La Mouette, Sea-point Cape Town - Crouching delight hidden potential

On a very popular website where people from all walks of life, all around the world are encouraged to jot down their experience at hotels, restaurants and things to do in different cities; is where we found this restaurant rated as one of the best in Cape Town, in Sea Point specifically.

Tucked away just one street from the beautiful beach ( what a pity not to have a sea view).

La Mouette is situated in a lovely old 1920/30’s style house with gorgeous wooden floors.

The Good: Menu. Service. Presentation. Ambiance. Price.

This is a lovely restaurant with an amazing menu, and very reasonably prices – it is clear that this is not yet aimed at tourists coming to Cape Town with Euro’s Dollar or the mighty Pound.

It was difficult to choose, as the courses and descriptions all sounded delectable.

The meal started with oven-fresh breads that melted in the mouth and awoke the appetite, with home-made butter and mushroom mousse.

I had a Pea Soup with Goat’s Cheese Croquettes and balsamic jelly to start – it look gorgeous, and tasted great, a lovely light soup. 

We also had the Cheese and Truffle croquettes, which were to die for! These little heavenly balls are extremely rich, too much for one person to devour (luckily), so we all got a taste. 

The rest of the table opted for the Crispy Pork Cheeks, and apparently it lived up to the expectation and reputation, I’m sure I heard some silent whoops going around…This proved to be the dish of the day.

Mains, where unfortunately, much less impressive than the starters. My Butternut risotto was yummy, the caramelised hazelnuts added an unexpected texture and flavour. 

The rest of the table opted for the following dishes: Bhaji spiced crispy hake – presentation was beautiful, but not a lot of crush in the crispy batter, and no detection of the Bhaji spice, no other spice or seasoning at all for that matter. Beef sirloin – this was cooked well, but the trimmings where a let-down and the star of the dish – Parmesan and Truffle sauce was almost undetectable.

Lastly the Pulled Crispy Lamb, in contrast to the pork cheeks, this was the disappointment of the day. Huge portion, the lamb formed into croquettes which in not what you expect when ordering pulled protein – it could have been anything really. If I have to give credit to this dish, it would be on the dryness, it has to be an art to get anything this dry. I have never seen someone struggle to swallow (what is supposed to be melt-in-your-mouth tender) meat as much as this day.

The Bad: Lack of sauce. Dessert.

This a classic case where the food stated out great, exceeding expectation, and then went downhill from there.

On all the main meals, sauces are served individually with each plate, graciously poured over your food by the friendly waiter. Unfortunately there is not a lot of pouring going around. It’s literally a serving spoonful of sauce, 15ml max. Now that’s just mean.

On the website mentioned earlier in this post, the Rhubarb Crumble is praised to the heavens, so this was an obvious choice. 

The Hot Chocolate description on the menu is quite an eye catcher, and a Lemon Poppy Seed cake, a classic favourite.

The results were disappointing and mediocre to say the least. And the Hot Chocolate dessert was in-fact not a dessert at all, but a cup full of shop-bought powdered drink… uhm…? What?

The Ugly: 

If you offer a dish with a sauce (especially an amazing sounding sauce) then please add the sauce to the dish. Bring it separately, that’s fine, but please bring more than a taste full.

Do not mess with classic dished such Pulled Lamb, or a gorgeous Crumble – don’t “fix” it if it ain’t broke.

 

As previously stated, the service falls under the good category, and I will point this out even more, as it was my brother’s birthday, and they made him a little tasting plate of all the desserts, even though he didn’t order any dessert. A lovely touch. (Pitty is was a tasting plate of the underwhelming dessert, and not the delicious starters).

In conclusion – this is a nice restaurant to go for a light lunch maybe – have 2 starters, 3 even. If you have mains, insist on extra sauce if you want to live, and give the desserts a miss, have a glass of bubbly instead. A charming place with lots of potential.

Happy Monday!

Until we eat again…