Aesthetically pleasing interior

Had a stunning lunch with my friend Elsie Pells and some wine writers recently Cru Café which opened at the beginning of October in the new Cape Quarter extension in the now trendy part of Cape Town.

Elsie is a share holder with her friends Tom and Jacques Castelein who previously ran the very successful Tasca de Belem on the Waterfront.

The wine list devised by Elsie is a stunner with some truly great wines on it.  I had the chance to taste David Finlayson’s  delicious Edgebaston The Pepper Pot.  Lovely name for a wine and I would take it off the shelf for its name alone.  What’s in the bottle is pretty darned good too.  Elsie has an innovative – and for me very welcome – take on a wine list.  Wines are divided into Bubblicious, Perfumed Partners, Weight Whites, Add the wood, In the Pink, Cool reds, Reds with Attitude etc etc etc.  And the foreign wines are all mixed up with the locals – and often and more or less the same prices.

Owner Jacques Castelein & Chef Wesley Petterson

The food was utterly sublime, I had the Onion Tarte Tatin with goat’s cheese, though for me Chef Wesley Petterson’s hand was a bit heavy on the chili.  Crisp pastry underneath and caramelly balsamicy onions, smooth creamy goats cheese and the whole sparked up by a rocket salad on top.  One of the finest pieces of beef fillet I have had in ages and cooked to a medium turn came with 3 little potato cakes and creamed spinach.  Desserts were good too, an axcellent crème brulée with berries, and a charming little plat gourmand of South African desserts.  There are 3 cheese flights for those who don’t have a sweet tooth.

Mixed Berry Creme Brulee

Wine tasting flights are served with a snack relevant to the wine.

Lots of smiling eager and willing – and charming – waiters.

All in all al happy time – I’ll be back real soon.

Cru Café, Pizza level, Cape Quarter Extension, 27 Somerset Road, de Waterkant. 021 418 62 93.