The Round House

If you're looking for exquisite service and fine dining, this is the place to be. Robs brought us here for dinner on Boxing Day and though we were still stuffed from Christmas the day before, we happily tucked in yet again.

The Round House is a gazetted national monument as well as World Heritage Site. (Wow, we've been to 2 World Heritage Sites in the space of 1 week! Check out when we went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens here). The Round House has been a guard house, tea room, hotel and the hunting lodge of Lord Charles Somerset. For more on its fascinating history, click here.



After being shut for yonks, its been given a new lease of life now as a contemporary French fine dining restaurant. We went for sundowners before dinner, and the view overlooking Camps Bay was pretty spectacular. Pity about the Cape wind that threatened to blow our glasses over every now and again.



The interior of the restaurant's a pretty cozy affair - I didn't want to be the "Asian tourist" snapping away with my flash the whole night, hence the pictures are all a bit fuzzy and dark. Anyways, I hate using the flash as it never really captures the mood and lighting as it should be.


The view from the inside looks over Camps Bay, and since the beach strip was heaving with parties that night, the power supply to the Round House was a little flakey. No seriously. Every now and again the lights would flicker and we were told that Camps Bay gets priority power, so if they were busy the Round House is supplied with less electricity! ...I guess for all its first-world comforts, this is still a third-world country after all.


For a fixed price, you can order a 3-course, 4-course or 5-course (?!?) dinner and you can mix and match from anything they've got on the menu. All portions are small to medium, kind of halfway between starter and main course sizes. Which makes it perfect coz you don't feel too stuffed at the end of the night. For a little bit more, they've also got a wine-pairing menu that goes with each course.

I started with the Butternut Tortelli, then had the Whiskey & Vanilla-cured Salmon "Mi Cuit", apple puree and Hamilton Russel Olive Oil. Finished off with the Felchin Chocolate Daquoise Cake with Chocolate Sorbet (I'm not a freak who can remember all of that - found it on their menu online. Ha!)



I'm no food critic, but the food was absolutely delicious and the service impeccable! It's so refreshing to be in a place where the waiters know what they're doing. For more pictures, check out the restaurant's website here.