The Five Flies

Food:

The standard of food has dropped alarmingly in what was once considered one of Cape Town’s favourites. The menu lists fixed prices for starters, mains and desserts, while shellfish and speciality items (such as springbok Wellington) require a surcharge. Grilled field mushrooms with gorgonzola and caramelised onions are a good vegetarian starter, while the 400g T-bone is a popular choice for a main.

Wine:

Large, commercial farms with reds and whites grouped together according to price.

Service:

The staff tries hard. Almost too hard. There seems to be a need to turn tables over quickly, which translates into an impersonal experience.

Ambience:

Surely one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, the home of Five Flies is magnificent, with high ceilings, restored dark wood and black-and-white tiled floors.

And...:

There are plenty of options for private dining, one of which is a tiny cellar with a table for two. (AF, September 2010)

Comments

Dave
7-Jan-2012

Personally I like going to places with less than savoury reviews to see if it truely is the case. As a vegetarian I was quite looking forward to the mushroom starter that you referred to. Unfortunately it has not been on the menu for almost over a year, as your review is rather dated. I had a lovely lentil, dahl and goats cheese bake with asparagus, carrot puree and basil vinaigrette. Very yummy for a veg meal! The fixed price menu fell away last year (new ownership I was told), as well as the winelist you mentioned. Our party of eight had a fabulous dinner, enjoying both food and ambience. Time for a fresh review, seeing as your's is over a year old. Now where shall we dine tomorrow?

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Merle Fannin
14-May-2012

Five Flies Restaurant is situated in Keerom Street across the road from the High Court in central Cape Town.

Housed in what was once a gentleman’s club, the restaurant maintains the ambience of quiet elegance and unshakable dignity. Approach the restaurant from the opposite side of the road and you cannot fail to notice the prominent facade of wooden sash windows and the sculptured relief work below the eaves of the building.

After passing through the beautifully maintained wood paneled main entrance we entered the well appointed Madeba room. The room is aptly presided over by a huge portrait of Madeba himself on one wall while another is covered by mainly antique clocks, all of which appear to have completed their marking of time and are now forever silent.

Being Mother’s Day the restaurant created a special menu for the event – and what a menu! My starter was braised lamb soup with potato and crème fraiche. For the main course I chose char-grilled rib-eye steak on potato puree with buttered spinach and wild mushrooms and a blue cheese rarebit. My son and daughter in law indulged in the line fish which they repeatedly praised and we finished by each of us ordering a different dessert, all three of which were appropriately decadent.

My compliments to the chef and his assistants for a steak which was so tender I barely had to cut it and they also understand what medium rare means! Presentation and the servings of food are to be highly commended – not too much food on the plate and none of this nonsense of serving minuscule amounts of food on huge plates with squiggles of whatever dribbled all over the plate – a definite move towards ruining my meal and putting me in a foul mood! The chef at Five Flies restaurant presents the food and not the plate!

Congratulations to all the Five Flies and their assistants at the restaurant, and our waitress who was attentive but never irritating.

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Marianne Engvall
25-Feb-2012

We have been back to Five Flies, after a truly bad experience one year ago. Friends of ours wanted to go, so we joined. It is still horribly bad! Overselling, tourist trap, expensive, very average food, etc etc. This was the last time we will eat there. I just get very nervous thinking of all visitors recommended to go there. For some odd reason many hotels and guesthouses has Five Flies on their short list. Why?

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Comments

Sandy Buchanan
27-Feb-2012

Five Flies when Gerard Reidy was the chef a good many years ago presented stunning food. From your review it seems they are still trading on the better days...

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John Peace
1-Jan-2012

New Years Eve party. Food very average as was the service. Had to give credit card details when making the reservation. Told them they could use for securing the reservation and would pay cash. They ignored this and put the full amount plus 10% through on card.

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