Elegant dining at the V&A's Life Grand Café

In the space formerly occupied by Hildebrand and Alba Lounge and originally known as the Waterfront post office, now resides the Life Grand Café, offering Instagram perfect views of the Waterfront and harbour with spacious dining options both inside and outside as well as private rooms available for group bookings upstairs.

Unique interiors

On entering, one is immediately struck by the elegant design elements that respectfully reference the history of the building. Combining a mix of pale wood, bursts of soft blue and arresting lighting, Life Grand Café is the furthest thing from your typical mall eatery. I mean just the bathrooms alone are an interior design masterpiece. This makes sense when one considers that the Life brand aims to create “luxurious and innovative Interior Design, Architecture and Experiences in exotic locations and urban centres.” And has been doing so since 1999, conceptualising and creating over 35 restaurants in over 11 countries.

Luckily the food follows suit when it comes to style. We were set up with three starters plus three full main portions and rounded it all off with two desserts to share. Feeling well greedy yet happy to sample all the plates presented to us, we pretty much managed to polish everything off. Detox starting today!

Next stop flavour city

Starters included beef carpaccio with fennel atop crisp Dukkah phyllo, black rice crispy soft shell crab sushi with cream cheese and toasted coconut and a vegetarian ceviche with avocado, marinated tomatoes, pickled ginger and Chinese seven spice. These three dishes were by far the highlight of the evening for me. Punchy and zingy flavours yet beautifully light and fresh, I’m drooling at the memory.

For mains we sampled the grilled tuna with tomato elderflower gazpacho and a yuzu salsa, the eight-hour braised belly pork belly with whipped potatoes and the linguine with chilli and prawns (this is usually served with red lobster, however, there was none available at the time).

The tuna was cooked perfectly and the cucumber dressing kept this dish light and fresh, a perfect option for banters and calorie counters. However, I think my favourite dish was the linguine. Give me carbs any day. It was rich and silky and incredibly moreish and the prawns were a welcome substitution. On the only real down note the pork belly was a bit of a missed opportunity. Flavour 10/10, however, the crackling wasn’t crackly at all and in my mind it is sacrilege to serve pork belly without a satisfying crunch.

Meringue moments

On to the sweet endings, for dessert we were served wonderfully creamy and satisfyingly crackable Crème Brule and the sweet and zingy Eaton Mess. Meringue covered thumbs up for both dishes.

The Life Grand Café successfully blends an extensive menu of bright and tasty food, stylish décor and a vibrant atmosphere, making it a perfect place for a special night out.

Life Grand Café is situated at 2 Pierhead Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.
Phone: 021 205 1902
Hours: 9AM–11PM

www.lifegrandcafe.com