French Toast Wine and Tapas Bar - Bree Street, CBD, Saturday July 30th

Holli Ramsey

Theme: French attire

Oui Oui - the words that poured out of my mouth as I sampled my tapas from French Toast Tapas and Wine Bar at the July Dinner Club on Saturday. I shared a platter of 7 different mixes of charcuterie and cheese and oh my, was it worth it for only R120! The creamy brie and spicy chorizo were amongst my favourties. Others indulged in the calamari tapas, smoked salmon - which melted in my mouth, the green bean, mange tout and herb salad was a hit - such fresh ingredients and reasonably priced at R35! The restaurant started us off with bruchetta for the table for free which I must say, shows a lot for a Cape Town restaurant. For our drinks most of us went with the wine flights, which are 50ml samples of their specialty wines of the month. I chose the unusual reds flight for R55 which included a wine from Sicily! I'm not a wine connoisseur, but this was amazing. A friend of mine said it tasted like dog biscuits, but I disagreed. It was very smooth and different to the reds here. Dark red in colour as the waitress said it was made with dark Sicilian grapes. Others enjoyed the bubbly flight for R80 which included a real French Champagne! I think it smelled of cheese and really didn't get great feedback from it. I also enjoyed a dry rose from Stellenbosch attractively priced at R23 which was a steal compared to most items. But as an acclaimed wine bar you would expect the prices of wine to be as high as they were. Id have to say the food was a more attractive choice for our group.

Not only was the food a success the place itself is warm and inviting yet posh and sophisticated. Decorated in dark colours with floor to ceiling windows that open up to the busy Bree Street I must say the venue is a 10 out of 10. It was a perfect dinner club to say goodbye to one of our original clubbers, and our Frenchy, Patricia - hence the theme of French and the restaurant chosen. Jules won the coveted award of best dressed for the theme! Congrats to her. Next in line for dinner club as he answered our quiz question correctly (What was the gift given to the Americans from the French? Bloggers do you know the answer?) Roelof! Let us see what he has in store for us...

French Toast we will be seeing you again soon au revoir  - for now mon amour xx  - promise to improve my French for next time.