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Harbour House Seafood Platter

We are just back from an early evening meal at the Harbour House in Kalk Bay, some thirty minutes drive from Cape Town on the east side of the Cape peninsula. This is a most spectacular spot built on the pier with huge waves and surf spraying the windows. Outside, the fishermen offload their daily catches and one can buy the freshest fish to take home at give away prices.

Inside the large space that is Harbour House, there are lots of separate areas in the all white interior. Apart from the regular firm favourites on the menu, there is an extensive board of specials depending on the daily availability. The cooking style highlights the freshness of the ingredients but always with a creative twist. Although I couldn’t imagine eating anything but fish here, there are also meat and vegetarian options. The wine list is fairly simple but with a very well chosen range of appropriate wines. The Haute Cabriere Chardonnay Pinot Noir is a favourite of ours as it has a lovely freshness together with some body and a lovely slight pinkish hue – works well with most things on the menu. Other excellent choices would be the Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc, the Buiten Blanc from the same stable and the superb unoaked Bouchard Findlayson Chardonnay sans barrique.

This evening, we really enjoyed a marinated seafood ceviche of fresh fish, prawns, calamari and mussels with a lime and coriander dressing and also a lighted sauteed calamari dish dressed in olive oil, lemon zest, garlic and chilli. Mains followed with kingklip on a bed of basil infused potato and roasted vegetables while the hake was served on a bed of mash with pancetta and peas.

We once again enjoyed the Haute Cabriere Chardonnay Pinot Noir with this and finished off with two good espressos. With environmental consciousness, we also enjoyed lots of tap water served with lemon slices.

The bill for the two of us came to R600 plus a discretionary tip – there was no charge for the spectacular crashing sea, the source of all the great food we consumed.

On this occasion, we managed to get an early evening table by just walking in but this is unusual and I would strongly recommend booking especially at weekends in the high season.