and the port

This is the Todd English restaurant; he is a well known American chef. This restaurant is private and you have to book and pay

His menu with prices

In February, the ship will feature a South African wine tasting on board in the Britannia Restaurant and an Australia vs France wine tasting, something we would love to host and conduct for them in the future.

Then it was time to see the decks with the swimming pools

and hot tubs and just a few passengers not needing to go ashore

Those tall  windows above the deck are the most luxurious suites on the ship, double storey with their own private decks above the pool. There is only one available on the next Transatlantic trip in June should you wish to book. Starts at $18,000 plus per person!

Another swimming pool on a lower deck

Help yourself to a lounger

and a towel

This is the very Informal Kings Court restaurant, which is open 24 hours a day for breakfast lunch and dinner and anything you fancy in between. Not fine dining, but lots of familiar food choices.

Another of the comfortable lounges

Embarrassingly, this is what Cape Town had to offer the passengers, as it was the only catering on offer outside the temporary embarkation tent, while people queued for coaches or taxis.  We SO need to build proper cruise liner reception buildings with facilities. There were three passenger ships in port that day

A full view of this magnificent liner from the other side of the Duncan Dock

We absolutely loved our tour and lunch and send a huge thank you to all involved
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014