I stopped at Cafe François at the Scarab Village on my way through to the airport on Sunday. I had the last of the club steaks and whilst it was not melt in the mouth tender it actually tasted real. The way steaks are supposed to taste. A healthy lump of meat, a hint of sinew here and there and juicy fat. One that require a sharp steak knife and a certain amount of dexterity to work it all off the bone. It was tasty and good honest food. Nothing fancy, not politically correct, nothing pretentious about it at all. Just good honest fare which I grudgingly ordered after finding out that there was no Middle Eastern lamb sandwich which I normally do. It also came a poor third to the lamb roast which I favour on Sunday on the odd occasion we get across there on the weekend and which they didn’t have either.

This then got me to thinking about restaurants that are difficult to forget. I was having coffee with Tanya from Workshop Interiors who started up and ran Ouzeri (sp) in Joburg. I must have been one of her very first clients at the time and unfortunately the restaurant became so very successful I soon ran out of tables. However one thing led to another and this started me thinking about the trinchado and calamari stew at a Palahota in what I think was Claim St. Then there was Braai & Bake in Maritzburg the Pie Cart and a little coffee shop in a side road that did mushroom and bacon rolls. Cape Town for me is still wet misty nights at the Harbour Cafe on the docks, the little trattoria that did a bubbling lasagna and the Magic Sandwich in Sea Point which always had a sign outside saying “Gone to the beach” or “Gone fishing” and finally “Gone away”. Not forgetting the Brass Bell and Kalkies in the Kalk Bay harbour. There was the Greek in RockySt, the Mom and Pop Italian in Corlett Dive, the Fishmonger in Grayston, the Tent in Rivonia and Georges Chicken at the cafe at the Bryanston shops. The roast beef rolls on the mezzanine floor at Sandton City, crostinni at the Italian at the top of Rivonia, Tapas on Thesen island and the Unplugged Kitchen in Broederstroom. Finally there was the Hartford Hotel and an informal German country restaurant out at Lanseria where I learnt to enjoy spatzlie.

Does one still find those sort of restaurants today? Where can you get good honest food besides Cafe Francois?