Supreme socialising at VIXI Social House

 28 May 2024

 

VIXI Social House

49 Bree Street, Cape Town

 

Aptly named, the establishment was already buzzing by 18h30 when we checked in and fully charged 2 hours later with a background soundtrack of, first, club music and then disco classics. There’s a DJ thing going on here on the weekend, which must make it big fun for the hip, cool ones if dining in a disco is a desirable date. 

 

This is the place where I had “Turkish eggs” (aka çilbir) for the first time in 2019; typically, zhoozhed up for non-Turkish tastes by all manner of additions that serve to bulk up an otherwise simple, sparse dish. It was only when I googled “Turkish eggs,” that I realised what it is.

 

(Mulberry & Prince and Florentin serve the best çilbir I’ve had in Cape Town restaurants.) 

 

The wife had long wanted to come here for the enticing Mediterranean cuisine on the menu but had no taste for live DJ action on weekends and so the night before a public holiday (election day) seemed ideal for a date night.

 

As mentioned, we arrived early, already after dark, and stepped into a large, festively lit, boisterous restaurant / night spot / deli, a kind of anomaly on an otherwise quiet part of Bree Street though, in contrast, the traffic on Strand Street, both pedestrian and vehicular, was hectic too. We know this because our table was at a window looking out onto the street. 

 

The Cape Town night was alive and electric!

 

Feeling festive and frisky, we kicked off with cocktails before studying the extensive menu.  The cocktails were so good we had more for maximum effect, one “Blushing Bubbles” and three “Groovy Grapefruit”

For a change, the starters are mezze and not tapas, though there are a couple of typical tapas items, such as patatas bravas.  Many countries have a Mediterranean seashore and the cuisines shouldn’t have to be just Greek, Turkish, Levant or even North African.

 

Our first foray was into laffa bread, white bait and muhammara. The white bait wasn’t quite the tiny fish we’d expected and are used to. The sardine-sized fish weren’t crisp enough for the wife but for me they were delicious. 

The muhammara looked and tasted somewhat different to the dish we’d had at Sloppy Sam a couple of weeks ago, with larger chunks of nut and an oilier base, but it was very delicious. The thin, dry, flaky laffa bread was new to us, and where I thought it went well with the muhammara, the wife wasn’t as thrilled. She would’ve preferred a softer, more pliable flatbread, like the Turkish flatbreads we’ve come to appreciate.

 

At this juncture, the wife decided to pursue a journey along the mezze path and ordered patatas bravas, beef carpaccio and mezza bread, while my choice was calf’s liver on potato puree (fegato alla vene).  

 

Both of us were mildly surprised at the size of the portions. I’d foresworn more mezze because I didn’t want to overeat and wanted a main course dish and the wife thought she’d have a relatively small, light meal based on starters.

 

Boy, was that ever an epic fail.

 

The carpaccio and patatas braves were clearly intended for sharing, I’d say, and share we did; at least, the potatoes, because they were too much for the wife, utterly lip-smacking delicious as they were. The wife declared emphatically that these were the best patatas bravas she’d ever eaten and we’d had some doozies, especially in Spain.  The exteriors were crisp, the interiors delicately smooth and the spicing was spot on.  A triumph.

 

The wife thought that the carpaccio, prettily plated and with pecorino shavings, capers, mushrooms, pickled radish, wild rocker and garlic aioli, was okay; it didn’t blow her away.  

 

The strips of calf’s liver were served on a mountain of smooth, light, creamy, yummy potato puree that was enough to be the foundation for one of those projected man-made islands off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The meat and onions were deeply flavourful, tender and juicy. Nothing fancy and hugely satisfying. 

 

Despite our conviction that we’d most probably had too much to eat, we ordered dessert. The wife ordered the apple malva pudding. My choice was tiramisu. The server warned me that the latter was made from scratch (that ubiquitous ingredient) and would take a while but even so, the two desserts were served at the same time without undue delay.

 

The texture of the tiramisu was unlike any I’d had before. Usually, it has a firm yet delicate texture because it’s been allowed to set before serving and is probably made in batches well in advance of service.

VIXI’s tiramisu was warmer than room temperature, with still crisp lady fingers in a loose structure of soft cream and with warm coffee that “bled out” onto the plate, as if the dessert were a steak that hadn’t been sufficiently rested after cooking.  It verged on being a deconstructed tiramisu. It was lovely though, with all the tastes and flavours of tiramisu present and correct. 

 

The malva pudding was a thing of beauty too, with the heavenly combination of malva and apple and perfectly made crème anglaise.

The bill, with a bottle of water, drinks and food, came to R1560,00 before tip.

 

We ate splendidly and just that smidgen too much, the service was friendly and efficient and the ambience was superlatively merry.  A good date night.