TO the uninitiated there is little difference between Kosher and Jewish food. However, Kosher is the food that complies with the biblical injunctions about which animals may be eaten and how they must be slaughtered. Jewish food is typically festival cuisine from either Eastern European Ashkenazi or Mediterranean Sephardic communities. Other than taiglach, a crisp ginger-syrup flavoured doughnut, the new buffet at Berkies at the Belmont is, Kosher rather than Jewish.

The mezze selection includes well-made Med dishes such as Hummus, Baba Ganoush, pickled turnip and freshly fried chickpea falafel balls. I suppose smoked salmon could be considered Jewish food as it has all but replaced the herring as the cold fish of choice. At Berkies the “salmon” selection is vast and includes Scottish salmon, local salmon trout, home-made gravadlax and one of proprietor Barry Berkowitz’s own inventions, salmon pastrami.

The only challenge to their unmitigated success is the location on the first floor of The Belmont, a residential hotel akin to Fawlty Towers. Although it is charming in its own lavender talc sort of way, it might stop people who are not only out for great value but also for a chic evening.
Berkies has done its best to create something apart from the sitting room by hanging drapes.
These conceal one of the room’s most endearing elements, a framed portrait of Elizabeth II at her 21’st birthday.

At R135 a head, I’m more than happy just with the selection of mezzes (the pickled jalapenos and spicy tomato and chilli salad are wonderful) and breads that include bagel chips – a link to Barry’s many years at New York Bagel deli. I knew Barry and his wife Bev even before that when they worked at Dock Rd Theatre and Restaurant at the V&A, now Look & Listen.

Jews never under-cater. The vast volume of food on offer is possibly the most Jewish thing about Berkies. After the cold mezzes there are nine hot dishes, all either fish or vegetarian as the food at Berkies is Parev, containing neither meat nor dairy ingredients.
In practice the only downside of this is non-dairy margarine with bread and soya milk with coffee. For people who are lactose intolerant or on a strict vegetarian diet, it is a boon.

The Hasselback potatoes, think crispy hedgehogs sans quills, are divine but the prize must go to the mildly-spiced fish briyani with the lentil cottage pie a close second.
Fish (kingklip, hake, salmon), pan-fried when ordered, is overkill. I never thought I’d object to too much food but the truth is it comes too late in the feast to be truly enjoyed and is, frankly, gilding the lilly.

Perhaps in their exuberance to offer amazing value (and to draw people to the tired Belmont) they’re erring towards excess. Barry and Bev are veteran food people so I don’t presume to suggest they haven’t done their sums right. If they have and are able to sustain such volume and quality at R135 a head, we’re all being ripped off by every other restaurant in town.
Berkies at The Belmont, Holmfirth Road (off High Level), Sea Point. 082 358 0470.