Basic Bistro

Monday, December 8th, 2014

Reviewed by Sonja Vanderwesthuizen

I honestly wanted to write a good review about Basic as most of our friends are extremely loyal Basic customers and to them it's like a second home. Unfortunately after Friday evening's experience I can't agree. Both our meals were extremely disappointing. I admit, I did order a special - which is always a bit of a gamble. This particular special is a Burger and Beer for R68-00. Yes, a bargain of course, but when you order a burger, you don't expect the beef patty to be so small your meal basically (no pun intended) consisted of a roll. Because that was pretty the burger. The only other extra was a bit of onion marmalade. No trace of anything green, no salad, no leaf in sight. There were however, a large amount of crisps with balsamic vinegar drizzled over. I do realise that there's a trend to serve burgers mostly semi-raw and I've learnt to live with it. In this case, a severe stomach ache for 24 hours after wasn't what I was expecting. It could be just coincidence, but from now on I'm steering clear of all burgers prepared in restaurants. My better half ordered the Dukkah chicken pasta which tasted nice and creamy. We were expecting more of a dukkah flavour, but instead there was just a sprinkling of dukkah on top. For R72-00 one expects a bit more. Basic has a lovely setting with a great atmosphere. If only the food would live up to it. Sorry guys, for now I'll just walk past a try one of Church street's other restaurants.