Simon's Restaurant at Groot Constantia

Simon’s

Groot Constantia

Average cost for two: R400 (Two Course)

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon and an exquisite day in Cape Town. One of the best places to spend it? Definitely sitting in the sunshine with a view overlooking the beautiful Constantia Vineyards. Simons has the perfect setting for that relaxed lunch on a balmy day and most certainly one both my husband and I love.

The atmosphere at Simons is welcoming with a warm smile and friendly service from their staff, they really do aim to please and they do it well. Their menu is quite concise, however it still offers enough variety. Though I do wonder should you frequent this restaurant perhaps you might start running out of things to try.

I ordered the duck liver parfait as a starter. It was served as a generous slice of pâté with grape jam, ample bruschetta and baby leaves. It was not quite as I expected, as generally a parfait is much smoother and lighter in texture than a pâté – perhaps they should change the wording on the menu. The baby leaves had unfortunately passed their sell by date which was a pity as they would have been a delicious accompaniment to the dish. That being said, the pâté was sublime. Perfectly cooked and well-seasoned, coupled with the homemade grape jam I was more than happy to overlook the small downfalls of the dish.

My husband tried their bobotie dumplings. I thought this was a quirky take on the previously trending bobotie spring rolls. These innovative little dumplings were deep-fried, giving a beautifully crisp texture to the soft bobotie mixture on the inside. The bobotie was quite aromatic and had a nice bite – but for me, lacking the fruitiness of a traditional bobotie. Served with a fresh tomato salsa that brought light to the taste buds, a very creative idea that has the potential to be amazing.

For mains we chose the mussels in a creamy herb and white wine sauce, and a salmon fish cake served on a bed of spinach with a white wine velouté. The mussels were fantastic. Although an easy crowd pleaser for us, they really did out do themselves on this one. The creamy herb and white wine sauce was one of the best I have tasted. It had more body than most sauces I’ve come across and was absolutely packed full of flavour! The salmon fishcake was also impressive. Credit to the chef for not overloading the fishcake with potato. It was all about the salmon, and that stood out the most to me. I would suggest however that the kitchen should take care in ensuring the spinach that is served beneath the fish cake is well drained; as the water just diluted the delicious sauce.

We will definitely go back to Simons, the service is great, the kitchen sends food out quickly, and the setting is just wonderful. I hope that they will bring in some new menu items to try soon!