Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Tiny and tucked away doesn’t mean it’s good
Creativejuice
ANOTHER day, another eatery inside a design store. Unfortunately they can’t all be winners.
The Blue Door is a tiny place inside and upstairs at Farriers, tucked away in the corner. It serves breakfast, light lunches, teas, coffees, cakes and pastries. On Monday we were the only ones there and yet the service was excruciatingly slow. It pains me to point this out because our waitress Vivien was lovely, with a gorgeous smile, but she knew almost nothing about what was on the small menu, and wasn’t very attentive when it came to taking our order. I had to go up to the counter twice to do this.
The menu itself and what materialised on our plates was a comedy of errors. The first item was an Asian chicken wrap (R65 – there are no prices indicated and Vivien wasn’t sure about those either) which turned out to be a filling of creamy chicken in the style of a la king. Served with a small side salad, Mom enjoyed it nonetheless, but Asian it was not.
When I asked what the quiches of the day (R40 with a side salad) were, Vivien said there was no more vegetarian – how is that even possible at 12.30pm when no one else is there? – but there was bacon. That was fine with me but what was served contained peppers and mushrooms. With apologies it was swopped.
Other options, vaguely explained and yawn-inducing, were Moroccan pita bread with vegetar- ian filling and salad, two types of toasted sandwich – chicken mayo or cheese and tomato, and, a salad of not much more than leaves and a few other bits and pieces. In other words, nothing terribly exciting. It’s been said that food must first appeal to the eyes before the mouth, but I think the attraction should begin even before that, with a menu description or an enthusiastic server.
In this case, the lacklustre presentation carried through to the taste. The pastry of the quiche was tough and the heat suggested energetic microwaving. The non-Asian chicken was the best thing about the meal.
When there are glass bell jars on a counter, housing cakes, I find them hard to resist so we had some to take away for later. I had a slice of orange cake with white icing and sparsely decorated with glace cherries in an amateur way, which turned out to be dry and lacking much orange flavour to the point of being inedible. Mom took a slice of chocolate cake which she said was also dry, and a slice of berry-topped cheesecake for Dad which scored a “yummy”, so at least there was that in favour of The Blue Door. Each was billed at R30 although the chalkboard has the cheesecake at R35. There were chocolate brownies, muffins, and lemon with or without meringue in foil cases. “I don’t think I’ll have that, they look as if they come from Fruit & Veg,” said Mom. Nothing wrong with Fruit & Veg, we are fans of Food Lovers Markets, but at a place that professes its bakes are “homemade”, well that’s just not all right.
With two soft drinks the bill came to R224 without a tip.