The Opal Lounge (ex Manolo until October 2008) is the best restaurant in Cape Town in my view!
It is at the bottom of the trendy Kloof Street in a stunning and large Victorian house, that appraently was a farmhouse on a farm providing vegetables to the fast growing Cape Town. Now it is the heart of the bustling city.
The decor is powerful and very striking. The entrance hall and bar are all black with touches of gold. The eating rooms are also dramatic and themed around Persia. There is a more sedate veranda seating area as well.
The staff are all in black with bowler hats, and friendly and efficient.
The food is quite awesome. The menu is designed to mix the unexpected and it works fantastically.
We had a hot butternut soup with cold coconut sorbet. It was the most fantastic soup and combination. It was phenomenal. I had kingclip as main which was beautifully presented and tasty. I then had a fruit medely, which was a trio of mango tempura (scrumptiouis), string like jelly (fun and tasty) and chopped fruit and sorbet.
It was definately a great venue with great food. In my view way ahead of others.
They have a reputation for doing great cocktails, especially moijtos, ans they were great.
A real must do!
1 comments:
Absolutely AGREE. We were there for Valentines Night. Wow, wow, wow. They had a reduced a la carte, no over the top expensive set menu like others do. Then when we got there, not only did they have rose petals scattered on the floors around us, but each table had a long stem rose in a vase and 3 rose petals lined up in a row on the folded napkins. The rooms looked incredible. Even the floors to the toilets had red rose petals scattered on them and some in the hand basins. On arrival we were handed a complimentary glass of pink champagne. Talk about setting a romantic scene. It was amazing. The food was to die for. Top notch. The whole place is seductive and elegant but wearing jeans and a shirt one still felt quite in place. The cigar lounge or Colonial Lounge as they've named it was where we ended up. It's a trip back into African history before the reproductions came in. The owner apparently used to travel through Africa and the room houses some of her collection. The cigar coloured suede sofa was where I wanted to sleep. Rochelle, the owner lady, encouraged me to do just that (if I washed the dishes the next morning!!). But jokes aside. She actually encouraged me to put my feet up (literally) and relax and enjoy. There is no end to attention to detail here. She's the interior designer. What a lady. She's rather a stunner too! Oops, can I say something like this on here?! It was an incredible night. At the end of the night the waiter gave me the rose from the vase and with our bill presented me with a black gift box which contained 2 beautiful chocolate cup cakes with pink hearts on the top. Apparently, that was to finish off our night nicely. And it did!!! Thanks Rochelle. You're some girl. Your restaurant is like no other in Cape Town, that I can say with confidence. Cheers
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