Cowboys & Cooks, De Waterkant

14 December 2019

COWBOYS & COOKS

4 Liddle street, De Waterkant, Cape Town

With a name like Cowboys & Cooks one has visions of steaming refried beans dished up in battered cast iron skillet and cooked over a mesquite fire in the shadow of one of those massive sandstone buttes of Monument Valley in Arizona, with a herd of steers loitering nearby.

Yee and also ha!

As it turns out, this fantasy isn’t apt

I must say that we were quite impressed with the very upmarket look and style of the restaurant when we walked in, and through, to our table in a rear corner.

The restaurant is quite large and very elegantly appointed with greenery, dark wood floors, low ceilings, beautiful light fittings and tables draped with crisp, white tablecloths and laid with quality glassware. It looks like the kind of place where one should dress for dinner but, this being Cape Town and it being summer (albeit a chilly evening), clearly very few people felt like it.

The huge, street facing windows face Somerset Road and Cape Quarters and this is unfortunately not the most entertaining of views, unless you like street life, such as it is after dark in that area. The seating along the central interior is banquette style, back to back, with the standard tables along the windows and, on the other side of the space, between banquettes and the open kitchen and very lovely, old-fashioned bar. It must be one of those places where one can hang out at the bar, not eating, or having an aperitif before heading to your table.

Impressively, though the joint was jumping by 20h30, with a full house of diners, the sound dampening was so effective that the noise was not intrusive.

The service from the white jacketed waiting staff was impeccable.

The menu is impressive, with a good selections of starters, sea food, grills, light meals and vegan meals. If vegan options on a grill house menu is not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is. Previously, there  might have been a couple of token vegetarian  choices but zero vegan.

The wife and I are on a health kick right now, clearing the decks for the festive feasting, so to speak, and eschewed alcohol and drank water instead, although she did also have cola tonic and soda water.

Her choice of starter was the retro avo Ritz (R89)

and, of course, this one was deconstructed. She thought the avocado was just not quite ripe enough for the necessary unctuousness and flavour and that the quantity of prawns could have been more generous; but was otherwise happy with the dish.

My starter was three jalapeño poppers (R68) served with a lovely mayonnaise type sauce. The dish was good, with a lovely crisp, crunchy coating, some gooey stuff inside and a light zing of chilli.

For mains we both chose the yellowtail (line fish of the day) (R210) with vegetables. The dish comes with garlic mash, and one can also ask for fries. We decided not to have the carbs and opted for a side salad instead, which was ample.

When the  good-sized portion, dressed in leaves and with a green oil drizzle on the side, was set down in front of me, I was reminded of being served similar dishes, or seeing similar dishes on cooking competitions  like Masterchef, where the fish is accompanied by bits and bobs of vegetables, schmears, drizzles and reductions, to make an interesting  looking and more substantial  plate of food. The predilection for serving  a single slab of steak or fish on a plate, with sides to be ordered separately, has always smacked of a scam to me, especially considering what one pays for the piece of fish.

The wife thought her fish was slightly overcooked and my take on it was that it was just on the cusp of being overcooked but we both agreed that it lacked seasoning and should have had a decent sauce. I enjoyed it though, because I like yellow tail. The wife is not a fan of fish and this wasn’t her best dish ever. The fresh garden salad was excellent.

Only I had dessert and I ordered the chocolate bread and butter pudding (R65), after confirming that it wasn’t a damned multi-element deconstruction, and it was  probably the highlight of the meal, with a lovely chunk of soft, slightly gooey, sweet pudding sat on a lake of chocolatey crème anglaise.