Friday, September 6, 2013

What He Said - If you can't make it to Milan, Café Del Sol hits the spot.

Situated at the Olivedale Corner Shopping Centre,  serving scrumptious contemporary Italian the food at Café Del Sol is “a reflection of a new age Italian family” and  I can attest that the love can be seen, smelt, tasted and felt in every plate.

To judge by the amount of glowing feedback from my family and friends, who joined me for a Sunday lunch; it seems that Café de Sol can do no wrong. The compliments come thick and fast (‘incredible food', ‘perfect service') and it's clear this is a restaurant at the top of its game, with a strikingly beautiful, modern dining area with white walls  decorated with the most superb quotes about life, love and food.
The diverse menu delivers cracking flavours and as it declares, “seasonally fresh ingredients with swirls of love and just with a pinch of true Italian laughter” are served with a smile and executed perfectly.
Highlights include stunning starters, gorgeous mains and dishes of flawless technique and deep flavours accompanied and delivered with excellent service.

Beetroot Carpaccio
It is not your average Italian place with dishes like Beetroot Carpaccio – thinly sliced beetroot with Dolce Latte gorgonzola, strawberries and orange segments and spouts all drizzled with a balsamic reduction or the Calamari Limoncello with a wow inducing secret Limoncello sauce served with a Grana Padano parmesan salad.

Pastas are especially good. They have bite and a comforting, starchy, slipperiness, which makes the sauce cling to them, like baby koalas to their mothers.  They do numerous raviolis. The ravioli of the day is inspired and I absolutely loved the baby spinach and ricotta ravioli with a creamy parmesan and truffle sauce.
Baby spinach & ricotta ravioli
The risottos are also incredible, so good in fact, we ordered two – The Seafood Risotto with Prawns, Falklands calamari, smoked salmon, red pepper, mushroom & baby tomatoes sautéed with garlic & onion in white wine & finished off with a dash of fresh cream & parsley is delightful.
For all the mushroom lovers! Earthy Porcini mushrooms risotto, with green peas & a drizzle of truffle oil is a decadent treat!


The star dish of the day for me was the Porcini roasted chicken – Two tantalizing roasted free-range chicken breasts with a crispy skin, which was moist, served on a bed of tasty Porcini mushrooms, green peas & a delicate truffle oil risotto, with a Porcini mushroom cream sauce. The dish was cooked to perfection, well balanced and had my taste buds doing cartwheels.


The food was amazing the service sublime and the drinks list is peppered with appetizing Italian names. Ask for Alessandro Khojane whose infectious personality and good humored jokes added to our dining experience  – he and Café Del Sol are definitely setting the benchmark for Italian cuisine in Gauteng!

Grazie!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Lunch at La Cucina Di Ciro

A friend hosted her birthday lunch at La Cucina Di Ciro in Parktown North a little while ago. It was the perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon. Sitting under the trees with a cool breeze blowing through (Yes this was before the cold front hit Jozi). The service is friendly, knowledgeable and attentive. The chef comes out to tell each table what the specials are, this is a great typically Italian touch. We arrived a little late for lunch, so we took our waiter's suggestion and ordered mains and dessert at once.

I had the deboned confit duck with black cherry reduction, absolutely sublime! Crispy skin and tender flesh. The slightly sweet sour cherry sauce created a great balance to the crispy savoury, perfectly seasoned duck. It is one of the best lunch items I've had this year.



For everything the confit duck was, the dessert wasn't.  I opted to have the taster of desserts. The brownie was rich and chocolatey, the cardamom pannacotta was fragrant and spicy. Now the macaroon on the other hand was an absolute disgrace, it required a good banging of the spoon to cut through it and after all that work I didn't even have the will to taste it.

Friends had the apple cake and loved it! So next time I'm going for a clear choice and not this I want everything taster.


La Cucina Di Ciro
43 7th Avenue, Parktown North
0114425187
Best for:  Date night, it's quiet and intimate. Perfect for a romantic dinner, I recommend it to friends for date night all the time.
Not sold on: The dessert taster trio
Will come back for: The deboned duck served with a black cherry sauce