Restaurant Review – Dinner at The Stack

I’ve been meaning to do a little blog mention about The Stack for a while now.  My friend D and I checked it out a couple of weeks ago for a Saturday eve dinner after hearing some good things about this relatively new Cape Town dining hot spot.

Part private members club, part public brasserie, The Stack is housed in a beautiful 160-year old building by the name of Leinster Hall which is tucked away in quite a leavy section of the Gardens area.

I had heard some complaints about how the interior decor doesn’t quite fit the Georgian structure of the building with it’s intricate Victorian-style detailing, but reports about the food were very positive, so was quite excited to give it a try.

I have to say, I actually didn’t mind the decor of the main brasserie dining room.  I thought it was fun, but still quite elegant.  The bar area on the other hand wasn’t my vibe, but more about that later.

Here are a few shots of the dining room:

The Brasserie menu has a strong French feel (being a brasserie and all).  The Stack Head Chef, Warwick King, hails from Delaire & Phinda, so a pretty impressive CV indeed.  You can have a look at their Brasserie & Dessert menus over here, but I also snapped a quick pic on the night:

For starters our waiter highly recommended the beef tartare (R95), which I decided to opt for and then D had the duck rillettes (R95):

I had a small taste of the duck rillettes and it was lovely, but the beef tartare was by far the winning dish.   For mains I opted for the Duck à L’orange (R165) and D went for the Plats du Jour which was a Pork Confit on the night (R165):

Both dishes were nice, but didn’t quite blow us away.  I was hoping my duck would be something I would end up craving after, forcing me to go back again and again, but sadly it didn’t quite hit the mark…

For dessert I tried their Tarte au Citron (R65) while D opted for his favourite dessert, Crème brulée (R65):

Out of the two I tought the crème brulée was the definite winner.  The lemon tart was nice, just again not a show-stopper…

After dinner we decided to have some margaritas at the bar…  Since Vietnam (where I had some of the best margaritas of my life) I’ve been on a bit of a mission to find the best margaritas in Cape Town… If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below.  As far as The Stack margarita goes, it’s a pretty solid option.

Overall we had a lovely evening at The Stack.  The service was good, the atmosphere was welcoming, and the food… well it was nice – not wow, I gotta have it right now!! amazing, but very nice indeed.

For this reason I’m going to give The Stack a score of  on my Miss K Kiss-o-Meter scale.  I may go back for the tartare and then try a different main…

To check it out for yourself, take note of the following need-to-knows:

• Address:  Leinster Hall, 7 Weltevreden Street, Gardens, Cape Town
• You can contact them on:  021 286 0187
• And they are open:  Monday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm, Tuesday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm, Wednesday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm, Thursday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm, Friday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm, Saturday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm  (they are closed on Sundays)

xxx