Gold Restaurant

May has been my Africa month! Just before spending 3 days at Gondwana Game Reserve, I was invited to Gold Restaurant, no longer housed in Strand street but rather in the old Trinity location. It was one of the first cold and rainy days in Cape Town for the winter season, as I parked my car on the black shiny streets and made my way into the restaurant.

I was greeted by a warm and welcoming doorman as well as hostesses, who kindly poured me a glass of bubbly upon entry.

I was then ushered upstairs to join the drumming circle. To be honest, I really wasn’t in the moodf or this hippy dippy vibe. Too many crap drummers at festivals has put me off the art of drumming, so I wasn’t too thrilled to have to participate. However, I had sat down and joined because – what else was I going to do?! (Here’s my Oh-God-Why smile.)

We had two fun instructors, one South African and one Congolese man. They were really funny and helped everyone warm up. I’ll be honest, we all sucked. And I mean everyone, not just the white people! But their sense of humour and patience helped everyone get into the groove, relax and just go with it.

When I made mistakes, I just had a laugh. It turned out to be really fun and relaxing. I enjoyed not having to listen to people talk, especially since I’d come straight from work and I’m often quite tired by the time I get to an event. It was really enjoyable experience. After we tried to get the rhythms right, they played for us and were exceptional.

  After their short demonstration, we were invited to wash our hands with warm water. Again this was very relaxing and I enjoyed freshening up.

We were then lead to the dining hall and bar area where we would enjoy Gold Restaurant’s cuisine. There were a number of bloggers and media people there, and I ran into a friend who I had met doing my Copywriting for Digital Media course at AAA. It was wonderful to spend the evening with her and her husband, and to catch up over delicious food. She now works for Gold so I was able to ask questions and enjoy more information about the restaurant.

The first thing I learnt is that the food isn’t only South African, but rather African. They offer cuisine from all over the continent. For starters we had a wonderful South African tomato soup. I say wonderful because it tasted like my childhood. It just has the slightly tinny (if that’s right) taste that took me back 20 years. I loved it. There were also Zambian Kandolo Balls with sesame seeds (sweet potato) which were tasty.

This was then followed by Cape Malay ostrich and lamb bobotjie, which I quite liked. My Dad hates bobotie but I don’t mind it. There was also an Ethiopian Lentil Dhal which i didn’t manage to taste but the other raved about, and a smoked fish frikkadels.

After the 3 starters, we were served a main course of Ghanaian Groundnut Chicken which was really delicious, an African creamy pap with grilled corn, Congolese spinach and Zanzibar carrots with star anise. I really liked the chicken as it was very tender. I also liked the pap. I wasn’t made about the carrots as I don’t like liquorish (star anise) and the spinach also tasted fishy (and I don’t like seafood).

We were also entertained by more viacious dancing from the Gold performers, highly entertaining and a true spectacle for tourists.

Following the performance, we were served the most adorable dessert – a spaza shop of treats! This included biscuits and a very tasty milky dessert which was apparently a Cape Malay boeber – milk pudding with sago, vermicelli, sultanas and roasted almonds. It was really good!

I have to say that I had a truly wonderful time at Gold. Watching the dances reminded me of school occasion days while growing up in Namibia, where we could watch the young girls dance in celebration of the day’s events. I really hadn’t thought much about those days and it was nice to be reminded of the beauty of those customs.

Thank you to Gold Restaurant for inviting me for this wonderful meal. It was a really great experience – I would recommend going in groups and enjoying the night’s entertainment as well as sharing the food. Gold Restaurant has individual meals and a set menu, and the drumming class at the start of the night is an added extra should you like to participate.

Join the Gold Restaurant Facebook page if you would like to learn more.