Keeping it local at Cheyne’s

We are so lucky to live in Hout Bay and be absolutely spoilt for choice of good restaurants to go to. We frequent quite a few of them but we had never been to Cheyne’s before. I have only heard good things about it and have been wanting to go for quite a while now so was really excited to finally be trying it out for ourselves.

As soon as you step in, it feels like it’s going to be an experience and I love that about restaurants. It is quite dark with candles lit which sets the mood for a lovely intimate dinner. The walls are adorned with some interesting artwork which gives it a unique and personal feel.

The menu is divided into 4 categories: Sea, Land, Earth and Happy Endings. It is quite a lot to take in at first glance but Eric, our very helpful and attentive waiter, helped us with what to order. He recommended for the 2 of us to order 6-8 meals and he was spot on. We started with 3 starters and then ordered our other 3 so that we didn’t have all 6 coming at once. My husband was a little put out that there were no craft beers to choose from as he has become quite the ‘craft beer afficeando’ but he was happy to order a glass of white wine instead. (apologies I can’t remember the name of it but it was lovely)

We had Firecracker Crayfish,; Tokyo Beef Slider, and Aubergine Tempura. All were really good. The crayfish was fried in a light tempura batter and was very soft and tasty. The slider was delicious as well. The piece of bread had a smoky burnt taste to it which just added to the soft meat and delicious sauce and the combined tastes were just perfect. The aubergine tempura was good although I think we overdid it a bit on the tempura side so for future would order something different but we still managed to polish off our plates and enjoyed all of them immensely.

For our next 3 we had Chilli Salt Squid, Pulled Lamb Teriyaki Pie and Deep Fried Milk. The chilli salt squid was tender and divine. What really made it was the dipping sauce it came with which had a lovely chilli kick to it and it brought out the flavours beautifully. The lamb was also very tasty with a touch of a sweetness to it. My husband loved it and thought it was amazing. It was a little too rich for me but I think I was also starting to get quite full at this point. The deep fried milk was something unique and wonderful. It had a coconut flavour to it and was like a green curry wrapped in a ball. Eric warned us it had quite a bit of chilli so we weren’t sure whether to order it as I don’t have a huge chilli tolerance but I could eat this and eat it I did!

All the food was presented so beautifully and you really feel you need to take a moment to look at it and appreciate it before digging in. (These pics are courtesy of Cheyne’s and are not of the meals we ate but you can get an idea of how beautifully it is all presented.)

We were both quite full by the end but we just had to make some space for our ‘Happy Ending’. I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that if there’s fondant on the menu I have to try it and this was no exception. So we had the Tonka Bean Dark Chocolate Fondant, Peanut Butter Ice Cream. It was delicious. The fondant was warm and soft in the middle, just how I like it and I think it should be and the ice cream was also scrumptious.

Overall a truly delectable experience. I highly recommend Cheyne’s for an intimate date night. We shared all our meals which added to the feeling of intimacy and of sharing the experience together and we will definitely be back to share another experience as we look forward to tasting all the other items on the menu! Can’t wait 🙂

I am so excited to be giving away a meal for 2 to Cheyne’s to the value of R800! That’s a seriously good date night experience! Considering our meal including one glass of wine came to R450, this is an amazing opportunity to be able to indulge and have an incredible meal together. Click here for more on this giveaway.(This giveaway is CLOSED)