The restaurant at Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! has a reputation for having the best milkshakes in Cape Town and rightfully so – they’re certainly worth the visit. But we recently discovered that the restaurant is so much more than that. They have a large menu covering everything from fresh oysters to chisa nyama.
Stepping into the hotel to get to the restaurant is a feast for the eyes. Fire & Ice! has spared no detail with their cleverly designed foyer and advanced lighting. It’s quite possibly like stepping into the near future.
But back to the food. It would be a travesty not to indulge in one of the famed milkshakes and I went with a king sized Lindt-o-Licious, a drink that is literally fit for (young at heart) kings. I say this because it comes served in a goblet that was nearly the size of my head! (I have quite a large head.)
With such a large selection of milkshakes it was difficult to settle for one but I figured that one can never really go wrong with Lindt. This was unfortunately my downfall of the evening as ordering such a large milkshake was a rookie error that I probably should have saved for dessert because by the time starters arrived I was already feeling slightly less than full. My partner ordered one of the awesome-sounding cocktails off the menu – a Kiwi Mojito. Full of fruit and very refreshing.
But as the first course arrived I suddenly got peckish all over again. I went with the Mushroom Cloud (roasted portobello soaked in hot balsamic rosemary jam, filled with a creamy blue cheese reduction and served with biltong slivers). The other half of our dining committee went with the Big Feta Greek Salad (calamata olives, deep-fried feta rissole balls, garden greens and a tangy cream dressing).
The restaurant is known for having some of the best burgers in Cape Town but we decided to go with something a little different. Mains consisted of 12 Parading Queens (tiger prawns served with shellfish rice and the chef’s secret cream sauce) and a Man Eater (300g Rump covered in a glühwein glaze with biltong shavings).
Now I could delve into a lengthy description about how well-presented and delicious these dishes were but what more could I say? They really were well presented and delicious!
By this time I had truly eaten enough as the portions here are more than generous and we had to call it a night, but not before the friendly hotel staff showed us around the funky interior of the hotel. Even the elevators are super cool – the inside of one is decorated to give off the appearance of being inside the Table Mountain Cableway and the other the appearance of being in a shark cage with a great white lurking.
It comes down to the details and Fire & Ice! clearly took every point to consideration when it came to giving local and international travellers an artistic hotel experience.
OF NOTE
Where 198 Bree Street, Tamboerskloof
Trading hours Breakfast daily 6:30 am – 10:30am, Lunch daily 12:30 – 5 pm, dinner daily 6:30 – 10:30 pm
Contact +27 21 488 2555, [email protected], www.proteahotels.com/fireandice