Today we’re heading over to the other side of the mountain to Constantia. The oldest wine producing area in the country (and in the Southern Hemisphere), it’s a beautiful, leafy suburb with spectacular vine and mountain views. And there’s no shortage of restaurants to enjoy.
The Blockhouse Kitchen was recommended by my friend, Jane, who was a colleague in our media days in London. She realised I was here by reading one of my tweets and got in touch. How I love social media! So time for a catch up and to try out a new restaurant.
The Blockhouse Kitchen sits on the Constantia Uitsig wine estate. It’s a large space with both outside and inside seating. We settled down in the bright, airy conservatory after a warm welcome.
What’s on the menu
The menu focuses on using seasonal, local produce and offers a substantial range of choices. There’s a selection of small plates, salads, big plates and pasta and risotto. Big-time menu indecision on my part, especially when the waitress produced the specials board!
I started with one of the day’s specials – the kingklip. This meaty white fish is certainly one of my favourites and today it was miso-marinated and served with an edamame pesto and crisp aubergine pieces and scattered with sesame seeds. I love all these ingredients and each element was so perfectly executed to produce a sweet and zesty dish of succulent fish and great textures.
The crispy beef is from the Small Plate section. It comes with onions, chilli, radishes and a sticky Asian sauce. Another great mix of flavours and textures.
Also a Small Plate, this is the spinach and ricotta ravioli. Isn’t it glorious in its green creaminess of basil cream, topped with herbs and Parmesan.
And the plates get bigger
Time to move on to Big Plates. I love that there’s such an international flavour to the menu – I went Korean for my main. The Korean chicken burger is topped with a crunchy slaw. So tender and juicy with a lovely spice to the crumbs. The proper fries (their description) were proper (!) as was the miso mayo.
And our final choice – the rich and tender Teriyaki pork belly topped with kimchi and served with the cute roasted sesame rice ball. Lots of crunch and flavour and melt-in-the-mouth meat.
As well as thoroughly enjoying our food, the service was wonderful over what became a long, leisurely lunch. We needed lots of time to catch up obviously. My third unexpected meeting through social media – loving that we live in such a connected world.
Today’s price point
And finally – the cost.
Two small plates and two large plates came to R470 (about £24).
We had a delicious bottle of Constantia Uitsig’s red Bordeaux blend for R258 (about £13).
The Blockhouse Kitchen is on the Constantia Uitsig wine estate, Spaanschemat River Road, Fir Grove, Cape Town.
