Revisiting old favourites

She was ready for some quiet time after a hectic two week tour of community projects and a short safari in East Africa. A busy week of work and family visits coupled with minimal shopping and maximum power outages had left us with a very bare fridge.  We wanted something quick, comforting and close. I considered Paula’s Place, (revamped and relocated Cascais) newly opened a couple of blocks from home, but firstly its very busy.  Ever since opening there have been fleets of 4 x 4s outside, looking like one of the new car lots that are also springing up all over Greendale.  And secondly it was reviewed in last week’s Independent.
We decided to go to Newlands to Papa’s Meze and Grill.  But they are closed for a month and Newlands looked very drab and depressing with a bleak car park and just a few occupied tables in next door Bejazzled.  The only busy place appeared to be Billy Fudpucker’s – but a drinking hole wasn’t what we were after.
We resorted to old favourite the Sitar which has been perhaps the closest we’ve had to a neighbourhood restaurant for a couple of decades. During the years it occupied the strip of shops where Fudpuckers now is it was a regular haunt before the economic impossibilities of 2008 put paid most outings.
I’ve been a couple of times to their new place  – still feels new a couple of years down the line!- a house alongside the family residence on Cecil Rhodes Drive. Their lunch special is two courses for US$12 and you can take away anything on the menu.  We did that for my mother’s birthday a few weeks ago. Ordering in advance by phone, three mutton curries, rice and naan bread and sides of dhal and palak paneer, we had a good birthday meal for six for US$50. 
The menu is extensive with a choice of beef (US$10 to US$11) and mutton or lamb dishes, (US$12 to $13),fish and prawns  (US$12 to US$15) and vegetarian. (US$7 to US$8) Starters are simple and quick and a plate of poppadums arrives with the drinks.
We shared an onion bhaji (US$3) to start with – sweet onions in a deep fried batter – which went down very well with a cool beer on a night just beginning to hint at warmth. I discarded my woolen shawl as we arrived.
I opted for prawn green masala, – juicy little prawns in a spicy coriander sauce. (US$15) My husband chose the lamb biryani – a traditional Indian feast dish which was very good at US$14 and our American friend the tandoori chicken – which arrived amazingly scarlet accompanied by chips. 
One portion of rice turned out to be too much just for me – the biryani includes rice – and the rotis would have been ample to mop up the lovely prawn curry. The chicken (US$11) was the only slight disappointment – a little dry and without a lot of flavour under the colour coating. (We tried out the left overs as a snack the next day.)
I admit to a certain nostalgia for the dusty saris which tented the old restaurant and the view into the tandoori kitchen through the plate glass from the dining room. But the new one carries something of the old ambience and comfort along with the freshness of a new place. Service was quick and the food tasty.  Indeed an old favourite to be comfortably and continually revisited.
Dinner for three including one shared starter and drinks was $59.
– g.jeke@yahoo.com