Ryan's Kitchen

Located just outside Franschoek's Main Street, Ryan's Kitchen is listed as a restaurant specialising in contemporary South African cuisine. 

For lunch, they offer "small plates" instead of mains and starters - somewhat like slightly larger tapas portions. The advantage of this approach is off course the opportunity to try a lot more variety.

We had two vegetarian plates, two seafood plates, two meat plates and two deserts. The seafood, one angelfish, one trout were amazing - both takes on curries; but not in an Indian style. The tapioca mushroom plate was equally impressive. In comparison, the other plates had some impressive components but I was not overly impressed with the full combination. For example, the warthog was amazingly tender but the plate itself wasn't as impressive. Likewise, the Impala had amazing beetroot accompaniments but the Impala itself was fairly ordinary.

The deserts were amazing - the soufflé was soft and very fluffy; and the chocolate mouse desert was equally impressive.

Overall, I enjoyed Ryan's Kitchen more than Reuben's (on this trip); and the small playes makes a lot of sense for fine dining restaurants.

Oroboros

Oroboros is a relatively new cafe, located in York street, Muizenberg. It is tiny - just a few seats, and a bar; with a small kitchen and staff leading to fairly slow service. But the menu changes daily (it's posted on a blackboard), cheap, and best of all, amazingly good. It's a quirky place - and the food is worth it.

Table Mountain via Kasteelspoort and Corridor Ravine

I have hiked up Table Mountain numerous times, but yesterday was the first time I went up on the Camps Bay side of the mountain. Thanks to R, who seems to go up on the various routes up table mountain often, K and I got a different experience up the mountain.

We started at intersection of Kloofnek, Signal Hill and Table Mountain - and the first few kilometres is quite an easy countour path (I see it is often referred to as the pipe track); with glorious views of Camps Bay and Lion's Head. Unfortunately, the thick tablecloth at the top meant that the views from the top were non existent.

The push up Kasteelspoort is relatively steep, but well maintained path. With the strong wind and thick cloud, I found the last push to be difficult but I think this route is actually easier than Platteklip Gorge.

We stayed only for a short while at the top (given the absence of any views); and and down the Corridor Ravine - about 1 Km away. The descent was steep, on a rocky and sandy trail which eventually meets up with a jeep track around the base. Once we cleared the cloud, there was a great view of the 12 Apostles Hotel and surrounding area.

I am not sure I can rely on Strava's data from yesterday, but it looks accurate based on the other data I have seen. The full path was approx 14 Km, with the one major ascent, which is a good distance and route profile for a day hike.