We are on a mission. A coffee mission. We are determined to find good coffee joints in Cape Town. So far, very little luck.

Very few places have consistently good coffee.

Everyone raves about Origin Coffee in De Waterkant, Cape Town. So we headed off to try it ourselves. We ordered 2 cappuccino's (which they called flat whites). The one cup was cold and weak. The second cup was perfect heat but awefully strong. We had joked about mixing the two and having a good cup of coffee. We were baffled by this. How can everyone rave so much about the coffee but it's so bad.

Vida produces some decent cappuccino's. But recently I've found that their foam (half the fun of a cappuccino) seems to melt away before you can finish your cup.

One of the best cappuccino's we've had in Cape Town is at Dario's in Hout Bay. Dario's is a very small but busy cafe/restaurant at the bottom of Victoria Avenue, Hout Bay. It has a very loyal crowd of regulars. I can see why. Dario himself is very hands-on and he runs a tight ship. He has his own imported blend of Italian beans which are quite incredible.

The second place which i believe has really lovely coffee is Limnos Bakery. They have various branches - Claremont, Canal Walk, Greenpoint, etc. Their cappuccino's are usually quite strong, but always incredibly enjoyable.

We used to be regular Woolworths cafe supporters. When they changed their beans to organic, the coffee was terrible. We stopped going for years. We've recently started going back to Woolworths cafe - the flavour has improved but 9 times out of 10 the coffee is served too cold.

Seattle. We used to have our cappuccino at Seattle at least twice a week. Then all of a sudden, the coffee was no longer enjoyable. One day it would be bitter. The next day it would be ok. The day after that it was too cold. But always not enough foam. They have the habbit of filling with liquid almost to the top and then placing on a very thin layer of foam. Almost as an afterthought.

This is only a small selection of the places we've visited in our quest for good coffee.

Our quest continues.....

We had a coupon from Citivouch which entitled us to 10 Prawns, 250gram sirloin steak and rice or chips for an unbelievable R46.

Generally when something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Our waitress seemed very distracted. We placed our drink order which took forever to arrive. I had ordered a 330ml can of Appletizer (R17). I was handed a small bottle. When I questioned the waitress, she said she's never seen cans of Appletizer. I pointed it out on the menu. She said it must be a typo. Was I the very first person to order an Appletizer at the restaurant? I told the waitress I was not prepared to pay R17 for a small bottle of appletizer when I was expecting a larger can. I then asked her to bring me a can of Fanta Orange. Off she went. She attended to everyone else but did not bring my cooldrink. It took so long to finally arrive that all the ice in my glass had melted. She did not bring me another glass with ice. I had to pour it out into an empty can.

Our meal eventually arrived after 30 minutes. First thing we noticed was that the steak was incredibly small. It definitely did not look like it was anywhere near 250grams. Half of the steak consisted of fat.

When cutting into the meat, we noticed it was well done and not medium as ordered. Upon tasting the meat, it was very dry and tough.

Because our waitress had a bit of an attitude, we called another waitress and pointed this out to her.

A few minutes later the chef came over to our table and told us that we needed to cut further into the steak, as it was medium. Any further into the steak would have been classified as the other side, as it was so small. This was quite a ridiculous thing to say. I'm not prepared to have a steak served to me which is only medium in the very middle. The chef seemed very astonished that we wanted a fresh steak to be made.

We were both hungry, so we decided to carry on eating our food while the chef remade the steak.

The prawns were rubbery. The 5 top prawns were bland. The 5 bottom prawns were spicy. The rice was incredibly bland. The salad was dry - not a speck of salad dressing.

By this time our waitress was avoiding us. Eventually 20 minutes later, after we had well finished our meal, she came over to ask us how our meal was going. We pointed out that we were still waiting for our steak.

10 minutes later our steak arrived. It was much better. Had a lot of basting, was a true medium and a lot less tough than the previous piece of steak.

There was a very strange atmosphere with the staff this time - we hadn't felt it on our previous visit.

We were incredibly disappointed by our experience and have decided not to go back to Tan Que.

Prices are average, service is generally good and the steak is consistently good. Ok, admittedly we have had one tough steak at Pirates. But this is the exception, not the rule.

They obviously purhcase quality meat and the chef definitely has to be experienced. Enough so to make us want to support the restaurant.

Consider joining their members club if you plan on eating there often, as you'll receive a nice discount on food and drinks.

We were told by the chef at Deli Delish in Hout Bay that if we wanted tender steak it needed to be prepared medium rare. I strongly suggest they pay a visit to Pirates, order a medium steak and see how tender good quality meat can be.

We've been quite a few times. But it's unfortunate that we seem to have more downs than ups.

We felt like a nice piece of steak, so we decided to give Deli Delish a try.

300grams Rump steak with choice of 2 sides (chips, baby potatoes, mash, veges, etc) for R118

Before ordering the steak we asked the waiter if the rump was nice and tender. He said yes. So we placed our order for two medium rump steaks. I stressed that they must be tender.

A few minutes after we ordered, the waiter came back and said the chef had said it won't be tender if cooked medium, it must be medium rare. I looked at him in disbelief. I'm a steak lover and I always have medium steak and know if it's quality steak and cooked properly, medium steak can be very tender. But if the chef believes it needs to be medium rare, that was ok with me. As long as it was tender!

During the course of our 20 minute wait for our meal, the waiter came back 3 times to confirm which sides we had ordered.

The meal arrived (see picture below). First thing I noticed was how tiny the steak was. Definitely not a 300gram steak. Second thing I noticed was that half of it was badly charred. Then as soon as I cut into it and took my first bite, I found it to be medium well done, dry, tough and tasteless. Unbelievably disappointed.

The second steak was slightly bigger but also really dry, tough and tasteless.

When the waiter came over to ask how our meal was, we told him we were not happy. We both decided we did not want to wait for another steak to be prepared, we wanted to cut our losses and go somewhere where we knew we would get a good steak.

The manageress (possibly owner) came over to find out what was wrong. We told her the story. She said the steak was medium, it was 300grams (as it came prepacked) and was only slightly charred. Basically telling us thats how their steaks are. She had a take it or leave it attitude. She asked us what we wanted her to do. Not happy, we told her we would rather pay for our cooldrinks and leave. She abruptly turned and left without saying a word. Not once did she get anywhere near an apology. But thats ok, we will vote with our wallets and simply not support Deli Delish.

After we left, we went straight to Pirates, Hout Bay and enjoyed a tender, tasty 350gram medium rump steak. See our rave review of Pirates here.

Picture below right - badly charred steak

Boundless amounts of prawns, mussels, calamari, fish and even a crayfish tail or two. Quality was top class. Service was excellent.

We've had the Seafood buffet at the President many, many times. Over the years we've found the buffet has slipped significantly. We stopped going to the President because we no longer found it value for money as the quality and choice was simply not what it used to be.

When you're paying R220 for a buffet, you would expect tons of options and excellent quality/tasting food.

The buffet consists of soup, starters, main course and dessert. We usually only have a very small starter, as we're really there for the mains. I don't eat fish, so my favourite part were the prawns.

We decided to give the President another try, hoping for a good experience. First thing we noticed, there were no prawns. When we asked the chef about the prawns, he pointed to a container of skewers. Each skewer consisted of 1 prawn, 1 piece of lemon and one piece of fish. Because I don't eat fish, I asked the chef if it would be possible to have 3 skewers with 3 prawns on each. Giving me a total of 9 prawns. He said he would go into the back to ask the head chef if this could be done. I was confident I was not asking for too much, so I presumed the answer would be yes. When the chef came out he said no, they won't do that for me. If I wanted my prawns done that way, I would be charged R12 extra per prawn. What?? So on top of the R220 per person for the buffet, they wanted to charge me an extra R108 because I didn't want to eat their fish. Getting charged extra for something which is already on the menu is ludicrous!

I spoke to the manager of the restaurant and told him the story. He told me the head chef should not have said that and he would go and speak to him.

When the manager came back, he too said that the head chef was not prepared to do that for me. But I was welcome to have as many skewers as I liked.

I was completely blown away. They were not prepared to fill such a simple request, but they were happy to waste a great deal of fish which I was not going to eat. Here I thought I was doing them a favour by not wasting their fish. So, after cooling down, I decided to order my 9 skewers. Please note, it took 35 minutes until my skewers were ready. The ironic thing is that while we were waiting for the skewers, a gentleman approached the chef and asked if he could have skewers with fish but no prawns. He was told no.

So I eventually had my 9 prawns (out of principle) but was so disgusted with the service that we left soon afterwards - not evening bothering to have dessert.

We left the President having eaten very little, still feeling hungry and absolutely disgusted with the service!

Without a doubt, we will never support the President Hotel again.

Below left: Plate consisting of 9 skewers.
Below right. Plate consisting of the amount of food gone to waste because they would not entertain such a simple request.