My Black Book.

I get asked the ‘where to go for what’ question a helluva lot. Regular text messages like: “Restaurant recommendation please, bud. First date, somewhere cosy. Oh, drinks after? Thanks.” Phone calls where I end up discussing the merits of how important atmosphere is versus food. Emails from people saying they’re going to Paris and want to know where to eat. It’s cool to help out, and people generally seem happy with my suggestions.

Anyways, these days, you don’t need a black book, you just need a smartphone and The Google Machine. But I thought it’d be fun to throw down four or five spots I recommend a lot and for what. I ended up throwing down a few more. So here they are, 40 rather useful places to know about. Yes, there’s a lot that would overlap and plenty more to add, but this is just how I first thought of them…

1. First morning coffee: Deluxe Coffeeworks
2. Coffee & croissant: Jason (ex-Jardine Bakery)
3. Hangover breakfast: Sidewalk Cafe
4. Classy breakfast: Table Thirteen
5. Brunch: Bistro 1682
6. Saturday morning beer: Neighbourgoods Market
7. Healthy lunch: Cookshop
8. Lunch and the paper: Mozzarella Bar
9. Quick sandwich: Jason (ex-Jardine Bakery)
10. Unfussy lunch with a mate: Mano’s
11. Classy lunch with a mate: Dear Me
12. Power lunch: Caveau
13. Long boozy lunch: The Foodbarn
14. Very low-key lunch: Dias Tavern
15. Hipster lunch: Superette*
16. Sunday lunch: Woodlands Eatery
17. Winelands lunch: Bar Bar Black Sheep
18. Early afternoon espresso: The Power & The Glory
19. Drinks by the pool: Sandy B’s
20. Early afternoon beer: &UNION
21. Vegetarian meal: Masala Dosa
22. Second best vegetarian: Lola’s
23. After work drinks: &UNION
24. Martini’s: Planet Bar
25. Rooftop bar: The Grand Daddy
26. Dinner with a mate: Hudsons
27. Dinner with the family: Massimo’s
28. Dinner with a view: The Roundhouse
29. Romantic dinner: Kitima
30. Tapas dinner: La Boheme
31. Business dinner: Bizerca
32. Gourmet experience dinner: Test Kitchen
33. Low-key dinner: Nonna Lina
34. Zen dinner: Kyoto Garden Sushi
35. Tequila-fueled dinner: El Burro
36. Classy nightcap: Fatback Soul
37. Messy nightcap: Black Ram
38. 4am on brandy: The Shack
39. 4am on cocktails: Julep
40. 5am toasted chicken mayo: Restaurant L’Orange aka Engen

Feel free to add your own suggestions as comments…

* okay, so there’s more to the Superette crowd than hipsters

Narona.

Last night had dinner at a low-key neighbourhood pizza spot called Narona. The dinner was with the Elite Food & Wine Club, which usually gets way out of hand. Hence one of the club rules is no driving – taxi’s only. Firstly, when I’d been informed of Narona it was described as “a Serbian pizza joint.” This isn’t entirely accurate, but not untrue either. Run by a very efficient and friendly Serbian/Croatian/Yugoslav (let’s just say Eastern European) crew, the place is actually quite a find. All on it’s own on a corner of Buitenkant Street an area that is buzzing during the day but quite silent at night, Narona turns out rather delicious pizzas. There’s nothing too daring or exotic here, but they do all the standard pizzas well. Not superbly, but still very delicious. The Siciliana, with anchovies, capers and olives, was a winner. The crust is an inbetweener – not exactly wafer-thin, but not thick either. A pleasant balance actually.

Narona is not a place to impress people and I don’t think they’re after that. This is a neighbourhood pizza joint (they do other foods, but I caught a glimpse of the burger and it wasn’t too appealing) that is about low-key, unfussy dining. Posticino and Nonna Lina make better pizza (if you like the superthin crust), but it’s nice to vary. And at Narona, if you want to, you can smash more bottles of wine than people at the table, followed by some grappa, and then wander down Buitenkant for some even lower-key drinking at Perseverance Tavern. And then the Kimberly Hotel bar. If you want to. Just throwing it out there…

Narona. 021 465 8111. 136 Buitenkant St.

Nonna Lina.

Nonna Lina is the perfect place to go and have dinner with your family. Let me tell you why… It was a Wednesday evening and The Family was in town. I was supposed to cook but since work was being evil I moved dinner to Nonna Lina. We all met there around 7h30pm and the place was  buzzing. A good atmosphere is essential when dealing with the parents, to keep them chipper and also convenient when you need to avoid answering serious questions (Mom: “Sooooo, is there someone special in your life at the moment…?” Me: “What’s that? I can’t hear with all this talking… Anyways, how was your trip down here?”). They were understaffed the night of this dinner, but still managed to get wine to the table fairly quickly, another essential when dining with the family. Too much wine and things get ugly, but no wine is pretty bad too. The menu is not overly long and dishes are all explained very well, useful to avoid the 20 minute “What is in an arabiata sauce again?” line of questioning with the waiter that most parents seems to enjoy. And even being full, the food came out quite quickly, which was a big positive. The food at Nonna Lina is always good. I dine here fairly frequently and get takc-out pizzas regularly too. It’s always the same – pasta cooked al dente and pizza baked to thin-crust deliciousness. And things are all reasonably priced, which considering my father’s Scottish ancestry, is of massive importance when going for dinner with the family.

Italian food is so comforting, and the food at Nonna Lina is simple, unfussy Italian. The kind of food I could eat daily for the rest of my life. Maybe because they appreciate bacon and all its absolute goodness. Or because they’re not scared of cheese. Or olive oil either. As a family, we get on pretty well as it is. But with a Nonna Lina pizza, Quattro Mori pizza, Penne Gameri and a Gnocci Milicia in front of us and a bottle of Groote Post Old Man’s Blend to wash it down with, we get on really great!

Nonna Lina. Good family bonding. And some great Italian food too.

www.nonnalina.co.za

95 Keerom.

Popped in for a leisurely dinner here on a Friday evening with The Brother. Being an investment banker, he doesn’t worry about saving when it comes to eating well (often says things like “I’m trying to figure out what to do with my bonus this year”), and was keen to eat here again after a reasonably long hiatus. The restaurant has been around almost five years but the design still stands its ground: stylish, distinctive and contemporary without trying to be hip or trendy. The location, a little too close to Little Nigeria for my liking, is a tastefully converted Georgian building where they keep parking out front for the high-rollers to display their Bentley’s and Ferrari’s. The parking attendant out front was just as much there to escort the cars in as much as ward the riffraff out. Either way, my mobile was apparently good enough to park out front, though I got the feeling he was a little upset it wasn’t a sparkling Maserati.

Chef/owner Giorgo Nava might not be Ferran Adria (if you don’t know who he is click here) but he sure appreciates design. The menu is  Italian food served without fuss; salads, carpaccios, homemade pastas, simple fish and meat dishes and classic desserts. There are a few “special touches” that raise the price but not the already high quality, like the buffalo mozzarella in the caprese that is imported from Naples; very soft but certainly no better than some of the good soft, fresh mozzarella-style cheese made locally.

What struck me during the very tasty meal (we ate salmon carpaccio, caprese, spinach and ricotta ravioli, Karoo lamb chops, veal chops and finished with a tiramisu) was how basic everything was. It was all made with superb ingredients, very fresh and well presented, and all extremely basic. The Karoo lamb chops were the kind you’d get at Oom Schalk’s farm near Beaufort Wes, which means they’re very tasty, but not very ‘haute cuisine.’ But on reflection, this is exactly the point: Italian food is all about simplicity, so this how it should be. So why did I feel a little shortchanged, even though The Brother footed the bill? They did overcook the veal chop, which was a little disappointing, but that wasn’t it. Perhaps it is how when one goes out to eat one is eager for something difficult to recreate at home. At least I am. The food at 95 Keerom is authentic Italian and very good, but it certainly doesn’t dazzle.

But let me mention the wines. Both The Brother and I were tender from a reckless Thursday evening that ended drinking shots with some SA cricketers at a club named after Iceman’s rival in Top Gun, so we decided to go for a glass of white wine to start. There were about three options, nothing a standout. No blends or interesting whites by the glass. We had Dalla Cia Chardonnay and Dalla Cia Sauvignon Blanc, knowing from experience they weren’t going to be remarkable, but without much alternative. For reds, the by-the-glass options were not much better. The overall list had some decent wines, I really could have put a better list together in the time it takes for some instant noodles to boil. If you’re going to hire a design company and spend millions on your interior design, source the best local and international produce for your dishes and hire good staff to serve it, then you should really consider the wine list a little more carefully. Maybe he doesn’t enjoy wine himself, because if he did he surely would come to the realisation that his list is completely crap. Which is sad, since we had a very enjoyable meal but the wine list let the entire operation down a bit.

Either way, we knocked back a bottle of Zandvliet Kalkveld (American Oak) Shiraz 2003 which was rather delicious and went perfectly with the lamb and veal (which we chose with sides of polenta and white bean salad respectively).

95 Keerom. Perfect if Il Leone is fully booked, and Nonna Lina is too casual for you.

www.95keerom.com