I must admit, the husband and I do not have the most adventurous of palates. We tend to stick to Indian cuisines when dining out (I know, terribly boring).
For his birthday we decided to try something a little different. Finding Halaal- friendly and more upmarket restaurants can be difficult. On top of that, I am quite a fussy eater- I don’t eat ginger, avocado, soy-sauce, sushi (shock-horror!)- I know, I know… So after some Googling, we decided to try Haiku Asian Tapas.
I made a reservation early as it was high season and popular restaurants book out fast. I did my research and found out that this restaurant works on a star system instead of a straight forward pricing system – which can be a bit confusing. Each star = R45 and you require a minimum of 4 stars per customer. So there is no getting away with a meal under R180. The stars rack up fast anyway so it is unlikely that you will be trying to make up the 4 stars. Looking at many reviews of the restaurant, people don’t seem to like the system much as we generally don’t like to be told that they have to spend a certain amount but we thought we would try it anyway.
So, we arrived at Haiku and there was a bunch of super, tall model-like people standing outside waiting to be seated. The spot is super-trendy and it was packed and it was a weekday! We were seated by the waiter, a very nice guy. He told us that they have 2 seatings, one from 7pm and one from 9pm. Our reservation was for 7.30pm. This kind of pissed me off because if they had told me when I made the reservation, I would have obviously came earlier. From the moment we were seated, everything felt rushed. The good thing was we didn’t have to wait long for food as our waiter was most likely rushing the chefs along.
We had to first study the menu to figure out what to order as the cuisine was pretty foreign to us. We ordered all our dishes together because we knew we did not have much time. We had spicy chicken steamed dumplings, fried prawn wontons, lamb chops and peking duck.
The dumplings and wontons were pretty good. More tasty than we have had before. the presentation of the food was great. I love that they served the dumplings and wontons in the steamers.
The lamb chops were aesthetically pleasing and tasty to boot. There were 3 of them and they were succulent and tasty. The peking duck is their speciality. It was actually the first time I had duck. It was interesting. The sauce was very sweet. I found the taste quite strange but that is because it’s not something I am used to.
The restaurant was so busy and the tables were quite close together. For example, I heard the whole life story of the couple sitting next to us. So this restaurant is not for romance and intimacy- not during high season at-least. It is one of those spots to be seen at.
So after 90 min and probably R500, we left- much to the relief of the waiter. No time for dessert.
I have no complaints about the food. I was glad I experienced the restaurant. I just wished it wasn’t all so rushed, especially for the money spent. It’s a great spot to go with friends or colleagues. Leave the kids at home.
Info:
Haiku Asian Tapas
Address: 58 Burg Street
Cape Town
8001
Trading hours:
Monday – Saturday:
Lunch: 12:00 – 15:00
Monday – Sunday
Dinner: 18:00 – 23:00
Website: http://www.haikurestaurant.com/
-I
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