Sunday lunch at Blacksmith's Kitchen

 18 February 2024

 

BLACKSMITH’S KITCHEN

Bo Langstraat, Groenvlei, Paarl

 

On the way out to Paarl, I commented to the wife that we’re probably going to find a menu where, as is customary nowadays, old-fashioned common or garden starters are tarted up as “tapas” and in the context of Blacksmith’s claiming to be a Mediterranean restaurant, that, specifically, we’d find “tapas” that previously identified as “mezze.”

 

I was prescient. The menu does indeed offer mezze favourites such as hummus, Greek (as opposed to Turkish) kofta and spanakopita (amongst others) as tapas.  

 

Trendy is trendy, eh?

 

The only thing truly connecting Blacksmith’s to the Mediterranean, though, is the supposed Mediterranean climate of the Western Cape.  The menu is basically pizza, burgers and standard grills, with fish, calamari, pasta and risotto and I suppose the latter two, plus some elements on some dishes, qualify the Mediterranean tag.

Oh, and there is an olive grove along the access road.

 

On the whole, it’s just another low-key, relaxed eatery offering the unadventurous food most people probably want to eat in large portions and at decent prices. All you can hope for is that kitchen staff pay attention to what they do and at least do it well. 

 

The setting is a partly old, partly new, Cape Dutch style building, perched on the slope of a hill overlooking the absolutely picturesque green vineyards and trees of the valley below. A truly spectacular view.

 

There are tables on a covered patio overlooking the valley, in the roomy, cool interior and at the back of the premises. The style is modern bistro with an old-fashioned feel.

 

We were a family group of 9 people, including four teenagers, and the crowd ordered diversely. There were, amongst others, pizzas, chicken wings, pasta, a burger and a wild mushroom risotto.  

 

I hardly ever order pork belly at restaurants anymore because one never knows what you’ll get but I thought I’d risk a throw of the dice on the roulette wheel of life today and went for it.

  

The “traditional” pork belly (R195) came with a good amount of tasty, al dente vegetables and an extra length king-size bed of smooth potato puree. The meat was well cooked, succulent and flavourful, with good, crisp crackling. The advertised hoisin sweet chilli reduction wasn’t reduced enough for true depth of flavour and there was far too little of it. 

 

This dish isn’t in the all-time Top Ten list but it was considerably more satisfactory than most over the past couple of years.  

 

My dessert was an absolute triumph of a pecan nut tart with an excellent crust, oodles of pecan nut and not cloyingly sweet.

 

I was  a happy diner.

 

The wife, not so much. 

 

She started with the quite delectable grilled Patagonian calamari starter (R89) and went on to a chicken and pesto pasta dish (R145). 

 

The latter was not delectable. Although the chicken was well-cooked and flavourful, the pasta was over-cooked and there was far, far too much pesto and once she’d eaten the chicken and some pasta, before abandoning the plate, there was a seriously disconcerting, substantial oily residue in the bottom of the deep plate.

 

I don’t know why restaurants believe they should overwhelm and beat the pasta into submission with egregiously large quantities of pesto, which is best served as a mere light coating on the pasta.

 

This dish was worse than most, though.

 

I have little discernment and was happy to finish the wife’s main course and though my issue wasn’t really with the pasta, the oil-diluted pesto was flavourless and it was a challenge to fork the paste to the mouth without spilling oil on my lovely golf shirt.

 

From a quick poll around the table, everybody else was quite happy with their respective dishes. These are just a brief selection; I couldn't photograph all the dishes.

 

The wife had a mango cocktail, I drank two crisp sparkling Kudu Lagers and we finished with coffee.

 

Our share of the bill came to R843,00.

 

The service was efficient and friendly, the food (except for that pasta dish) was good, the coffee was good and the scenic setting is quite splendid. It’s a lovely destination in the Paarl area, for a relaxed lunch with a view.

 

Unless oil is your spoil, avoid the chicken pesto pasta.