Food Republic
Where: 4 Lagoon Drive, uMhlanga
Open: Daily 10.30am to 8.30pm
Call: 078 364 1958
There’s two or three large tables all having a party. Magnums of red wine are being brought out, there are beer bottles all over the table and the floor. The table is groaning with so much food you can barely swing the massive lazy Susan to pass it around.
There’s chatter and toasts and table swopping and shouting across and between the tables. The din is incredible. There’s smoke. The lighting is way too bright, the decor non-existent. I feel like I might be eating in a subway station. But people are having fun.
We’re at Food Republic, which has recently moved from Durban North to uMhlanga. It’s not fine dining.
We find a smaller table where we can actually talk to each other without adding to the shouting and watch the surroundings. We ask our waitress about wine, and she brings two bottles. A white ‒ Original Sin ‒ and the strangely named red Nymphomane, with a subhead that reads “the desired one”. Certainly an interesting wine list. We opt for the red, which turns out to be essentially a Bordeaux-style blend from the Walker Bay region. It’s most enjoyable.
There is a sushi menu, a takeaway menu, and then we ask for the Chinese menu, a folder with laminated pictures of the food, and description in Chinese and sometimes English. We would eat from here. One of the Chinese women coming to see her friend at the next table approved of our choices.
For starters, we had the dumplings, 12 for R120, which could be chicken or pork ‒ we asked for half-and-half, and both were good and both different and tasty. So, often these just taste of nothing, with some mashed protein inside the dumpling that could be anything. They were served with a rice wine vinegar sauce and a spicy chilli sauce.
By this stage, massive bowls of seafood soup were coming out to the various tables. Apparently, the soup is always eaten last in China.
Conventional Cantonese chow meins and fried rice dishes and omelettes are all available, but I wanted to try the soy sauce duck (R220). We’d each choose a dish. There’s any number of dishes of steamed fish or prawns or spicy prawns or langoustines. There’s boiled beef with chilli, sizzling beef or spicy beef, and options like “three-cup” chicken or kung pao chicken. Pork ribs can be steamed or deep-fried, and there's an intriguing dish labelled pork with fish sauce.
One fancied the pork belly (R170), while another the chilli chicken (R160). We asked about the green veg. We could have bok choy or something none of us had heard of before ‒ or maybe we just couldn’t hear what our waitress was saying. She described it as a mixture of beans and peas. We went for that. And of course, egg fried rice (R75) and veg noodles (R80).
The duck, a half crispy duck in a simple soy sauce, was absolutely delicious, although beware ‒ it was sliced across the bone, so you might have to use your hands or pick your teeth. It didn’t matter. We tucked in ravenously. Then the green veg (R120) arrived, which turned out to be mange-tout peas wok-tossed in garlic. These were a delight and a refreshing change from the conventional Chinese cabbage.
By now, this massive party was bagging up all the leftovers and knocking back the last of these massive bottles of wine amid more toasts. Everyone stands up and shows that the glass is finished after the toast.
Next up came the chilli chicken, and I’ve never seen a dish with so many chillies in it ‒ red, green and dried. It was suggested we just pick out the chicken pieces and enjoy the flavour of the chicken. It was hot, but for me, a shade one-dimensional.
The pork belly, however, was another inspiring dish with a lovely flavourful punch, with lots of crunchy onions. My friend enjoyed it even though his noodles (he’s not a rice fan) came as we were finishing off the meal. I think they had been forgotten in the kitchen. I had the rest of the pork belly for lunch the next day.
By now, the big party was suddenly over, and the waitresses were clearing up the wreckage. We could hear ourselves think and our own voices echoing off the walls.
We asked about desserts, but they don’t do them here. Instead, we went home for a coffee and mango ice-cream.
Food: 3½
Service: 3
Ambience: 1
The Bill: R1187 for 3