Lunch @ Die Dam Huis, Melkbos, 20.08.11.

The sun decided to show it’s golden face for one day this weekend, Saturday was a beautiful day on the West Coast. Staying out in Blouberg for the weekend, we hoped to find a quaint seaside restaurant. After trying Eden on the Bay and as full and shiny as it was, eating pseudo Italian at the beach just isn’t my vibe. I was hoping for something a little more ‘beach authentic’. Not being a seafood eater, this is always tricky to find! However, still hopeful we moved on and continued the drive up to Melkbos. Knowing that there is a Spur in Melkbos (if all else fails) but this seemed a waste of such a beautiful day.

After driving through the relaxed family orientated beach town, we decided to park and take a walk. At least fresh air and a beautiful view were guaranteed for lunch. This was the best thing we could have done as we stumbled upon Die Dam Huis – History on a Fork! Built in an old Cape Dutch beach house typical of West Coast architecture, THIS is what I was looking for!

The waitress was very professional and polite making us feel especially welcome. The menus are presented in little story books which whisked us away to a special place, this lunch was going to be fun! We ordered rock shandys which were presented in 500ml glasses. This is fantastic as one can order one for the meal which will last throughout. 330mls always seems too little but to have 2 is too much. The menu went from simple toasted sandwiches to a burger (which looked AMAZING, toasted flat bread with ALL the trimmings) to the more complex such as Eisbein, steak, etc. I ordered the pork, which was served with homemade sour kraut. After seeing the neighbouring table’s food we felt like someone in the kitchen gave a damn about food and we were right.

Upon receiving lunch, I was really pleasantly surprised at the presentation (rolled with stuffing), potato wedges, creamed spinach (with corn, such a South African touch!), mustard and sour kraut. Absolutely delicious. Although pork with salted caramel or some sweet accompaniment is delicious, it’s a bit stock standard when it comes to pork so having a pork dish that was more savory, although on the hearty subtle side, was just what I felt like. The meat was beautifully tender, mustard and sour kraut were wonderful but the pork was not smoked so balancing the flavours is more of a delicate exercise. (I had no issue working with this!)

The other meal of the day was a t-bone steak. Although flavourful, the restaurant doesn’t seem to have a grill or grill pan so this was pan fried which affected the taste and texture of the meat. Not bad, very tasty but just take note if you’re after this flame grilled regular steak presentation so common in South Africa, this won’t be found here.

I didn’t manage to stick my head into the main restaurant but I would definitely return simply on the sunny lunch and hearty food and service we received. A mixed selection of ages can be expected of the other customers and the liquor license only runs until 5:30pm. Over all it was a delicious meal (pork was the winner of the day) and reasonably priced (R89 for the pork / R110 for 500g t-bone). After lunch we strolled to the beach kiosk and enjoyed a chocolate soft-serve in the late afternoon sun. A perfect Saturday afternoon spent out of the city bowl but not too far from home.