Here are the menus for Taste of Cape Town this year. Leave a comment on which dishes you’ve tried and how you rate them so we can see which are the ones to avoid and which ones we must try…
Find out more about the festival at the Taste of CT website.
The 2nd page of the menu is after the jump…
Comments
11 responses to “Taste of Cape Town 2012”
I’ve got my eye on the Asian Salmon Sashimi from Savour, the Paella from Fyndraai, the grilled prawn and green risotto from Signal, Crispy calamari from Taj and the duck and cherry pie from 96 Winery Road looks interesting.
Not many vegetarian options, hey?
So far, the duck and cherry pie from 96 Winery road rocked my world. A very generous portion, with the most incredible flaky pastry and mucking afazing filling
Thanks for the feedback. I knew that duck pie had potential!
I’m attending tonight…
From the dishes I tasted Bistro1682’s rare roast fillet, followed by Bombay Brasserie’s paneer and Il Leone’s Penne. There were so many dishes I would have loved to try, like the duck pie and Die-Wors roll
Right, so after attending Taste of CT 2012 last night, here’s my feedback:
As usual the festival is well organised. I had no issues as a visitor and the chefs I spoke to said they had no issues. I did hear some people complain about the parking, apparently there is a charge of R20 and the parking is far from the entrance. I actually caught the Golden Arrow bus there and home again (I live at the far and of Sea Point), so I had no parking issues.
In terms of food, I think it’s important to remember that you’re never going to get the standard of food you would at the actual restaurant. Even if the dish is simple, you’re still eating it off a disposable plate with a plastic fork. You’re missing half of what makes restaurant dining special, the environment, the service, the plating, etc.
I don’t go to Taste of CT for a culinary wow experience, I go because it’s a fun social event with some good food and some cool products to buy.
Having said that, there were some dishes which stood out. The following dishes were either enjoyed by me or one of the people I was hanging out with:
Azure – Beef fillet with lentil ragout
Bistro 1682 – Albondigas (and they do the Steenburger until they sell out, make sure you get one of those)
Fyndraai – Bobotie spring rolls
La Colombe – Prawn veloute
Planet – Valrhona chocolate dessert
Signal – Prawn risotto
I’m going to try go again sometime over the weekend and try some more.
Any dishes that stood out for you and are not on my list?
The Wors Roll from Bertus Basson at Overture, and the Vahlrona Plate from the Planet Restaurant.
the whole experience were quite unpleasant.
No parking, no signage etc, and you had to pay an additional R20 for parking.
The entry fee is quite high for the cheap tasting glass you get, the “cashiers “were unfriendly. The crown system is quite exoensive and a number if exhibitors accepts cash since the ticket sellers were nowhere to be found.
Wines were quite expensive, some charged 7crowns for a glass of wine.
The food from various stalls were also sub standard! there was nothing besides the spare ribs perhaps that one cou.d describe as delicious. Not to mention the cold food.
On average we’ve spent R240 per person and it certainly wasnt mkney well spent.
Taste of cape town is quite selective, and in my opinion doesnt showcase all cape town has to offer. What happened to the bobotie, bredie and breyani followed by a koeksister or malva pudding…
Entertainment didnt exisit at all.could not understand why ghfm had a stall but lacked engaging with the crowd. Perhaps the people selling different beers can also do a bit better explaining the types of beers etc.
Felt like a cheap money making scheme, sorry but none of us will be returning and i am preaching the gospel of this unpleasant palate experience.
While I agree that paying R20 for parking and still having to trek half way across green point was a little cheeky (they could have provided a shuttle) I disagree on the rest of the comments.
First of all that they come from a no name person. 7 crowns = R35 and the wines that were at the show were not tassies so it was a good price. The food was amazing and maybe the person went on a busy night and waited too long to go collect his/her food so it got cold.
As for Entertainment, I didn’t find it lacking as I don’t go to Taste of Cape Town to listen to bands, I go to taste food, talk to vendors, discover new culinary experiences.
Taste of Cape Town showcases the top restaurants in Cape Town, to Corner Shops and take-aways. Fyndraai was doing Malay inspired food if that is what you were looking for but you will be hard pressed to find a 5 star Malay restaurant. I know of 2, 1 of which if Fyndraai and the other is The Cellars at Hohenort.
The Taste of Cape Town was fabulous – where else can you have a six/seven course meal for R180 at a VARIETY of Cape Town’s top restaurants!
The food was absolutely exquisite, and you can see what attention to detail the chef’s had shown in putting together their plates of food.
Best dishes: Porcini risotto at Jordan (George Jardine’s restaurant – which only showcased their food on Sat afternoon), wrapped Salmon parcel from 96 Winery Road, delicious meatballs from Brad Ball at Bistro 1862 and scrumptious crispy calamari from Mint (at the Taj).
I paid absolutely nothing for parking, so that didn’t concern me.
My only criticism of the event is that they should sell you your first booklet of crowns at R120 – and then allow smaller denomination purchases later (like R50, R80 etc).
Will be back next year!
I really enjoyed my first Taste of Cape Town. I liked the fact that it was outdoors so the crowds were spread out (I believe events like Good Food and Wine in CTICC) are unpleasantly crowded and it makes me not want to go. And if you want to talk about a rip-off, now that show would qualify (I checked out ticket prices for that and none of the shows/demos are included in the entry price so you would spend between R150-R400 per person for Good Food and Wine show)!
I relied heavily on advice from twitter for Taste and went with the veloute from La Colombe (if was quite cool that it was served in an egg shell) and the Duck and Cherry pie from 96 Winery road was awesome. I would have loved to have tried more but having food that was so intense in flavour left me a bit stuffed. I ended up using the rest of my crowns on some of the smaller vendors like Queen of Tarts and Scoop frozen yogurt (very generous portions).
I went on Saturday afternoon and only paid R10 for parking. I had no issue with the walk because the route was so scenic. All in all, a great experience and I can’t wait for next year where I will know to go to the PnP demo tent straight away to not miss out on their hands on demonstrations for only 3 crowns (it was fully booked by the time I realized). Also, if the event schedulers can also take into consideration the times of the smaller vendors demos so that we can attend more of them. Snowflake and Sasko both had demos during the time of the PnP cook off. Which I suppose would make more sense for the smaller vendors to rather fall in line rather than try to compete.
I attended Taste of Cpt on Saturday. There was plenty of FREE parking along Main Road as well in side roads; all one had to do was cross the street…surely that’s not too much to ask?
While the entrance fee kept the rifraf out, I did find the price of some dishes & wines too high. That said, the portions were generous, perhaps too generous, and I would have been happy with a smaller portion at a smaller fee – then I could try a greater variety.
The Icecream at “Scoop” was heavenly, as was the carpaccio from La Colombe.
Suggestions to the organizers: water stations, more loos, more ticket sellers.