The Company’s Garden Restaurant

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

Reviewed by Lily Pienaar

This spot is so utterly lovely, surrounded by history and beautiful greenery, that it's hard to have a bad time here. But wow, the dish I had on Sunday really tested my resolve. Billed as a calamari salad with feta, grilled vegetables, greens and creme fraiche, it sounded delicious and full of texture and freshness. Boy, was I wrong. The calamari was tender enough, but I wasn't sure how it was cooked, it having no discernible flavour and lacking the scorch marks of a nice smoky baptism in the pan. The grilled veg were nowhere to be seen on initial inspection - halfway through I found scraps of some hard aubergine and zucchini, but not enough to warrant being mentioned on the menu. The 'greens' were just loads of frilly lettuce and there was no creme fraiche; instead, the lot was drenched in Greek salad dressing from a bottle. For ±R80, too! My friends' meals all looked - and tasted - delicious, so I had a major case of order envy. I will be back, but know better now and will stick to cake, scones or burgers. Hopefully it was just a bad day that they sent something out of the kitchen missing half its ingredients.