Sunday 12 August 2012

New friends at Casa De Carli


Its gratifying that when Night Rider gives a bad review to a restaurant or other establishment, it usually means that they will close their doors soon after. The LS Club was the first "casualty"; they in fact banned Night Rider from darkening their doors. It seems criticism was too much for the owners to tolerate and I gather the main chap has now moved onto a dodgy website marketing cut price offers from other establishments around Prague that are finding it hard to drum up custom. Its called Gin & Tonic or something similar. The next to go was the overpriced Italian Restaurant, Ameci Mei. A trap for the naive tourists wandering by, I guess. Having heard it was no more, but now another Italian "Casa De Carli" it was with some trepidation that we gave the valuable Saturday lunchtime slot. Turns out that the Owner Chef is Matteo De Carli and his partner ( in both senses ) Lenka Hermanova runs the front of house. I had no idea who she was when I walked in unannounced and tried to decided whether to eat inside, or outside, on one of their pavement tables. In the end, went for an outside table. My experience with most restaurants with outside tables is that service immediately suffers, but this was not the case with Lenka doing a great job from start to finish, well backed up by her competent staff. The menu is pretty simple, but none the worse for that and best described as country Italian with a few twists added by the Chef. Both my fish dishes were perfectly presented and my only regret was that having my car with me I could not sample the wine list. But I shall return soon and put that right.

Sunday 8 January 2012

The Bungalow, NYE in Cape Town




Bit of a dodgy name I thought when invited to the opening party of "The Bungalow", just before Xmas 2011. Bungalow to me still has the resonance of retired persons final dwellings in say places like Bognor Regis or Folkestone - shabby genteel at best. Perhaps I am prejudiced as during most of my school days, my parents lived in one !

However, Cape Town's leading restaurant entreprenuer ( or should I say, moghul ) Paul Kovensky ( standing reluctantly with me above ) seemed to have no such misgivings in naming his new creation. Perhaps because along the next few beaches at Clifton, only the richest can afford the famous "bungalows" which dot their landscape.

Recruiting a good Chef with international experience was a good move by Paul and its cuisine far surpasses the only other beach club type place on the front, wrongly named "The Grand". The Grand ( in name only ), manages to get just about everything wrong that The Bungalow gets right. Food terrible, service poor and a security manager that seems to delight in fighting with would-be guests.

But having been to the Bungalow's opening party, I had little hesitation in booking it for the NYE celebration to welcome in 2012.

It lived up to expectation and despite having only been open for a total of 10 days or so, food, service and overall ambience far exceeded expectations. My only advice to Paul for next NYE's party - double your prices and let your chef deliver a more memorable feast.