A little taste of Texas at The Hickory Shack

 9 August 2025

 

THE HICKORY SHACK

18 Hiddingh Avenue, Bergvliet, Cape Town

 

We arrived in a torrential downpour and left in a torrential downpour and stuffed our faces with a sufficient elegancy of an approximation of Texas barbecue in-between. 

 

Von-Mari, her parents and I had a less than stellar experience at the original Hickory Shack in the Elgin area in July 2017 where we were served substandard food at rip off prices and vowed never to return. The name became a byword for overpromising and underdelivering yet not being ashamed to charge exorbitantly, hence our trepidation when our friends invited us to join them at the similarly named establishment in Bergvliet.

 

Apparently, this outlet (there’s another one in Simon’s Town) has been in business for about a year but my guess is that they took over another establishment and retained the furnishings and fittings, as the space does emphasise the shack-like nature of the enterprise. Simple and basic, down to the menus on blackboards.

There’s a large, covered “outside” area suitable for warm weather with  tables inside  close to the long bar counter and service area for nights like tonight.

 

One can order a la carte, from a wide variety of items or simply get the “BBQ tasting platter for 2” at R360,00 which is quite a bargain given the amount of food one gets.

Voni drank red wine and I had a glass of Charlie’s Brewery Lager, based in Sun Valley or thereabouts.

The others drank a variety of soft and alcoholic drinks.

 

We were three couples and we all elected to try the tasting platter (i.e. 3 platters between the 6 of us).

 

My takeaway after the meal is that I don’t care for long, slow cooked brisket because it’s too fibrous and too dry for my liking, but Voni absolutely adored it and thought it was the best item on the platter. I can’t fault the cooking, it just ain’t for me; whilst she could happily eat a whole heap of the soft, succulent meat.

 

The spicy “Texas links” sausage was the highlight for me, along with the excellent creamy coleslaw. The sausage is firm, flavourful and with just enough chilli bite to be entertaining.

 

The elongated chicken wings impaled on a wooden skewer were okay though perhaps a tad overcooked (though Voni would no doubt disagree; we have different perspectives on how much chicken should be cooked) but still tasty. (Edit; Voni did love the tasty chicken skewers and yes, it was perfectly cooked and not dry at all).

 

The fries were excellent.

 

It might have something to do with the fact that I got them last, but the ribs were the least appealing thing on the platter. They were also, for me, overcooked, lacked succulence, had a texture similar to the brisket and there was little flavour to the meat.  Not great.

 

It seems that the smoked cheese cake is a signature dessert here and three of us ordered it. It’s a quite nice smooth, creamy and not overly sweet  cheesecake with a hint of lemon and a subtle whiff of smokiness, which was too much for one member of the party and far too little for my taste. I do like a smoked cheese and if you want to do it, go big or go home.

Von-Mari and one other shared a portion of two smores, which were not spectacular. She didn’t like the strawberry flavoured marshmallow and would’ve preferred vanilla, the cookie at the bottom was slightly burnt and there wasn’t enough chocolate sauce on it. However, it’s a generous portion, with a big scoop of good vanilla ice cream too, and ideal for two people.

 

We had a very fun evening with lots of laughter and generous portions of tasty, rustic food. A very different experience to the one in Elgin and it’s quite likely that we’d to try some of the other options on offer.

 

Also to mention, the manager was very attentive, funny and an excellent sales person!