La Casa Nostra, Umdloti

My waiter ran through the blackboard specials – many were “smothered” in mozzarella by his description. This was clearly meant as mouth-watering but seeing as this is a SA Italian with Pavarotti on soundtrack, I demurred, cautiously. (In mitigation, and relevant to first impressions, the owner sat with an elderly gent and conversed in Italian while welcoming known guests. And, on leaving, I saw the calamari ripieni smothered in cheese – a gentle smothering.)

Wine list short, functional, no vintages but a few Italians. The place has classic trattoria decor with the stacked tomato tins, brick and tile,wrought iron light fittings, tables laid with cheque cloth and chairs hard green metal things. Outdoor patio too. Service happy and up on the menu detail, there’s a very homely feel to the whole. I later learnt that the owner also operates Bel Punto, making this his “family” joint.

They made a decent fist of the Spaghetti Gamberi, in an SA way – the pasta a bit soft and sauce on the bland side but prawns good. Fresh piece of Cape Salmon was cooked beautifully, with lightly griddled veg. Others had the fresh and very crisp chips and the salads were fine. Also later heard that their chicken is very fine.

Tiramisu was served ice cold and flavour-robbed (though bits in right place) while coffee was average. All in all, this is a happy local, not making much you’d not get at the franchises, but doing a dependable job on it all and with a commendable freshness to the dishes plus much more integrity to the service than the mall robots.

White Sands Centre, Umdloti. 0315681996

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