Wonderful winter dining in Cape Town

To celebrate a family milestone, good cheer is in order. The promise of Italian food — the art of making simple ingredients sing — is easily agreed upon.

“Scala” is Italian for stairs. In the case of Scala Pasta/Bar in the Cape Town city centre, it’s down a dramatic flight into a minimalist Scandi-sleek interior, themed in black with splashes of Scala’s grey and egg-yolk orange signature colours.

The special set menu is a drawcard. It lists three courses, but befitting Italian cuisine’s generosity, with amuse-bouche, smartly staggered table service and piccolo pasticceria with the bill, it’s actually six.

First course is melanzane, the creamy aubergine coated in redolent tomato sauce and topped with Parmesan. Minestrone, too, drizzled with garlic aioli and streaked with threads of stracciatella cheese. The soup, with accompanying featherlight potato focaccia, could be a meal on its own. Except what follows is a pasta feast: pancake-soft paccheri stuffed with ricotta; pappardelle with meatballs; unctuously moreish spaghetti carbonara — the signature dish of Italian Michelin-star maestro Luciano Monosilio, known in Rome as the king of carbonara and a consultant chef to Scala.

My daughter’s vegetarian spaghetti alternative, alla scapece, a vibrant bowl of zucchini dressed in lemon and mint and smothered in Grana Padano, runs it very close.

Scala Pasta/Bar provides special touches throughout. The winter menu is an unmissable Italian dining experience.

Craving a foretaste of summer?

Take a trip to the Baja California region of Mexico via Hacienda in the Bree Street restaurant strip. A margarita sets the scene for the zesty flavours of warm coastal climes. Think chilli and lime, cilantro and oregano, nutty mole sauces and tangy-sweet adobo marinades. The three-course set menu is an adventure of unexpected ingredients, delivered to the table in a rainbow of colour.

It’s difficult to decide on a favourite dish, but the adobo brisket with various salsas shades the vote. Overall, Hacienda offers one of the hottest fine dining deals in the city.

Restaurants have various pull factors, including stunning décor, conviviality, a stylish bar, a menu balancing innovation and classic favourites. Kloof Street House has all of these; a special winter lunchtime offer is an added drawcard.   

The setting is a grand heritage house, the capacious rooms gorgeously eclectic, with high, decorated ceilings, giant drooping chandeliers, intimate tables with sink-in sofa seats and bejewelled cushions. Some sections have the impact of a vaudeville venue; others feel like a high society Renaissance salon.

The miso mushroom and pecan pâté, with quenelles of herbed mayo, lemony pesto and polenta toast is, my wife mumbles, “magic — like mushrooms on steroids”. My mussels in coconut broth, the silky sauce spiked with chilli and coriander, is also superb.   

For mains we veer to comfort food choices of beef sliders and hake tempura. Brasserie-style they may be, but classy touches elevate both dishes. Served on an art nouveau platter, the succulent fish has super-crispy batter that echoes with each bite. The dainty burgers are surrounded by crimson hues — pink smoked tomato aioli, burnished red onion relish, red-pepper pickles.

Late afternoon chill is certain, so dessert of warm crêpes brûlée with orange cardamom syrup hits the spot and rounds off Kloof Street House’s visual and taste experience.

Beyond expectations

What’s in a name? Sometimes, perhaps, everything — or, in misdirecting, not so much.

Bistro Sixteen82, located on Steenberg wine farm in the Constantia Valley, is open again after a brief closure for renovations. The restaurant’s name is a nod to the estate’s centuries-old heritage, and conjures expectations of comfortably traditional dishes, reinforced by its “Hearty & Homely” winter lunch menu, available until spring.

But chef Kerry Kilpin’s cuisine, while delivering on the promise of the menu’s theme, is also intricately and innovatively modern. So, dishes are bold and generous to a fault, but packed, too, with special ingredients which create flavour surprises with each mouthful.

My starter of Jerusalem artichoke and caraway soup is elegantly swirled with chilli oil, and pockets of pillowy goat’s chevin mousse are an added joy. Heather’s pan-fried chicken livers with sticky miso, orangey egg noodles and peanut slaw is, she raves, “an amazing fusion of Asia and Iberia”.    

The plating of her main course is sheer artistry. Spinach and ricotta gnocchi swim in a deep super-bowl of braised beef in a truffle and Parmesan cream sauce, topped with peas, sundried tomatoes and pumpkin crisps.

It’s silly to ask chefs about their food philosophies, because the dishes do the talking. But Kilpin is particularly passionate about sustainable seafood and supporting the local fishing community.

“We have the freshest catch, literally ‘hook to cook’ — weather permitting, because if the boats can’t go out then fish isn’t on the menu,” she says.

Luckily for me, despite a recent stormy spell, the restaurant has carpenter, also known as silver fish. Three simply-prepared, crisp-skin fillets are accompanied by fish-stuffed potstickers and a refreshing Asian salad. The whole makes for a complex delight.

Splendidly replete, desserts are beyond us. Bistro Sixteen82 is knockout fine dining at one of the Cape winelands’ most welcoming venues. 

• Bistro Sixteen82, Steenberg Estate, Steenberg Road, Tokai, 021 205 3866

Hearty & Homely lunch menu: two courses for R370, three courses for R470, four courses for R570

• Hacienda, 92 Bree Street, 021 422 0128

Winter set menu: three courses, R395 including a glass of wine

• Kloof Street House, 30 Kloof Street, Gardens, 021 423 4413

Winter lunch special: two courses for R250, three courses for R295

• Scala Pasta/Bar, 81 Church Street, 021 424 7204

Winter set menu: three courses, R395 including a glass of wine