Author Archives: JPR
Harvey’s, Durban
This really is an elegant place, with a twist. Tastefully lit, with a warm welcome, it’s a social clubby space that flows from outside (with views of park) inside. It’s romantic, it’s trendy, baroque in its textures and rich colours – it manages to capture a sense of extravagance and sensuality.
Service very good, wait staff [...]
Roma Revolving Restaurant, Durban
The sign says that this is one of only 37 revolving restaurants in the world, and the Italian music starts, and remains unrelentingly saccarine, as you step into the old and small lift to go to the 32nd floor. The restaurant turns approximately once an hour and has been here 38 years. It is the [...]
Salt, Ambassador Hotel, Cape Town
Still a knock-out setting, it takes you by surprise every visit, hanging as it does over the rocks and sea – and this day I had a good chance to soak it in as I arrived without a reservation for lunch to meet a friend and was asked to sit at the lounge area while [...]
Bel Punto, Umhloti
I’m told that Durbanites come here for special occasions, which seems curious, since Bel Punto is fresh and elegant with a contemporary look – white clothed with blonde bent wood chairs and modular plastic ones – but it doesn’t strike one as a fancy restaurant. And the menu is dead-ahead Italian…
There’s an open kitchen and [...]
Havana Grill, Durban redux
A revisit to this upmarket steakhouse with its warm, wood-clad spaces and “library” lounge/waiting area and wood-toned bar. It’s got a cosy “clubby” feel looking in, or choose great palm-fronted sea views. The service is sure and professional, well managed, with a particular facility with groups.
There have been tweaks to the menu, notably the specials [...]
Joop’s Place, Durban
More like a taverna, this neighbourhood steakhouse, and definitely retro: tourist pics a lá game lodge of 1970s, beamed ceiling, blue and white cheque cloths, hard chairs, low-lit, a few Dutch blue and white trinkets that hint at the provenance of the owner, former butcher Joop Mol. All very masculine, though service is led by [...]
Cargo Hold, uShaka, Durban
Cargo Hold is the flagship at the marine world of Durban’s uShaka beachfront, a multi-purpose mall, theme park and aquarium. The setting of this restaurant is unique and actually well conceived: inside a “phantom ship wreck” you sit on one of a few decks with views of the sea as well as the famous fishtank [...]
9th Avenue Bistro, Durban
This landmark Durban eatery is an intimate single roomed affair, the white-clothed tables and French terminology the only elegant touches, the rest quite mid-roadish, including poster art on the walls. Add the parking lot view and people clearly come for the food and accommodating, well-versed service.
Asian meets Mediterranean influence on the menu, but with [...]
Eight, Spier, Stellenbosch
“Ingredients either grown on farm or sourced from local farms” is the departure point for this lunchtime bistro on Spier, one of the Cape’s leading wine farms in terms of all-round visitor experience (and with very good wine, I might add). Eight represents the number of abundance, on its side it becomes infinity and the [...]
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Christophe’s, Stellenbosch