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.
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Groot Constantia:
great wine estate, shame about the Jonkershuis restaurant: we
had a better experience at the Austrian-pub-style Tavern
eatery also on the estate |
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Cape Point: watch
out for the Baboons, and try to pick a day when the wind isn't
too extreme |
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