ADEGA - WILLOWBRIDGE

Date:  6 April 2010
Hosts:  Dave & Bets
Group:  10ppl (including some friends from overseas)

What was meant to be a nice dinner at Hussar Grill Willowbridge turned out to be an AWESOME evening @ Adega !!!  Confusing?? Let me explain...
We arrived at Hussar only to find that they have seated us in a non-smoking section after we'd booked a month in advance AND confirmed twice with them telephonically. First their extractors weren't working & then someone else came and told us that it's because they close their smoking section in the evenings??? Would have been nice if they had told us that over the phone, but it was obvious that they were fumbling around for excuses.

Anyway we went in search of another restaurant in Willowbridge and found Adega - who were very accommodating and even opened the one section to get us in.

Food was great and the service excellent (thank you Henriet)!

They have quite a variety on their menu & we got so lucky landing up there on a Tuesday because they had 1/2 price on sushi, oysters for R4,90 and great specials on steaks and prawns!  Everything was delicious except maybe for the lamb shank that was a bit tough.  I haven't seen so many empty plates in a while :)  They were also very leanient when it came to the menu and even made up a special starter for Rita.  No one ordered dessert - there was just no space after all the juicy prawns and steaks.

We haven't been that lucky with recent venues and I'm very glad we went there.  I'm sure we'll keep Adega in mind next time we want to go out for a nice supper. 
(oh corkage R25 and I must add that I LOVE their red wine glasses - I'm sure the whole bottle would have fitted in one if we tried)

STUNNING EVENING, THANKS EVERYONE :)

MAESTROS, MILNERTON

Date:  2 March 2010
Hosts:  Simon & Annabelle
Group:  14people

I think we've officially found the restaurant with the worst service.

As most of us had been to Maestro's before, we were looking forward to last night's dinner as we'd all only had good experiences there and the view from the restaurant is stunning!  The view hadn't changed but as for the service...  They had 1 waiter serving our table of 14 AND the whole smoking area!  It took extremely long to get our drinks - bonus points for those of us who took our own wine and didn't have to wait :) 

Their menu is very interesting and we kept ourselves busy reading all the different names given to dishes...Steaks with names like Lindsay Lohan : rehab to Angelina Jolie. 

Starters was ok when it eventually arrived  - maybe a bit over prised for the size of some of the starters.  R46 for 3 stuffed calamari tubes??? 
Mains:  I must say the burgers looked lovely.  The Veal Picata & the Mussels Riesling were 2 definite winners!   Not all the steaks were done as requested and because of there only be 1 waiter (I'm assuming that was the problem) - most of the food arrived cold.  The one piece of steak was just sinew  - needless to say the dogs got their 'doggy bag'.  The line fish was ok - not very tasty.

After several complaints from our host for the night - the owner came to apologise to our table (which was greatly appreciated) yet it didn't make the slightest change in the service.   Even the Kahlua coffee's we ordered was sent back as there was NO Kahlua in the coffee?!?

I can't think of anything else to say about the venue so I would like to end of with a statement that someone made last night:  The whole reason why we're doing the dinner club and the blog (besides for the good company) is to try out different restaurants, to see if they can cater for bigger groups and to give feedback to anyone who's interested. Hopefully it also gives the restaurant owners and managers an idea of which areas need improvement on if any and to give praise to those places who impress us every time!

ASHLEY'S, GOODWOOD

Date:  2 February 2010
Hosts:  Lisa & Schalk
Group:  12 ppl

So...do I start with the food or the restaurant?

Lets do food first.  They have specials on every day of the week - everything from Seafood to Livers &; Mash.  Tuesdays specials are 500g ribs with chips and the liver with mash - GREAT value for money however I still can't get myself to like the idea of eating livers. Starters were good, although a shrimp cocktail is just not the same when there's no avo (did i not see tons of avocado's in the shops?), the snails looked lovely and I was very happy when I saw that they actually give 2 skewers for the mushroom starter :-D Mains were big portions and only half of us actually managed to finish our food - very uncommon for our group.  Fillet Royale - Delicious! but also very rich so be prepared.  They didn't have any pork schnitzel available, but the veal schnitzel was good.  Pasta's were lovely. (sorry guys no pics of the food this time round as we all managed to forget our cameras at home - the exception being Rita who only 'discovered' her camera while we were having after dinner drinks lol)

Then I suppose we're onto the Restaurant then...
It's a typical family restaurant.  They seated us at tables of 4 next to each other - we couldn't push the tables and benches together as no one would have been able to get out unless the whole row gets up.  This was therefor not a very social dinner as you could only really speak to the 3 other people at your table.  Being a dinner club - we like to be social and catch up on what everyone's been up to over the last month. This is also why I can't really comment on everyone's food, as I had no idea what food was ordered by the table on the other end.
Their ladies toilets were definitely not cleaned regularly (I'm not even calling it a restroom)- both basins were blocked and half full with dirty water, the towel roll to dry our hands was also sopping wet - needless to say, we were not impressed.

The overall service was good except for 1 or 2 problems with orders that came out wrong. 
Ashleys is what it is - a family restaurant with great daily specials. 

LA MASSERIA, DURBANVILLE

Date:  5 January 2010
Hosts:  Don & Rita
Group:  10ppl

Our first dinner of 2010 :)
We had a small group this month, but still managed to eat and drink enough for 20ppl lol.
La Masseria is an old house that they've converted into a restaurant.  Big venue with a lovely outside section.
The food was good - don't ask me to name anything by the menu names as it was all foreign to me :)
No one had starters aside from the bread baskets on the table.
Being an Italian restaurant, their speciality is pasta and home made breads - I had the trio of pasta which was lovely and way to much food!  They have a 'bottomless' meal where you could choose from a selection of foods set out on a table inside.  It looked lovely although we would have preferred more warm foods in this selection as everything from the chicken to the mussles and meat were all served cold, only the pasta was warm.  Didn't stop a few of us from going back for seconds :)
The veal topped with parma ham also looked delicious and the Dorado topped with a tomato salsa was very tasty!

If you're looking for a cheap night out and a quick meal, this wouldn't be the place to go as even their pasta's start at R85per plate and white wine per glass R22 - R35
But other than that, the service was good and quality of the food excellent!

LA ROMANTICA - HIGH STREET

Date:  1 December 2009
Hosts:  Johan & Lida
Group:  18ppl (2 NEW MEMBERS  - welcome Dave and Bets :)

Our Christmas dinner was loads of fun!
Great choice of venue and good company!  I must admit I was a bit sceptic after hearing comments regarding their poor service, but we got excellent service from our waiter Jaco.  He was a great waiter (it can't possibly be easy looking after such a rowdy bunch) and a good sport, he even joined in when we started singing Christmas Carols :) 

Everyone's food was served at the same time...still warm :) The food was well presented and tasted as good as it looked!  Their fairly priced menu caters for all tastes and includes everything from Sushi and Seafood to Pasta, Pizza & Steak!

My sushi starter was deliscious and great value for money! Other starters incluced soup, livers, fried camembert and garlic snails...
Mains:  This was a problem for everyone as there were so many mouthwatering options!! Jack Daniels and Mushroom steak, Old Man Steak (still confused as to why it's called that lol), Creamy pasta, T- bones (very tender and juicy as were all the other steaks) and stuffed Chicken breasts.  My steak was slightly overdone, but hey I'm probably just picky :)  Everyone else raved about their food and I was amazed at how quiet our table became while eating....that's a sure sign that the food is great!

Thank you to Lida who organised small Christmas presents for all the guests - we really appreciate it!

I'm sure if I speak for everyone when I say we'll definitely be back for more!!!

A TOUCH OF MADNESS - OBSERVATORY

Date:  3 November 2009
Hosts:  Chris & Gillian
Group:  12 people

The venue was lovely - old house with a courtyard & a bath lol.
I think everyone agrees that it was nice, but from their website we expected a lot more.

Most used line of the evening:  Sorry we're out of stock

One of our group members had to change her main course as they had run out of Rump steak - and the rump was delicious!  We also managed to get 1 piece of Malva pudding before they ran out of that..and not even to mention the beers which they must have had 1 bottle of each in their fridges. 

But if you look past that, we had a very enjoyable evening and everything from the stuffed mushrooms to the lamb and curry was delicious!

Venue - lovely
Food - good when in stock
Service - average

We made the most of it and had yet another great dinner!

BRAZA - Canal Walk

Date:  6 October 2009
Hosts:  Hugo & Mariette
Group:  10 ppl

We were a small group this time round, but we still had loads of fun :)  Venue was nice and cosy with the heaters and the service was fair. 

The ladies each had a Margarita to start the evening off with :) and the guys opted for Lupini (sissies)

The starters were good - snails looked delicious, the Giblets were very tasty - even I tried one, the Trinchado however was a bit bland - I would have preferred it more spicy.  The starter Espetada (chicken livers wrapped in bacon) was also a very different, but nice start to a meal.

Mains:  2 of us tried the Braza house Chicken - topped with mushrooms and a beer sauce YUMMY!! The Beef Espetada was tasty, maybe a little dry as we are used to Espetada being served with garlic sauce dripping down the skewer.  The Portugese steak (served in the traditional way with a fried egg) was tasty and tender.  The Prawns were tender & juicy.  They don't really have anything on the menu for our only vegetarian :) but they put together some rice and grilled vegetables for her.

To sum the evening and the place up in one word : ENJOYABLE.