Smart takes on food, coffee & service

restaurant reviews

OLD TOWN ITALY

Old Town Italy

 

OLD TOWN ITALY

39 Meridian Drive, Meridian Park, Umhlanga Rocks
031 566 5008
Open: Monday to Saturday 7am to 7pm; Sunday 7am to 6pm (kitchen closes at 4pm

THE INTRO
Old Town Italy is a new cafe/deli/speciality grocery store in Umhlanga Rocks which is the brainchild of the clever Remo’s team. An odd name for a one-stop food store I thought at first. Even odder is its location on Meridian Drive, at the edge of Gateway’s business precinct, which is hardly on anyone’s way home. In fact on anyone’s way anywhere.

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Restaurants

OYSTER, SALMON & SUSHI BAR

Seafood bonanza at the Oyster Box’s new seafood bar

 

OYSTER, SALMON & SUSHI BAR
Oyster Box
Umhlanga
031 514 5000 or restaurants@oysterbox.co.za

INTRO
Who could resist an invitation to lunch at the Oyster Box and sample sushi from their new seafood bar?
Not me.
Not only was weather balmy enough to to sit out on the terrace and enjoy the amazing view, but the sushi and seafood were great and the monkeys hugely entertaining.
It seems the monkeys which roam the neighbourhood are particularly enamored of the sugar sachets on the terrace tables.
Despite the many hilarious attempts by the staff to dissuade then, they kept swooping down from the roof, scampering over to the tables and grabbing as many sachets as they could before leaping back to safety on the roof. And then they came back for more.

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restaurant reviews

GREEDY BUDDHA

Chilli chicken with candied cashews above, the butternut and feta won tons in the middle and the coconut parfait is on top.

Chilli chicken with candied cashews

GREEDY BUDDHA
Palm Boulevard, Garteway, Umhlanga
031 566 4383
Open for lunch and dinner but closed Mondays and Sunday evenings

INTRO
If this review of Greedy Buddha reads like I’m damning it with faint praise, I am. In a way.
It’s simply that the new Greedy Buddha at Gateway is not as good as its first incarnation in Durban North. But if you hadn’t experienced the food there, you would probably disagree with this review.
The Durban North version was a hole in the wall kind of place where dining was confined to a windswept terrace. When it rained it was bleak.
But the food, Asian fusion, was sublime.

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