25 Feb |
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From the outside, the evening was looking up: light wooden (almost Nordic) tables, modern chairs, chic sushi bar, a happy buzz of diners. All good.  So a pity my entrance wasn’t so grand. I had a reservation for two, so they shouldn’t have been all that surprised that patrons might decide to walk through the door. No maitre’d to be seen, no waitress to greet me. So I stood there. And stood there some more. 30 seconds or so later I happened to catch the barman’s eye. He finished off his cocktail before asking if he could help. Um, no, I’m just wandering into random restaurants for entertainment? Well, that’s what I thought. Instead I said “Yes, I have a reservation”. He finally rustled up a waitress who showed me to the table. If I leaned back in my chair I could have knocked on the door to the ladies loo – it’s a small restaurant, so ask for a banquette near the window. There’s a private room for groups of 8 or so, which could be fun. Wine lists appeared and waitresses disappeared. A good rage of wines, with a nice selection by the glass. Except… When we eventually placed our wine order we were told that they didn’t have our first choice of Semillon. Oh yes and they were out of the second choice Uitsig Chardonnay. And the third choice too. Hmmm. The offer of a R300 Muldersbosch got a polite refusal, but to their credit they provided an excellent Glen Carlou at the price of the out of stock Constantia Uitsig. I’ve heard a few comments that their wines are frequently out of stock, so it’s obviously an area for improvement. Tempted by the Dirty Ninja Saketini, but decided to play it safe. Where’s that designated driver? The Chef’s platters didn’t seem to offer great value, so we went for a range of California rolls. At R46-R48 for 8 pieces it’s at the upper end of Cape Town sushi prices, but the cuts of fish were generous, the rice was perfect and a bowl of real wasabi root was offered… so all in all fairly good value. When you compare quality and price together I’m not sure it beats the sushi of 1890 in Observatory though. They lose serious points for having Blue fin Tuna on the menu though. Perhaps some Snow Leopard kebabs are coming soon? In addition to sushi they also do a range of main dishes, some of which looked fairly interesting. Might be worth a visit to sample those…hopefully they’ve been to the bottle store by then. Kyoto Garden Sushi. 11 Kloof Nek Road, Gardens. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites            |