Cape Town Restaurants: TANK

tank, originally uploaded by vertice.

The Tank restaurant in Cape Town believes that it is one of the hippest and hottest places in the city, if not anywhere.

The place is certainly trendy and looks good. It sounds promising and the sushi is very good there. But the service and attitude lets the place down overall, and the food other than sushi is usually quite average.

Located in a trendy part of the city, where many gay bars and restaurants are, the Tank is in a mall type area surrounded by many open air restaurants. At Tank you can eat indoors or outdoors.

We had been there twice about 4 years ago and loved the sushi so much that we got over the attitude of the staff and terrible service.

we arrived this time having made a booking well in advance. Like last time there was no record and there was (like last time) a performance as they check and re-check their lists and then found us a table. The place was empty except for 2 other tables, and even when we left there were many empty tables.

The service, as mentioned, is erratic. And we noted that most tables get their next course with table still full of previous course dishes. And you usually call over the waiter to remind them something is missing.

The sushi though is great, and I suspect the best in Cape Town. There is a large sushi bar with 4 or 5 Asian sushi chefs. But stick to that as the other food is less great. I had seared tuna which was more like well cooked tuna and Mark had “medium” beef that was at best described as very well cooked and dry.

The cocktails were yummy, and due to the exchange rate very cheap.

An ok evening in an attractive venue, as the decor is funky. But if you stick to sushi and get over the service then a good evening…