One always gains at Île de Païn

 14 June 2024

 

ÎLE DE PAïN

Thesen Island, Knysna

 

Île de Païn (“IDP”) is an almost mandatory stop-over when we visit Knysna, whether we stay at, say, the Turbine Hotel, also on Thesen Island, or just pass through, like today when we popped in for lunch to break our journey to the Crags Country Lodge north of Plettenberg Bay where we would stay overnight in celebration of our 16^th wedding anniversary.

One cannot book a table at IDP and we arrived with some trepidation. It’s a very popular eatery and we expected, seeing as how the schools closed for the winter holiday today, that it might be packed, especially in the sought after outside area, as it was a beautifully warm day. The interior space is elegant, sophisticated and not to be sneezed at but it’s life affirming to enjoy a marvellous June day tucking into your nosh in the open under a tree.

Fortune smiled on us. When we arrived, the outside space wasn’t crowded at all and we quickly found a good table at the edge of the area.

Many of the lunch dishes have “quaint, quirky” names like “sort of Caesar salad,” “the no grainer,” “guac ‘n bowl,” “me su yummy cauli” and “pulled porkey bowl.” There are various toasted sandwiches, flatbread “pissas,” burgers and hearty plates too. All of them read as enticing and potentially delicious and, as one can expect, the breads here are superior.

We kicked off with coffee (the wife hadn’t had any yet and could almost feel what it’s like going cold turkey) and then I chose the “me so yummy cauli” (R155)

because I didn’t want to stuff my face, in anticipation of the slap-up dinner we expected at Crags Country Lodge while the wife went for an old favourite, the IDP toasted ham and cheese on focaccia (R98).

My dish consisted of warm cauliflower salad on a bean purée and miso marinated oyster mushrooms with a sprinkle of herbed pistachio and lemon topping. Have you ever seen a grown man salivating in public?

Needless to say, we chowed down with mucho gusto. My salad was delightfully fresh and flavourful and the toasted slices of focaccia was thing of splendid beauty. The simple things made simply good.

Throwing caution to the wind, we ordered Aperol Spritz for two and toasted our everlasting love and the joy of being out and about in the Garden Route.  It was our first taste of this refreshing cocktail and the consensus was that it wouldn’t be the last.

Then we moved on to dessert, which was a baked custard tart with fruit topping (R48) for the wife and an apple turnover (R35) for me and had final coffees. Big yum.

The bill, including drinks and food, came to R646,00 before tip.

We may be picky but there are only two restaurants on Thesen Island where we really feel comfortable and whose food we rate highly. One is the Island Café at the Turbine Hotel and IDP is the other. Apparently, the owners of IDP have opened a sister restaurant at the nearby The Lofts boutique hotel, which we’ll probably investigate on our next sojourn on the island.

The outside setting of IDP is glorious on a lovely day, the service is cheerful and efficient and the food has been consistently superb over our many visits.