Man, what hearty fare at Manhattan

My virtuous plans to have a healthy salad or something light for dinner at Café Manhattan went out the window as the delicious food aromas wafted towards me. I also thought my vigorous clapping and enthusiastic sing-a-long at On Broadway earlier entitled me to a delicious meal.

Our table of four decided to share a half Roquefort and Greek salad as a starter which, for R26, would have been a meal on its own. Yes, yes, I know Roquefort has 8.7gm of fat in it against only 6.3gm of Feta but it was probably diluted with yoghurt, which reduced the sharpness and fat content. The marinated chicken salad (R28) looked great on the menu and that would have been a good main course choice …

I passed up the line fish as Butter Fish (R44) doesn’t agree with me. There is a wide selection of vegetarian dishes and the Moussaka (R34) looked like a good option but I decided to opt for - wait for it - a Roast special. At R35 a portion I thought to myself that it would probably be a sliver or two or beef and lamb and a piece of chicken. I don’t think I could have ordered a more high-fat dish even if I had tried.

Cooked to perfection

Piled high on a plate were at least four generous slices each of beef (35 gm of fat) and lamb (20gm) and a chicken drumstick (26gm) with delicious gravy and to-die-for roasted potatoes. The plate was so full that the creamed spinach and sweetened butternut were brought on the side. The lamb and chicken were cooked to perfection and well seasoned. The beef was leathery but that didn’t prevent me from eating it all.

Although everything else was delicious I mentioned en passant that the beef was tough to my fellow-diners who, when manager Andre came to ask if everything was alright, volunteered that my beef was tough. Andre offered to replace it with lamb which I refused as I had eaten it anyway but he ignored my protestations and brought a huge extra portion of lamb. That really impressed me!

Ethan and Stan enjoyed the Butter Fish – I tasted a little of it and it was perfectly cooked, served with either baked potato or chips. Wendy had the Chicken Prawn Curry (R48) which was a large portion served in a deep dish with rice and sambals. It was spicy and delicious and the prawns (more shrimps, actually) were not over cooked.

Best burger in town

Having fallen off the precipice of dietary control, I decided to further enjoy my evening by quaffing Excelsior’s Sauvignon Blanc (R49) and ending off the meal with an Amaretto Dom Pedro (R22).

Both Café Manhattan at Table View and De Waterkant are one of those restaurants were you can have a cheap and cheerful snack or three-course meal. I far prefer the décor at De Waterkant as the Table View branch (now closed) retained much of the original brass light-fittings and dark wood that better suits an olde worlde pub than a hip ‘n happening restaurant.

Continuing my confession I’ll also admit to regularly eating their delicious burgers (R25) which for size, quality and price are probably on the top of my best burger in town list.

Our bill for one starter, four mains, three Dom Pedros, two bottles of wine and one coffee came to R360.