Set on the Blues side of the Camps Bay strip, Paul Kovensky
has opened yet another beautiful restaurant. Zenzero is inviting and simple with that awesome crashing waves and smell-of-the-sea location.
You won’t fall off your surfboard with foodie rapture but it’s good food with a great view.
The food
What has really impressed me here is the simplicity of the
menu. They are getting down to basic Italian. Hey, that’s what Italian food is, right? Simple.
My favourites:
Crayfish pasta –
Fresh tomato, garlic, basil and
crayfish. Really, order this when you go, it bursts with flavour.
Linefish caponata – I love the flavours of caponata (olives, peppers, tomato,
aubergine) and the fish is wrapped and steamed in a bag which you open at the
table. Split the bag, close your eyes and let yourself be transported to a
little island in Sicily.
Zenzero steak – Perfectly cooked fillet and pepper sauce. Simple,
delicious.
Chocolate mousse cake – Yum yum yum.
We also had a humongous prawn platter which was ladled with
massive prawns done in different ways, so if that’s your bag, you can’t go
wrong.
The drinks
There is a stunning cocktail menu with gorgeous flavours with the
colours of the rainbow, another Camps Bay must-have and with the sea
rolling out in front of you, who can refuse?
The wine list: Our wine ed. Cathy Marston says, “This is a real old-fashioned, very traditional wine list
with lots of well-known names and very little interest or inspiration
altogether. It looks like it was put together by somebody who eats out a lot but
doesn’t necessarily drink wine.
Not bad mark-ups but nearly all the wines
chosen are expensive ones which makes for an expensive list – nothing under
R100 anywhere. Durbanville Hills obviously sponsor it so all the budget choices are
their’s – it’s not necessarily bad, just not a great amount of variety and choice. There are no vintages either.”
Price range
The obvious things are quite expensive (prawn platter R199 and
crayfish R250), but you can have a great meal that won’t dent your credit card.
Starters between R40 – R80, mains R70 – R150 and desserts R30-R50. Not bad for ‘the
strip’.
All in all, a happy belly and starry-eyed from being so near
the sea on a glittering evening.