The Rabbit in the Moon, Illovo – Pleasantly over the Moon

I have driven past this restaurant countless times, the name stuck in my head, haunting me –and I decided it was time.

Honestly I do not know anyone that has dined here before, perhaps that lead to the delay in finally taking the plunge; and what a pleasant plunge into deliciousness it was.

 

The Good:

Pretty much everything!
Love the ambiance – it is quirky yet classic, with pops of colour here and there.
The menu is well balanced, offering something for everyone. From vegetarian, to light meals, to share, to the very hungry; and a decadent desert menu. Offering a little bit of everything, without having an ancient scroll of a menu which usually leads to being Jack of all trades Master of none.

Nice drinks menu as well, with super friendly and efficient service. The waiters are like wine ninja’s – you barely see them, but your glass is always full. They are also helpful in advise on popular dishes, with honesty.

Salads are offered in half and full portions (or large and small), which is always a very nice touch (for me at least). I had the Tabouli mint salad with halloumi, it was fresh and bursting with flavour.

The carnivore friends loved the Fillet Mignon (flambéed in brandy) which is properly portioned and comes with great accompaniments, like caramelised onions – who does not like a bit of caramelised onion?

There was 2 pasta dishes had at our table – Rigatoni vs Penne Bisanzio - the one a clear winner over its opponent. But then again, I just don’t understand ordering pasta at all, it’s a starchy vehicle for sauce. So ordering a sauce-less pasta, well… what do you expect? (Stupid move).

 

Desserts: Reviews praise the Tres Leches cake as a winner, however, we put this in the ring with the Trecolore Cioccolata, and the triple chocolate terrine was a knock-out!! I have to mention that I am not a very big chocolate fan, except for a 70-80% bitter dark chocolate (like my heart), but this was tres DELICIOUS! Silky, smooth chocolate-ness without a clawing sweetness. Did the waiter not recommend this slice of heaven, I would have agreed that the Tres Leches is fantastic, and don’t get me wrong, it is great – but has nothing on the choc terrine. This is a must.

 

The Bad:

… egehm…

 

The Ugly:

…cough-cough…

 

So nothing bad to say here, which is fortunate for the restaurant, but a bit less fortune for me – I’m rather fond of naming and shaming, and giving constructive criticism, to help restaurants better themselves… ah heck, I call a spade a spade.

Due to lack of negativity I will highlight more of the positives:

They have a sense of humour – which I love.

 

There are tiny rabbit statues as décor, and they are named. Sweet!!

You have 2 parking entrances available, either on The Thrupps Centre side, or at Illovo Muse Centre.

Coffee is lovely, and the bill comes with miniature tick-tac packs, which literally fit 5-6 tick-tacs!! Cute!

 

 

 

 

 

Tips:

-          Make reservations… Do it now!

-          Order the Trecolore Cioccolata, if it is the only thing you eat – eat this!

-          Go on, treat yourself.

 

Happy Tuesday lovelies.

Until we eat again.

 

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…

Le Soleil, Cuzco - The Fast-food of French cuisine

Aha, finally the time has come – and my fist restaurant is a bit of a shame, which after the owner’s petty comments and bad attitude on tripadvisor, has now turned into a big name and shame!

 

Whenever travelling I always have a look at restaurants on tripadvisor to see real-time opinions and reviews from “real-people”.

This French restaurant in the heart of Cuzco is rated as the number 1 in all of Cuzco – with many people raving about the interior of the restaurant, and claiming that you will struggle to find better French food, even in Paris! Now that is a bold statement to make.

To me this sounded like heaven! I love proper French food, and after traveling for between 24-18 hours, what could be more satisfying than a little bit of lush French cuisine?

 

This massive expectations we walked down the cobblestone street to Le Soleil. We were the only customers there, but thought perhaps we were early and this might be a pro, as it is not packed yet our food would be served a little quicker – we were starving.

 

The host and owner was very friendly and was happy to answer any questions about the menu, which looked rather yummy. And lucky me there was a veggie starter and main.

For starters we had the ginger pumpkin crème with truffle – this was really nice, nothing spectacular and no sign of the promised truffle, but a warming ginger flavour. Snails in butter and herb sauce – which was just that, nothing more, nothing less (presentation was lacking though). And the Avo Swilrs, this is avocado strips rolled and filled with cubed veggies such as tomato, cucumber and aubergine – a little bland, and actually a pretty presented four ingredient salad.

 

Mains were duck breast and I had ratatouille. The duck was nicely cooked, but no lush sauce or veggies to compliment this; and my ratatouille was pretty much a warm version of my starter, substituting the cucumber for baby marrow, and the avo for carrot.

 

Now maybe it’s just me, but I am 100% certain that it’s not, no-one goes to a restaurant and orders a main and expects just a chunk of protein, or a scoop of a cooked vegetables (and this comment is not only regarding Le Soleil – but I might as well rant about it now and get it over with).

Where is the harm in putting a portion of side veggies, salad, potato, sauce on a plate?? That’s right – no harm, in fact only goodness. You are ordering a meal after all. I see this “trend” sticking out it’s ugly little head in all the more restaurants, and frankly I think it’s ridiculous! Stop squeezing the money for your well-paying clients greedy restaurateurs! Tisk tisk tisk!

 

Anyway, back to our evening at Le Soleil. For dessert we had the chocolate fondant as someone on mention this to be the best fondant they’ve ever eaten; and the mango, tonka bean and passion fruit mousse – the passion fruit was super sour, you could taste nothing else, and also did not want to take a second bite for fear of burning a hole in your aorta with the sour acid ( a little dramatic, I know), surely the chef should taste what he puts on a plate? Unfortunately the fondant, which was supposed to be the king of the evening turned out to be a peasant in disguise. No rich chocolate lava flowing out when cutting open… An overcooked fondant for any restaurant is a no-no, and especially for a French restaurant, this is the mother of all no-no’s.

 

So all in all it was not the worst meal I’ve ever had, but most certainly not the best. There is not one thing that we ate that was exceptional or even great. I think due to the fact that this place received such amazing reviews it was an ever bigger disappointment, as we arrived with huge expectations.

In all honesty, the people that commented on that you could not find better French food, even in Paris – I’m having a sneaky feeling that they’ve probably never been to Paris, and the rest of the raving reviews might well be the owner himself, or his close friends… as we were the only table there for the evening. Does this sound like the kind of place that is the best in a city? Empty during the festive season? No, it does not.

 

Do not be fooled, give this a miss when in Cuzco.

 

Until we eat again…

Alpine Restaurant, Randburg – best fondant by far!

This open aired restaurant, with a lovely deck under some shady trees, prides itself on their quality of meat, as they have the Alpine deli and butchery as well. Not a vegetarian’s dream restaurant, needless to say I was rather skeptical, but all restaurants deserve a fair chance.

I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of veggie choices on the menu, and innovative salads and side dishes.

For starter I had a lovely black mushroom tart, and tried a bite of the backed Camembert with figs as well – delish! My pea and asparagus salad for main was nice and fresh, and the pork belly was said to be divine, and I have to say a very impressive portion! The baked sweet potato as side is the best in town hands down, and the chips and chunky and hand cut, not oven processed oven baked rubbish.

The let down on the mains however was the calamari - under cooked and under seasoned, with almost no sauce.

Time for dessert came, and we settle on a chocolate fondant, and creme brulee. The fondant was absolute perfection!

All and all, I have an enjoyable experience, with friendly and attentive staff, mains and dessert took a little long – but totally worth the wait for the fondant. Good wine selection, and they do not up the wine prices by 300% like most other restaurants. I will gladly go back to Alpine for a lazy Sunday afternoon lunch of fresh salad and gooey fondant.

Happy weekend. Until we eat again...