Seafood risotto topped with two king prawns. sauce.
Image: Frank Chemaly
Fiamma Grill
Where: Coco de Mer Boutique Hotel, 63 Compensation Beach Road, Ballito
Open: Daily 7.30am to 10.30pm
Call: 032 946 1029
ON AN Easter weekend, there are few better places for families with young children. And Fiamma Grill was packed. Large tables of all generations enjoying spending time together.
The restaurant lends itself to it. “There’s the formal restaurant, but the real action was outside on the large pool deck. The kids were swimming, others sunning themselves on pool loungers sipping cocktails. At the far end is a sunny deck with tables and umbrellas. Packed.
A sushi platter with the addition of salmon sashimi.
Image: Frank Chemaly
On our side is a large covered verandah complete with a bar off the one side. Packed. We relished the cool spot. And soon got into the conviviality of it all.
Afterall it was Arjun's birthday and the Poet and Vivek and his brother Karthik and the Advocate and I were here to celebrate.
Breakfast is a thing here, from a full buffet option mainly aimed at hotel guests to a variety of designer ways with eggs.
Roast baby chicken
Image: Frank Chemaly
The menu is extensive. There's a selection of sushi, starters, salads, pizzas and pastas. All the families around us seemed to be tucking into the pizza. There's a grill section that includes steaks, fish, chicken and combos of them all. Plus a kids menu.
For starters we decide on sushi by ordering a platter (R465) and two sides of salmon sashimi (R125). We also ordered two plates of olives, stuffed with feta and served with aioli (R105). These were good large olives in a nice crisp crumb and a suitably garlicky aioli.
We enjoyed the sushi. Four Fiamma rockslides with tempura prawn roll topped with tempura prawn and a spicy mayo; four tuna crunch rolls, a California roll done in tempura batter; four trifecta rolls, a salmon and tuna lined roll around prawns; and four prawncados, this was a prawn and avo roll. The sashimi was nice and fresh.
Kingklip with peri-peri sauce.
Image: Frank Chemaly
Other starter options might include melanzane or baked mushrooms, marinated fillet of beef or carpaccio, chicken livers, snails, and various ways with calamari and mussels. Salads could include a Caprese with avo, prawn and calamari, or Gorgonzola.
For mains we went straight to the grill. The advocate enjoyed his seafood risotto (R285), topped with two large prawns. Arjun enjoyed his wood roasted baby chicken (R265) with a lemon, garlic and herb sauce. I pinched a wing and for me it was the pick of the meals with good flavour in the marinade.
Both the Poet and Karthik went for the linefish - kingklip - simply grilled with a choice of sauce (R310). The lemon butter was the better option but the Poet chose peri peri which was horrible. A thick astringent almost woody paste that was more Moroccan marinade than a peri peri sauce. The side salad was decent. Karthik enjoyed his side of roasted veg.
Beef fillet with Madagascan peppercorn sauce.
Image: Frank Chemaly
I chose beef fillet medallions (R285) for 280g with a pepper sauce (R50). The fillet was pleasant and cooked medium rare as requested, the pepper sauce enjoyable without being spectacular, but the chips were horrible - anaemic, just cooked, soggy creatures.
At this point service, which was slow, broke down. I had to find a waiter to bring me a dinner fork and to send those pitiful chips back to the kitchen for a second frying. The result was much improved.
Deep fried olives stuffed with feta and a aioli dipping sauce.
Image: Frank Chemaly
Dessert might include creme brulee, cheesecake, tiramisu and chocolate phyllo cigars with amaretto shots. But they kindly allowed us to bring a cake and so we sang to Arjun and enjoyed a quadruple layered dark chocolate and cream cake, which was very much more his thing.
Food: 2 ½
Service: 2
Ambience: 3 ½
The bill: I was the Poet’s guest