Durban - It’s the birthplace of bunny chow – a six-hour drive by car from Joburg, just over an hour by plane, the water’s pleasant all year round, and there’s a plethora of entertainment.
Yes, the scrum in Durban – and I’m not referring to the famed Shark Tank stadium – at the height of summer might not be everyone’s cup of chai, but out of season.
The beaches are less crowded, humidity levels are infinitely more tolerable and hotel rates are more reasonable, which make the city very appealing.
Craving some down-time, we checked into three properties, ate far too much, swam and built sandcastles in the rain, like Vaalies. Succour for the soul.
Granted, not all the restaurants were fabulous, but on holiday, you have to take the good with the bad.
The Sugar Club
Beverly Hills Hotel
Lighthouse Road
uMhlanga Rocks
Tel: 031 561 2211
Built 50 years ago, north of Durban, in the then undeveloped uMhlanga Rocks by pioneering hotelier Sol Kerzner, the Beverly Hills was South Africa’s original five-star hotel, attracting the who’s who ever since, including Marlene Dietrich, Janet Jackson and Sigourney Weaver.
Last weekend, Kerzner was the hotel’s guest of honour at its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Its beachfront location offers uninterrupted views of the ocean. The Bev’s restaurants, elements café, which is positioned off the pool terrace, is a popular spot for sundowners, cocktails and light meals, and fine dining at the Sugar Club is smart, with its elegant napery, beautiful stemware and silverware.
You’d struggle to beat the view from the Vista Terrace, which is an ideal spot for breakfast or sundowners. My recommendation is to stick around for a dolphin sighting – the marine mammals frolick in the surf so often that staff sound a dolphin bell to alert the guests.
The Sugar Club’s menu, guided by executive chef Tony Kocke who has worked for the British embassy and top restaurants in London and Berlin, is classically inspired, and we settled on the prawn and avocado starter with a Marie rose sauce and the ocean trio of smoked Norwegian salmon, oysters and prawn cocktail which were fresh, beautifully plated and well-seasoned.
My prawn starter required a few splashes of Tabasco and pepper to add zip to the otherwise refreshing, satisfying dish.
The meat-weighted mains selection (sourced from fabulous producers in the Midlands) has trios of chicken or duck, a pork feast, venison, a rack of lamb, and beef fillet as well as prawns, line fish and a risotto with peas and tomato “essence”.
We ordered the beef fillet, with a parsnip purée and red wine reduction, and the trio of duck, which was served three ways, as a pan-fried fillet, a confit leg and duck sausage with a complimentary, tart sour cherry sauce and a mango and peppadew salsa. Two distinctive dishes, well conceptualised and superbly executed.
Dessert ticks all the boxes – savoury, with a platter of four local cheeses, homemade bread, peanut and green fig preserve, or sweet: cherries jubilee, custard tart, a white chocolate and honey “pliable” or dark chocolate sphere of butterscotch, honeycomb and chocolate soil.We simply didn’t leave any space.
Moyo
uShaka Marine World
Point
Tel: 031 332 0606
I’ve never understood the fascination with this group – their restau-rants are seriously for tourists who are after a “taste of Africa” and don’t mind a spot of face-painting.
You get the latter, but the former only insofar as the decor. As we were tourists in Durban, we got caught up in the hype of the location. After a rain-soaked day at uShaka, we were hungry and despite our reservations, thought we could grab a quick lunch here. A mistake.
Moyo is split between the main restaurant and another at the end of the pier, on the water. It’s enticing, but we needn’t have bothered, or parted with our money. Service is abysmal and the food no better. Shunning the mopane worms on the starter side, we share a selection of samoosas – kudu, mild beef mince and cheese and spring onion. The cheese samoosas are bland and oily, with stringy cheese. The meat samoosas are non-descript. We move onto the mains: a Moroccan chicken tagine, and “Durban” lamb curry, which is probably the best dish that emanates from the kitchen. The tagine is not a tagine but the waiter doesn’t believe me so I call the manager. She finally cottons onto the fact it’s the wrong dish, although by now, I’m bored with being ripped off. We leave.
Lunch at Moyos left bad taste
Jeera
The Suncoast Hotel
Suncoast Boulevard,
Marine Parade
Tel: 031 314 7878
With just 37 rooms, the Suncoast Hotel is a boutique property, which, despite the adjacent casino complex, enjoys serenity owing to ocean views and the Art Deco design of the hotel. Think pretty pastel Miami than seedy Vice.
Jeera, the Indian restaurant, is the primary culinary attraction here, serving à la carte alongside a reasonable Friday and Saturday night buffets costing R245 with lamb, chicken, fish and prawn curries, as well as occasional chef’s specials of beans and trotters, which at first I misunderstood to be tortoise – thankfully, not. The classy, tasty fare is prepared by a team led by talented executive sous chef Sandren Govender.
Vigour & Verve
The Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani
63 Snell Parade
Tel: 031 362 1300
Hotel food is not what it used to be, which is not a bad thing. One of the first hotels I worked in had no qualms about serving pork instead of veal to its unsuspecting diners, didn’t have olive oil in its kitchen and hadn’t even heard of cooking pasta al dente.
Granted, it was a 3-star, in a coastal city in the 1990s, but thankfully we’ve come some way.
Not all hotel kitchens are equal, but Tsogo Sun has invested massively in its food and wine offering. The group was the biggest buyer of wine at the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction last month.
The 743-roomed Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani super hotel complex cost mult-millions to revamp, with a floor-by-floor sprucing up – due, in a large part, to their high-occupancy levels – and there are three new restaurants.
These are The Grill Jichana, an upmarket steakhouse overseen by the executive chef Shaun Munro; the Panorama Bar and Pool Deck, where bunny chows, pizza and other light fare rule.
Added more recently is Vigour & Verve, “coffee and everything”, where you can grab a cup of coffee with cake, sandwiches, salads, pizza and burgers.
Still here is Lingela buffet restaurant, which serves breakfast and traditional South African meals for lunch and dinner
Tall Ships Cocktails is the Elangeni’s revamped bar. Here, as the name suggests, the focus is on cocktails and craft beer, wine and whisky. There’s a limited bar menu of bar snacks and finger foods.
The Ocean Terrace
The Oyster Box Hotel
2 Lighthouse Road
uMhlanga Rocks
Tel: 031 514 5000
Princess Charlene of Monaco chose this hotel as the venue for her South African wedding reception because of the view of the red and white lighthouse.
This restored, colonially elegant Red Carnation property, reopened after an extensive revamp in 2009. It is not only a popular wedding venue, but attracts families (kids club) and their pets (pet beds and menus provided) – and locals to their casual curry buffet on the Ocean Terrace.
It costs R270 a person, with quite a fabulous selection of curry, barring the Singaporean fish curry with dorado – a fish I abhor, tasting of bottom feeder.
It’s a stunning property, the buffet is good value topped with excellent, personable service.
Contact Georgina by emailing her on [email protected]
Saturday Star