Friday night. The end of a long, tiring week, and all one wants to do is put feet up and relax.
Instead, it was off to Copper Club Eatery in Newlands. A relatively new establishment which first opened in 2016, the Copper Club provided exactly what I needed! A wonderfully vibey yet relaxed atmosphere, colourfully and informatively decorated,, television screens well situated, tables well set out, and good company to share the evening with!!
The waitrons, friendly and professional saw to our every need in a wonderfully unobtrusive way. The available menu was set for Restaurant Week so we had to provide our choices up front.
For starters we could choose from Caprese Salad (Fior di latte, tomato, avo, pesto) or Venison Carpaccio (Rocket, basil pesto, grana Padano shaving). Our party of four enjoyed both choices. Attractively presented, these were tasty and generous.
Our choice of mains included 300g sirloin, chicken thighs (bbq or peri peri) or Calamari tubes. Two of our party enjoyed the sirloin, which was served as requested. The side was a choice of regular or sweet potato chips.
The chicken thighs, although seemingly burnt, were also spot on. The calamari tubes were tender and tasteful, although the sauce was a tad oily.
After the enjoyable mains, cam the decadent desserts. Really decadent. A choice had to be made between Bar One Chocolate and Chocolate Volcano.
Both were declared totally delicious, with the only criticism being the size of the cheesecake!! (To be fair, not everybody complained that the slices were too big!!)
When we walked into Copper Club, one of the party remarked that this may be a place to come back to. Having experienced the ambiance, the food and the level of service, (all in good company!), it definitely is a place to come back to.
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Restaurant Info:
Dean Street Arcade,
Cnr Main & Dean Street,
Newlands
Tel No: 021 687 0025
Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday 7am to 10pm
Sunday 8am to 5pm
Written for JAR PHOTOGRAPHY by Anthony Adams
Photography for JAR PHOTOGRAPHY by Jason “Dubbz” Petersen
To start was a gazpacho with cream cheese, deep fried zucchini flower. The dish was an explosion of flavour because the unexpected pairing worked very well together. Chef Lapo made use of the Bulgarian tomatoes sold at the Farmers Market and they added a different dimension of flavour to the dish – the tomatoes weren’t sour or overly saturated with water as regular jam tomatoes.
Next was a true Italian classic: mushroom risotto. This risotto surpassed any that I had previously eaten (even in reputable Italian restaurants) because of the innate richness of the dish. Although I couldn’t eat half the meal because of the richness, the flavours were like a disco party on my tongue. The olive oil and the course sea salt attempted to balance out some of the butter in the risotto, it was definitely an Italian risotto in the true sense.
The main consisted of slow-cooked Karoo lamb with baked potato and green beans, from the market. The lamb was absolutely tender and cooked to perfection and taste and juices really soaked. My only complaint is that there wasn’t more of the meal!
Dessert was presented to us in the form of a slice of pie with ice cream. The berries and coffee balanced each other out well and the ice cream was the perfect compliment.
