Tourist season has arrived in Cape Town. The traffic is busy, the shops more crowded, and the weather is fabulous. We have had several new restaurants pop up. I hope they all succeed as it’s lovely to have so many choices as we eat out a lot.

This is a 3 day weekend in SA so everyone seemed to be out dining on Friday. We didn’t know what time we would be out of the house so didn’t make a booking, we left it to chance.

We wanted to eat at the new Italian restaurant Posticino’s http://www.posticino.co.za/contact/ which had only just opened that week. It is a branch of a Seapoint restaurant that has been there for many years and has a loyal clientele so I did expect it to be busy but wasn’t prepared for just how busy! It was rammed. The charming young Italian host asked if we minded waiting 15-20 minutes and we thought that acceptable so we sat at the bar and ordered a nice bottle of Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc and settled in. The place was wall to wall with people. Every seat at the bar was full. We ended up waiting 40 minutes before we were seated, but I was enjoying the wine so wasn’t too bothered.

What I did mind was the noise and chaos. The bar is on the runway to the kitchen and the waitresses would come and shout en route to the kitchen. They were quite literally running through the restaurant. Now I want fast service when I go to McDonalds, but I prefer a bit of a more languorous evening when I am out for dinner.

We were shown to a table by the door, I had been hoping for a table outside but as it was almost 9pm I no longer cared, I just needed food. Later I spotted that they allow smoking so was glad I wasn’t seated in the midst of that. I hate that the smokers get the best tables with the best view, or else I have to breathe in that stink while eating and go home with my hair reeking.

I ordered the Capricciosa pizza as I wanted to try the notorious pizzas, and Norm ordered gnocchi. They have a few different sauces so you can choose which you fancy. He chose a creamy based sauce with a touch of Napoli sauce and loads of Parmesan.

My pizza was topped with salami, mushrooms, olives, asparagus but I requested to swap the asparagus for avocado. Most pizzas have that horrid tinned white asparagus and that’s disgusting so I didn’t want to risk it, and I love avo.

Norm’s gnocchi looked nice, and he scarfed it up in no time at all.

I loved the crust on my pizza, a proper authentic Italian style crust, thin and crispy and thoroughly cooked. Nothing worse than a pizza with a damp doughy centre. The salami was not greasy and tasted fresh, some are so fatty they taste rank but this was yummy. The mushrooms were a bit much for me but I am sometimes a bit funny about mushrooms. I hate the flavour or spunk-like earthy smell of half cooked mushrooms or raw ones, the only exception being whole button mushrooms fried in butter, those remind me of my fave restaurant from my childhood. Next time I will make up my own unique combo I think.

We have several Italian places in Hout Bay. Luigi’s, Casareccio, Bugattis, Papino’s and St Elmo’s. Considering the size of our little village I hope that they can all co-exist and survive. They will all be busy in peak season, it is the winter when places struggle here. I do think Luigi’s is struggling in their new venue, I often drive by and it seems a bit empty. Casareccio is always busy and is our usual go to place for take aways. We used to eat at Luigi’s almost every weekend. Either take aways or eat in. I loved his spagbol and had it so often, but then I found a bit of plastic in my food and was so ill I couldn’t eat. I am so freaked out by things food and germ related. I think if a huge hunk of plastic could end up I there then lord knows what else could be in it. We also noticed the food’s taste had changed, our fave dishes tasted different than they always had. Then the final nail in the coffin of that relationship was when our take out was so unbearably salty we couldn’t eat it. I wrote privately on social media to the owner, but it took him over a week to respond to me and by then I was over it. We haven’t really been back as we discovered Casareccio.

We have yet to be disappointed by the food at Casareccio it is consistently good. I think the pizzas are pretty much evenly matched between Posticino’s and Casareccio but Norm thought the gnocchi to be average at Posticino’s. I didn’t taste it as I am not a fan, I find gnocchi too stodgy. But I do look forward to trying their other dishes. We will definitely go back. We won’t abandon Casareccio but we eat out enough to give them both our attention.

It will be interesting to see what happens in a few months once tourists leave…. Casareccio have a loyal trade and people were loyal to Postocino at their other location – I suspect some people may drive through on a lovely summer night such as last night.

Tonight Norm cooked dinner for us, simple food, baked potatoes, roast vegetables and a lovely fillet steak. We just had a night in which was nice, it’s so hot and we sat with all the doors open enjoying the evening.

Tomorrow we are trying another new venue, Ragafellows. It is owned by Spiro and his wife Julie. I love their vibe at their Greek restaurant and I have heard great things about this new place.

I’ll try and take lots of pics as it is a bit of a visual delight based on what I have seen so far.

Loving the long weekend!