Ray of sunshine on a grey day
Trattoria la Terrazza
Where: Umkobi Beach, Outlook Rd, Southbroom
Open: Tuesday to Saturday dinner, Wednesday to Sunday lunch
Call: 076 394 9558
The Glass Guy and I made a recent trip down the South Coast for Sunday lunch to a restaurant that is an old favourite and which I hadn’t visited since pre-Covid days. We’re joined by Colin, a South Coast local who is a regular.
We’re going to Trattoria la Terraza which has a beautiful outdoor setting overlooking the Umkobi lagoon south of Southbroom. It really is a terrace. Yet every time I’ve been here the weather has not played ball. Once it was a howling gale, once an unseasonal cold spell, forcing us inside and turning our backs on nature’s beauty.
On the trip down the sky was ominous. Lower down there were patches of drizzle and then as we arrived, surprisingly, the sun came out. It was a pleasure to sit on the terrace with a glass of wine and catch up. The restaurant was full of locals doing likewise.
Starts are fairly simple. Naturally there’s carpaccio with all the trimmings and there’s also two salads: a traditional Greek and a green salad with pancetta, green beans, avo, sun dried tomatoes, almonds and feta. It sounds too good to be a salad. Crisp spanakopita parcels in a sweet pepper sauce also feature.
From the daily specials list there’s tuna sashimi with Asian dressing, red onions and crisp potato sticks. The aubergine dumplings with parmesan and herbs on tomato and olive sauce too sounded good. I settled for chicken liver pate made with brandy and Madagascan peppercorns and served with a pineapple, apple and ginger relish (R135). A good pate is something one rarely sees on menus any more and this was generous, flavourful and super smooth. Not being big on pineapple in food, the tart relish was a surprisingly good accompaniment.
The Glass Guy enjoyed the zucchini fritto with a garlic and basil mayo (R85) which was strips of crisp lightly battered courgettes that really had the Italian crunch. Colin, who knows the restaurant well, enjoyed his favourite: baked camembert cheese in crispy phyllo with a tomato and basil marmalade.
There’s a small selection of interesting home-made pastas. Unfortunately they were out of the lamb tortellini with sage butter and parmesan. But Gorgonzola pasta flowers with cream and parmesan, and spaghettini with prawns, ginger, garlic and chilli feature. Naturally there’s a Bolognese offering and home-made gnocchi, either Gorgonzola or Napoli.
Colin settled for another favourite ‒ the spaghettini carbonara (R175) which was deliciously rich with a good kick of black pepper. The Glass Guy also enjoyed his porcini panzerotti in a rich parmesan cream.
Mains include grilled calamari tubes in lemon and parsley, a salmon trout fillet with capers and garlic aioli, and kingklip done in a red curry cream. There’s a fillet and T-bone option, pork escalopes topped with pancetta and sage and a kudu burger.
I opted for another special, fresh kob sautéed with mussels in a spicy tomato, paprika chilli and herb sauce with good crispy skinny fries (R269). The fish was lovely and perfectly cooked, and I really enjoyed the sauce made with a base of good quality olive oil. It gave it a lovely Italian freshness. It was almost a pity the mussels were steamed separately and not cooked in that sauce.
Desserts include a chocolate brûlée cheesecake, home made apple crumble, a citrus polenta almond cake, pavlova and malva with butterscotch. But we had eaten more than enough already and opted instead to enjoy the afternoon and finish the wine.
It clouded over as we left, with drizzle in the air. What a stroke of luck
Food: 4
Service: 3
Ambience: 3 ½
The Bill: R1 383 for three