ISLAND CAFÉ: A FEAST AT THIS VERY COOL, UNIQUE RESTAURANT IN KNYSNA’S THESEN ISLANDS
The Cost - $22 per person. The restaurant invited us for this meal.
The Atmosphere – Island Café is set inside the Turbine Hotel, one of the most unique hotels in South Africa. The Knysna hotel was built inside of the shell of a former power station and the owners very cleverly chose to retain a lot of its original features and turbines (hence the name). The space built out for the Island Café was not treated differently; it has colorful pipes and turbines in the restaurant itself to go along with its quirky furniture and décor, making it a very fun place to enjoy a meal. The restaurant offers both indoor and outdoor seating and regardless of which you choose, you can have a view of the Thesen Island canals. Reservations are not always necessary, but I’d recommend them for peak hours and weekends to be safe.
Hotel restaurants can often be boring and/or stale but that’s the opposite of what the Turbine Hotel’s Island Café is. Offering a menu that features a mix of South African specialties with fresh takes on international classics, the Island Café’s special setting inside of an old power station makes it far from normal. The restaurant offers an a la carte menu only and has a number of vegetarian-friendly starters that can also be ordered in entrée portions.
The Order – Octopus Carpaccio, Forest Mushroom & Potato Gnocchi, Bo-kaap Seafood Curry, “Osso Buco” Style Springbok Shin, Chocolate Custard Slab, and a Baked Apple Pudding.
The Great - The best dish of the evening was the “Osso Buco” Style Springbok Shin. Springbok, a type of antelope, is a commonly eaten animal in South Africa and the meat was slow cooked in an osso buco style to the point where it was truly falling right off the bone. It was a nice portion of food and the meat was very tasty. The dish also came with some bay leaves and thinly sliced potatoes that were cooked in with the meat. Overall, it was an excellent dish and one that I’d happily order again and again.
Our other entrée, the Bo-kaap Seafood Curry, was the second best dish of the meal. I was initially surprised that the curry was only mildly spicy but after I got over my initial reaction, I realized that the sauce had an impressive amount of flavor to it even without the spice. The seafood mix consisted of mussels, shrimp, and fish, and all were very fresh and of good quality while the yogurt and cucumber that were added on top gave this dish a freshness and a lightness that was incredibly welcomed despite it being atypical of curry dishes. On the side of the seafood was white rice that could be mixed in to soak up the curry sauce.
The third dish to earn our Great rating was the Baked Apple Pudding which consisted of lots of warm cinnamon apple gooey goodness that was topped by a scoop of vanilla ice cream with cooked chopped apple bits on the side. The warm pudding with the cold ice cream was a very nice combination and the chopped apple bits added some nice texture and lightness to the otherwise heavy dessert.
The Good – The Forest Mushroom & Potato Gnocchi almost earned our Great rating but fell just short. The best part of this appetizer was the leek puree that I initially thought might have been a cheese sauce before I tasted it. The puree was really lovely and it really eliminated the need for the gnocchi to have any sauce at all. The medley of mushrooms that came on top were also really nice and the gnocchi were good even though they were a bit on the plain side, which is why the dish fell just short of earning an even higher rating.
The Octopus Carpaccio was the other appetizer ordered and it featured thinly sliced pieces of octopus with little puffs of crème fraiche and caper berries with a ciabatta crisp on top. The octopus was good and the caper berries were a nice addition to the dish. The ciabatta crisp could have been crispier and the crème fraiche hid the taste of the octopus a bit, but overall this was a solid way to start the meal.
Finally, the second of our two desserts: the Chocolate Custard Slab. The long rectangular piece of chocolate was very smooth in texture aside from its very nicely brûléed top. It was accompanied by two scoops of stracciatella ice cream which tasted like milk ice cream. The ice cream paired well with the chocolate and came with candied orange bits that added some texture and flavor to this chocolatey dessert.
The Verdict – The meal at Island Café was really lovely. The food was well-executed and nicely done and the menu was thoughtfully put together. When combining that with the unique, fun setting offered by it and the Turbine Hotel, the Island Café is a place we would recommend visiting during your time in Knysna.