|
Postcard from the Cape...part 2 Today we move on from our first base here in Tokai, which has been a convenient base for exploring the Constantia wine route. Two very different experiences on the restaurant front. Steenberg, next to where we are staying, is a worthwhile fine dining experience. A newly opened restaurant on the eponymous wine estate, It's definitely aiming for an upmarket clientele, and although the service is a little self conscious, the food and setting are superb. Worth visiting. Groot Constantia is a spectacular historical wine estate, visually quite stunning. The wines are very good, too. A setting like this should have a great restaurant, and its a tragedy it doesn't. The Jonkershuis, the restaurant on the estate, was a very disappointing experience. Although it has a nice, relaxed ambience and the service was good, the food was distinctly average, verging on poor. It's non-wine friendly, with our dishes being prepared in a sweet-and-sour Malay style, and the glasses were small and chunky: not the sort you'd expect to find on a wine estate. In addition, when we queried an item on the bill, the manager was instantly gratuitously offensive to us. We were stunned by his rudeness, and it rather took some of the sheen off an excellent few days. A classic estate like this deserves better. There's lots to do with kids here. As well as swimming with the penguins at Boulders, the scratch patch at Simonstown and the drive round Cape Point reserve both come highly recommended.
|
