Chopsticks & Table

19 November 2019

CHOPSTICKS & TABLE

50 New Church Street, Cape Town

The younger goddaughter co-opted our house for a kitchen tea or stork party (or one of those get togethers that young women do) for one of her mates this afternoon and early evening, which meant that I wouldn’t have much opportunity to prep and cook supper unless I was prepared to do it amidst the platters, chatter, balloons and swathes of discarded gift wrap, so the wife and I decided on an early date night supper, seeing as how we hardly ever have the opportunity of eating out.

The restaurant building, a Cape Dutch relic, painted a very deep blue, in a street of more modern buildings, with the Fire & Ice hotel further down the street, looks a  tad dubious from outside but the exterior belie the funky yet homey  interior that’s quite simplistically furnished  yet retains some warmth because of its old-fashioned wood and not modern, sleek bistro. There’s lounging type seating on the long stoep, with two separate dining areas on the inside, each of them about the width of the building. We sat in the front room, with banquette seating against the outside wall, and a mix of four seater and larger tables. Decoration is minimalistic and there’s a stylised Table Mountain logo against the one side wall, which reveals how the restaurant is named.

Each table has a central area with a stainless steel lids covering, variously, a huge gas burner and the small gas cylinder driving the burner. These are for those who want to experience the Korean barbecue because you cook your own meat (beef or pork) right there. No more can you complain that the chef didn’t cook your steak to your exacting specifications.

Who recalls the Mongolian Barbecue in Regent Street back in the mid- to late Eighties, where you selected your portions of meat, noodles and vegetables and watched the chef cook everything on a giant cooking surface before scraping it all into your eating bowl?  If I understand the explanation of the Korean barbecues correctly, only the meat must be cooked (by you) and is accompanied by a variety of side dishes and sauces.

Chopsticks & Table promises the “taste of Korea” yet caters to the popular taste bud with plentiful sushi too, in fact, an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet for R199 per person. Other than that, there are Korean barbecue “sets” as well as individual dishes, all of these with interesting names the waitress must translate to the likes of us, although there is an English description for the food as well as a handy, small, full-colour photograph of the dish. 

The good news was that this is not one of those establishments that  only stock craft beer; the bad news was that earlier today, allegedly, it had run out of my favourite lager and could only offer me beers I refuse to drink.  In a huff, I drank no alcohol with my meal and wet my parched throat at the end with ice tea.  

On the other hand, wine by the glass was only R38,00 though it was box wine. When the wife enquired what the provenance of the white wine was, the waitress brought the two boxes (Du Toitskloof sauvignon blanc or Robertson chardonnay) to the table. The wife chose the sauvignon blanc. 

Interesting how,  if you order a bottle of fancy wine, the waiter or sommelier brings it to the table and pours a few droplets for the patron to taste but when you order wine by the glass, it’s brought to the table already poured (in this case, from the box J). I guess it’d be awkward hovering over the table trying to aim the spout at the glass and concentrating on decanting the correct volume.

The  wife, obviously not keen on Korean barbecue and perhaps cost conscious, opted for the sushi buffet and attempted to persuade me to do the same. I was there for Korean food and wasn’t keen on doing the barbecue thing on my own, so my eye fell on the Haemul-Pajeon, described as a Korean style seafood pancake made with “Calamary, Mussel, Prawn, Cabbage, Onion Carrot & Spring onion.” (R145)

There was also enough potato in the mix to make me think of the potato tortillas the Spanish eat for breakfast, and the seafood mix reminded me of the shrimp  omelettes we ate in Cadiz, and,  in looking at it in  this way, the dish was not challengingly Oriental or exotic. I liked it but there seemed to be a lack of seasoning, requiring a soy dipping sauce. A bit of chilli heat would’ve been welcome.

The wife over-ordered on the sushi and tempura prawns, and a lovely array of food it was too. About halfway through she’d had enough (so much for all-you-can-eat) and fed me the rest. The sushi was freshly made and excellent. That’s my view; the wife thought it was average. 

he tempura on the prawns was lightly crisp, with a brittle crunch. I liked them very much.

Before we received our main courses, the chef brought us two morsels of carpaccio-thin beef wrapped around rice (similar to salmon nigiri except this was beef nigiri) and quickly cooked the beef with a blow torch, for the effect of warm biltong, which were rather lovely provided one dipped the rice part into the soy sauce for some seasoning.

Chopsticks & Table offers no desserts.

The bill, for the food, two glasses of wine and one can of iced tea, came to R420 before tip.

We were very early, and as far as I know, only two other groups of patrons came in while we were there.  One was a trio of tourists who took a table close to us. The spouse of one quizzed the waitress intently and at length about the wheat and (if I heard correctly) yeast content of the dishes and accompaniments because his wife is a celiac and hugely intolerant of wheat. Must be a nightmare to ensure that your food is safe to eat when you  go out and overhearing this conversation once more made me thankful that we can answer in the negative when asked whether we have particular dietary requirements or allergies. When I don’t eat something it’s because I don’t want to and not because  there’s a fatal risk.