Discovering Spoon Eatery: A delightful Sunday lunch experience in Assagay

Spoon Eatery

Where: 4 Castle Road, Assagay

Open: Wednesday to Saturday noon to 9pm, Sunday noon to 4pm.

Call: 067 029 2200

Our little Sunday Lunch Club finally met up again. You know that everyone is so busy and has a thousand and one things on. Well finally the Fat Frog Lady and I went up to see the Food Writer’s new pad in Hillcrest, and I insisted we celebrate with lunch. 

Yes her pad is lovely although still cluttered with the many extra items from her bigger Glenwood flat.

And the Food Writer managed at short notice to get us a table at Spoon, a place I had been wanting to visit for some time. She did say the full restaurant had managed to squeeze us in - yes a small passage area under the pass - but we didn’t mind as it allowed us to admire the dishes coming out of the kitchen. 

Spoon is a lovely homely restaurant once you find it - we got horribly lost. Perched on a hill overlooking the valley, it's basically a long terrace with various rooms and sections off it - all spilling out into the beautiful garden. 

Our host Jenna has a lovely philosophy about food, where you are definitely part of the family. She grew up in the area, attending the 1000 Hills Chefs School and then went on to work in Ottolenghi’s London kitchen before sailing the world as a private chef. Coming home it was all about her passion for food, family and friends that led to her putting down roots and the birth of Spoon.

It has an eclectic menu, Spanish and Italian dominated.

Starters might include marinated olives or a patatas bravas with aioli and a spicy tomato sauce. There’s carpaccio with deep fried capers and a Parmesan dressing and croquettes or a soup of the day. 

We opted to share the crispy salt and pepper squid (R100) with a lime mayo which were exactly that. Lovely crispy bites with a squeeze of lemon. If there was one super minor criticism of the day it was perhaps that the mayo might have had something more piquant in it. We also loved the prawns in garlic chilli and smoked paprika (R95). Served with crisp ciabatta these had a wonderful depth of flavour and bite.

We couldn’t decide on mains so in the meantime decided we would share a pizza just to try one out - as the menu encouraged us to linger, we’d share main courses later. There are more traditional options with salami, or parma ham or bacon avo and feta, but our eye settled on the Chef’s Favourite (R125). This was a white pizza - as in no tomato base - with caramelised onions, crisp potato slices, fontina and honey. It was unlike anything I would have imagined, but it worked so well. The base was nice and crisp, as were the potato slices and the honey not only added a touch of sweetness, but floral notes as well. So the three pizza sceptics at the table demolished it joyously.

Mains included light bites like a quiche of the day and a selection of wraps, toasties and sandwiches. The real cheese toastie which uses gruyere looks like a treat. Then there’s salads that include roasted pear or grilled Mediterranean veg. 

Mains included chicken Milanese on a wild mushroom risotto, or hake and salmon fish cakes with home made tartare sauce. The sticky Asian pork ribs looked magnificent sitting on the pass (I was tempted to pinch one) as did the hake in caper butter with italian style potatoes and cherry tomatoes. There’s even a ‘Good Old Burger’.

We opted to share two different pastas which came with a choice of homemade gnocchi, spaghetti or penne. We loved the spaghetti with prawns and fried zucchini (R150) cooked in a deeply flavourful aglio olio style. So simple. So fresh. It’s basically garlic parsley and a squeeze of lemon over the top but it was so wonderfully satisfying. Beating all those heavy cream sauces one sees elsewhere.

Then we tried a pasta from their specials (R150). It might not appeal to everyone but it was anchovies cooked with tomatoes and garlic and tossed through spaghetti and coated with fried breadcrumbs and Parmesan. What an incredible flavour punch. We all liked the fact that the tomato hadn’t completely broken down yet and that both anchovies and garlic were generous. Another simple pasta made from simple ingredients that turn our to be a treat.

We were by this stage well and truly stuffed - but then our eye caught “a proper home made tiramisu” on the menu (R85). And yes, hooray, it was as proper as proper can be. We shared it very happily. The caramel baked apple and the blueberry and apple crumble both sound worth trying, especially as I am always a sucker for apple desserts. Next time. 

We also enjoyed a selection of handmade  chocolates (R90) from Cocoa Africa painted in beautiful green white and blue colours and swirls. We ended up fighting over the salted caramel one.

Food: 4

Service: 4

Ambience: 4

The bill: R1026 for three