Eating Southern Cape, part 2 : Bellevue Restaurant at The Village Lodge

1 June 2022

 

Bellevue Restaurant

at The Village Lodge, Blesbok Road, Klein Brak River 

 

For the second fam lunch a full strength cohort of 11 gathered at the Bellevue restaurant at The Village Lodge, part of Botlierskop game reserve in the Great Brak River area.

 

All things being equal, and if one uses a GPS,  the restaurant is only about 25 minutes by car from Hartenbos, yet for some inexplicable reason our journey took the best part of 50 minutes on a circuitous route through the platteland. Driving through the countryside is all fun and games until your famished belly starts making funny noises.  I must add that the wife wasn’t the driver.

 

The restaurant is housed in a building that is partly ancient (an exposed brick wall, protected by Perspex is a feature) and partly hyper modern country lodge with vaulted ceilings, and plenty of wood, leather couches for lounging and all manner of stuffed animal heads against the wall. A giant elephant head with wicked tusks loomed over our table (it looked fake). Huge windows all around provide natural light at the front yet the rear of the interior is rather dimly lit.

 

There are also tables on the open, covered stoep (not suitable for cold days like today), a large green lawn and a play area for kids.

 

Our party of 11 was the largest group here today, with only one other party, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves but, once we’d eaten, it seemed that the staff would’ve liked us to leave earlier rather than later.  I must admit that we ordered after 14h00, because various members of the group lingered at the far end of the restaurant, idly chatting and watching the kids play outside. By the time we were done eating, it was mid-afternoon.

The menu is quite extensive with starters, pizzas, grills, burgers, other mains, and desserts.

 

Prudently, bearing in mind the culinary schedule for the week, the wife and I went light on lunch and had two starters each as main course. Both of us (and the mother-in-law) had the pulled pork nachos (R85)

, plus the crumbed calamari (R90)

for the wife and three potato and corn filled samosas (R80) for me.

The wife asked for fries with her calamari, which was never served yet added to the bill, which cheekiness the eagle eyed wife spotted when she checked the bill, and removed.

 

The nachos were deliciously decadent, with crisp tortilla chips, lashings of cheese and flavourful pork. The calamari was perfectly cooked and supremely tasty. The samoosas had a thin, light, crisp crust that contrasted well with the creamy filling and the accompanying guacamole.

 

The nachos  were probably the best savoury dish I ate at the three restaurant lunches this week, with Butterfly Blu’s loaded waffle as the best sweet dish.

 

The other adults ate cannelloni with a Bolognese sauce (R145), an oak smoked salmon trout salad (R115), Asian style pork belly on noodles (R195), a cheese and tomato braaibroodjie (R35) plus a starter portion of Springbok carpaccio (R90) and a Watermill burger salad (R145), and the three young ‘uns feasted on tagliatelle with a Bolognese sauce (R85), macaroni and cheese (R70) and chicken strips and chips (R85).

 

It took a while for the food to be served but everything  came to the table at the same time, and by all accounts everyone had a splendid lunch.

 

The service had been good until we had our meals and then dropped off markedly to the extent, though four of us had coffee, we had to forego dessert because no-one ever returned to our table to make suitable enquiries regarding placating our sweet teeth. When it was time to leave, I had to look for a waitress to ask for the bill.

 

The bill (including all drinks) came to R2510,00 with tip.

 

The Village Lodge is considerably closer to Hartenbos than Butterfly Blu at Brenton-on-Sea and for this reason alone is well worthwhile returning to and, all things considered, I preferred the country lodge ambience of the Bellevue restaurant to the sweeping sea views of Butterfly Blu.  The grounds of the restaurant are also much more kid friendly. Unfortunately, Bellevue doesn’t allow pets.