Anatoli’s review

I haven’t been to Anatoli’s for at least 4 years and was not a little surprised that it is actually still open. Anatoli’s used to be the place to go, I remember in my first few years in Cape Town we used to eat there often. Then something happened, I’m not sure what, but suddenly we weren’t going there anymore. I seem to recall that the owner was shot outside or something, I’m not sure if there was a connection. I do recall though, that the last time I ate there, it wasn’t great.

4 years down the road, my experience this time was not great either. It started on a bad note when I couldn’t order a drink from the bar because the barman apparently can’t speak english. After unsuccessfully attempting to order my drink with a mixture of sign language, pointing and charades I gave in and settled for an Amstel. Why don’t they employ someone behind the bar who speaks english?

The food works on the same principle as before: They bring an enormous tray of mezze around and you can help yourself to anything that looks tasty. Looks can be deceiving, out of the 7 or so mezze we tried, 2 were nice, 2 were awful and the rest were very average. The freshly baked bread they bring is a winner though. The mezze are priced at around R30 each.

The selection of mains is very limited. It’s lamb, lamb or lamb and maybe one chicken and one fish dish. There are about 5 options and they are priced from R75 to R95. We all had the mixed espetada (lamb, chicken & fish). It comes on a bed of couscous and salads. Nothing special.

I didn’t look at the wine list so can’t comment. The service was fine, nothing to complain nor rave about. There are too many great restaurants in CT for me to eat at average ones. Maybe I’ll go and check them out in another 4 years or so. That should be enough time for the barman to learn english.