I’ve said it before but it’s worth saying again: Cape Town has such an excess of excellent eateries, and so many new ones opening every month, that it’s easy to forget about old favourites or that place you went to that one time and had the best (fill in meal here) of your life but never went back to.
Sidewalk Cafe, one of the Madame Zingara group’s crowd favourites, is one of these. It’s quite possibly been five years since I last had dinner there.
… and yet everything is just as it was, and better.
Same cosy hodge-podge country kitchen aesthetic? Tick. Same menu of carefully considered flavour combinations? Tick. Same cute waiter? Well, he’s been replaced by one five years his junior, but you catch my drift.
Start with a fresh juice – even if it’s after 6 pm and what you really want is a glass of wine. I combined spinach, lemon, ginger and carrot, and not only was it delicious, it made me feel much better about the shared slice of cheesecake that came later. Everything in moderation guys…
For mains, I wavered between the fish of the day (slightly seared tuna with every temptingly named Japanese accompaniment imaginable) and the fillet, but ultimately had to succumb to Sidewalk’s legendary chicken, prawn and pea risotto. The addition of chicken to this classic dish may throw some of you off, but trust me – it works.
It should be easy to avoid order envy with a risotto, but the spinach and ricotta parcels opposite me and the vegetarian penne to my left gave the chicken and prawn combo a run for its money.
(We don’t even need to talk about that cheesecake again really. Suffice to say it was baked, drizzled with fresh berry compote, and sublime.)
It definitely won’t be another five years till they see this face again.
OF NOTE
Where 33 Derry Street, Vredehoek
Cost Breakfast from R29, sandwiches (served until 6 pm) from R45, starters from R40, mains from R65
Contact +27 21 461 2839, www.sidewalk.co.za
Photography Courtesy