Get hooked on life’s simple pleasures

 This time was warm enough to pull back the canvas wall and look out into the garden where I presume there are extra tables under the trees for lunch or more tropical evenings. I still find the décor cold at night with heavy teak furniture (with no tablecloths) and a tiled floor more suited to an open patio with a view of the sea. The restaurant occupies only a fraction of the original house – a modified veranda – and a trip to the restrooms through long passageways and echoing empty rooms is a bit off putting.
We were a large party, out for a family celebration and tested the kitchen by each ordering something different. Complimentary brown bread comes with garlic sauce and fresh chillie almost too hot to eat even for the two serious chillie junkies. An adventurous 12 year old went for the snails (US$6) to start – much to the disgust of his grandmother – but he wasn’t put off and polished off every one and mopped up the pungent garlic sauce with brown bread.   Signature starter is an oyster shot – served inside a Bloody Mary (US$4). Only two remained so the young men knocked those back without a flinch. Interesting! Crumbed prawns (US$6) were also pronounced a success.
A fish restaurant was an unfortunate choice for the new muroora who has an aversion to fish, so the only option for her was the vegetarian pasta (US$8) – a mixture of fresh veg with noodles and cheese, tasty enough but quite homely.
My haddock mornay US$12) was delicious – tender salty haddock on a bed of spinach in a tangy cheesy sauce – very classy.  Adventurous 12 year old reverted to plain fish and chips (US$10) for his mains, Granny chose Asian flavoured trout (US$14) and mum the prawn special – good value at US$10 for six big prawns and chips.
Foodies claim you can’t have a bouillabaisse outside the Mediterranean for a variety of reasons, among them the need to create a base broth from 100 tiny Mediterranean rock fish!, that a true bouillabaisse must include the hideous red rascasse plus a variety of other tiny fish only found in Provencal waters. I have sampled sublime bouillabaisse in Marseille restaurants that specialise only in that very special dish.
Codfather’s bouillabaisse (US$18) couldn’t compete – but it was a tasty fish soup filled with a different varieties of fish and shellfish in a rich tomato sauce served with crusty French bread with melted cheese. We shared a couple of huge greek salads, (US$9) with different leaves and liberally sprinkled with feta and olives.
Sticky toffee pudding was the dessert of choice except for one lemon meringue pie  order – both nice. Chocolate and raspberry roulade never arrived and with a small baby starting to get tetchy we didn’t want to press the point. It did make an unfortunate appearance on the bill, which I only noticed when we got home. However, re-examining the tab to write this column I noticed that the two specials (both US$10) – dorado with chips and fish coujons – don’t appear on the bill!  Perhaps a sign of stressed service and a pressed kitchen. So no wonder it was a very reasonable US$197 for eight people (including two bottles of wine and a few beers) – much less than expected after the mid winter dinner at US$80 for two.
Food was fine – but the restaurant could do with some management fine tuning.
-g.jeke@yahoo.com