Bubbly All Set

 

It is Decorex time again with Women's Day launching the long weekend. With the doors about to open the waitresses were at there stations for the mass to come storming to the hall. Decorex is the premium home decor and improvements show in South Africa. 

Strange I did see SunWorx Solar, the subsidiary of Bosasa or as they called now African Global, at the show like they have been in the past years. Now and then I see their branded vehicles driving up to Bosasa when I am in sitting in traffic and wonder how they are doing with all the publicity that Gavin Watson and Angelo Agrizzi find themselves in. I am not sure if it was last year or the previous year at Decorex that I bumped into Gavin Watson's son, Roth Watson who runs SunWorx Solar. 

Oh well enough  wondering, time for some bubbly and sushi.

Saddlewoods

On Monday our water supply was sabotaged by what is looking more and more like political terrorism as today the refuse depot was set alight too. Yip with elections coming up next year, it looks like some group is trying to destabilise the party that is currently running City of Joburg, by hook or by crook.

With no water in our taps, I decided that it would be a perfect time for a date night, and since the place I had in mind Saddlewoods Steak Ranch had its own borehole water, it just made perfect sense.

I always wanted to try out this restaurant that was tucked away near Featherbrook, but when we arrived we saw that the l and e letters of Saddlewood was just about falling off, or maybe it was designed to look that way. Not a great first impression. When we arrived the steak ranch was not that full yet there were reserved signs on majority of the tables. Uhmmm looks like a lot of people are going to be eating out tonight.

The review, what can I say, the service was not up to scratch, maybe they weren’t expecting the amount of people on a Wednesday night. When our food finally arrived, the plating skills were lacking but wow, did it taste good. Rough and ready is all I can say, other that good tasty food, even by Lynda’s standards as you can see by her plate which she just about licked it clean.

Its a Wrap

After a late Sunday sleep in, and Lynda and I decided just to have a slow day in the countryside. So we headed out to Magaliesburg for a lazy Sunday afternoon. We stopped at the Vintage Amber padstal for a awesome light lunch of wraps. The owner Adri was attentive and made sure that we had a lovely experience. Oh and the carrot cake, uhmmm yummy. 

Iced Margarita

It is Lynda's birthday and I left early from the Rand Show so that we could go out for a celebratory dinner. we wanted to try something different and I thought about this steak house that I saw at the Retail Crossing at Little Falls. Driving there Lynda was telling me that last night Heidi from her work went to dinner at a franchise restaurant called Mo-Zam-Bik. She gave it a good review, so I said to Lynda that if this steak house didn't look good than there is a Mo-Zam-Bik on Beyers Naudé.

When we arrived at the place where this steak house was we discovered it closed down and replaced by, you guessed it Mo-Zam-Bik. The choice was made, happy birthday dear, as she raises her iced margarita. Although we had a nice dinner at Mo-Zam-Bik, I found the decor and the atmosphere a bit bland, and could fit into any corporate canteen. It needs to go a long way to compete with the likes of La Rosa, a Mexican restaurant. 

Señor Jose

Getting out of the house, is good for one, and today an emergency cropped up at home just as we were about to leave for church. So I had to stay at home to arrange for a plumber but the after hours call out is horrendous and since it wasn't such a big job, I got my hands wet and fixed the problem.

I joined Lynda afterwards at Señor Jose, a small Portuguese restaurant by the car wash place that we go to. So while Lynda's car was been pampered, I jot stuck into this Moçambique Peri-Peri Chicken, yummy.

La Rosa

We pass the La Rosa, a Mexican Grille and Tequileria, quite often and since Jon asked how to get there as he had a meeting, I was intrigued. If it was good enough for Jon to meet and greet, well it should be good for us too.

Anyways with both Lynda and I coming home late today and carpooling since we were working in the same area, we decided to make it a date night. So we stopped on the way home at La Rosa for a tasty supper.

The restaurant’s décor was beautifully done in the colourful Día de Muertos theme and the burritos that we ordered very scrumptious. I mean even the toilets was worth a visit with the stunning murals all over. La Rosa is defiantly down for another visit.

Rooster Valentine

In our hectic busy lives, it is important to stop every now and again and reflect what is important. Today is Valentine’s Day or Single Awareness Day depending what side of the bridge you on. At the end of a hectic busy Tuesday, I had booked a table at Lucios Pizzeria in Northcliff which in my humble opinion one of the best Italian restaurants in Johannesburg.

Arriving at Lucios we found the place packed and their seems to be a train smash in the kitchen as they were flooded with take away orders as well as being full to the brim. Knowing that there would be a long wait for our food, I ordered a focaccia with our drinks. The drinks arrived, then an hour and a half later our main course, somehow our starters got forgotten or never put through. The table next to us also never got their starters. I am not sure what happened but it seems that the kitchen battled to recover from the train smash with many customers waiting nearly 2 hours for their food. I know of one table walking out without getting their food and another, a take away customer telling the front of house staff to give their food to the car guards outside once the kitchen decides to make what they already paid for. Shame this might hurt Lucios.

Still an awesome restaurant in my opinion even if it looks like Lucios failed Valentine’s Day by taking on the flood of takeaways at the same time. For their sake let’s hope they learnt their lesson as I really do want to go back and try again, this time on a quieter more romantic evening.

The Silver Birch Restaurant

I say Continental, you say Conintenental!

With all the load shedding of electricity what can you do? Stay at home, go out, but don’t try travel in traffic as all the light are out. I mean literary Eskom has let us down once again, they have dropped the ball. I mean what did South Africa use before candles? Electricity.

So we went out and found a spot that was between load shedding. Oh we can’t give Eskom credit for load shedding as it is just bad planning and management on their part, period. So we had a late Sunday lunch at The Silver Birch Restaurant inside Life Style Garden Centre. We ordered something light as one does when not knowing when Eskom would be ugly and turn off the lights. What caught our attention on their newly made menus was the spelling mistakes. Oh my word didn’t anyone spell check?

Fratelli