Making culinary waves at the Blowfish

It's not often a table of four gets to review a meal, so we counted our lucky star(fish) that we had the chance to do so at Blowfish on a random Thursday last week, seated at their ‘very best table’ in the fully glassed off section at the back of the restaurant, with a view across the harbour at the oh-so-pretty twinkly lights of the Cape Town CBD. It was on Thursday so we could include their Thursday prawn special, NOW ENDING end-September, in the review, and last week so the rest of us could try out their weekday Winter menu, which comes to an end at the end of this month.

All images © Blowfish.

All images © Blowfish.

All images © Blowfish.

Why four of us? Simply so that we could try as many of the amazing array of mid-Winter meals on offer as possible without duplicating orders, in order to give the most comprehensive review possible. So even though we’d already perused the menu in full at our leisure, we took our time on ordering as the restaurant was positively buzzing for a wintry Thursday night, and we surreptitiously glanced over at the food on the others tables, trying to decide what would taste the best.

Further undecided on a bottle of red or white we went with the Goldilocks choice: a bottle of the Riebeek Cellars collection 2016 Pinotage Rosé for the table, described as “crisp and dry and not-too-sweet,” by Blowfish general manager Marc Scheidel on one of his many visits to check our table. He explained Blowfish offers “bottles that sell, not just ones that look pretty and gather dust”. My strawberry milkshake was just as pinkly delicious, thick and brimming with bits of fruit.

Back to the food conundrum then, “Keep it good, keep it simple, keep it fresh, keep it moving,” suggested Scheidel. We eventually went for the Tom Yum soup, spicy creamy calamari and beef espetada starters. All were served at the same time, always a plus, yet all were so different…

Calamari dreaming, on such a Winter’s day

The soup was just as pipingly hot and spicily hot as we’d hoped for, brimming with delights from the sea such as tiny squid heads, curled prawns, calamari, coriander and slightly-sweet Rosa tomatoes that offset the traditional sourness of the soup to perfection. The beef espetada then was extremely moreish, served tender and warm atop a bed of buttery Morrocan mash, but it was the calamari starter that was the clear winner of the round: crispy yet so tender, served with a creamy chilli bean and Japanese mayo dressing.

For mains we again tried as wide a selection as possible, ranging from the calamari mains (no, it was nothing like the starter: this time we got 250g of crispy, fried calamari strips so soft we were convinced they’d been given an extra pummel in the kitchen before frying), served with 4-inch thick chips and the ‘house tartare’ of garlic and smoked-paprika aioli. So different, yet again this round’s winner, it was followed closely by the 200g rib-eye steak, grilled to perfection (that means it was served medium) with a smoked paprika butter and roasted root vegetables. The chicken piccata, three ‘panko and parmesan’-crumbed chicken breasts served with a ratatouille skewer, got our bronze medal.

All images © Blowfish.

All images © Blowfish.

All images © Blowfish.

And the prawns? Delicious! Served as a steaming mound of 20, they looked amazing with a side of bright purple, orangey red and bright white wok-fried veg to add a bit of crunch and colour.

Brilliant brûlée

By then full to the gills, we simply couldn't pass up dessert, so went for the ‘famous house-baked cheesecake laced with a passion fruit reduction’, the traditional chocolate brownie, served with vanilla ice cream and a ribbon of delicious chocolate sauce drizzled on top, as well as the espresso creme brûlée garnished with lime praline, different to the usual burnt caramel topping but just as delightful, with real espresso in place of some of the recipe’s usual cream. Consider my coffee-loving soul in heaven.

How do I know all this if I ate just three of the meals myself? Well, we loved it all so much that we tried each other's meal, switching forkful for spoonful as we went. And, after much deliberation, our choice would be the calamari (either the spicy starter or the softly crispy mains) and the passionate passionfruit-topped cheesecake for dessert. But then we didn’t even try the Roquefort and pecan nut gnocchi, Thai chicken wings, creamy chicken and mushroom penne pasta, ‘new-style’ hake and chips or the ‘sweet and savoury’ Camembert-and-preserved fig phyllo parcel. Hmm. Maybe a four-person review isn’t so excessive, after all...

At R149 for two courses and R199 for three, this will go down in the memory banks as one of my best meals of Winter 2016. Click here for more information on Blowfish specials, such as the R99 prawn special.

*Leigh Andrews’ table were guests of Blowfish. The Winter special menu runs for the rest of the month and the Thursday prawn special runs from 12:30 to 22:00 on Thursdays until 29 September 2016 due to popular demand! Call 021 556 5464 or email az.oc.tnaruatserhsifwolb@ofni to make your booking.