Taste buds delight at Kopanong’s new terrace menu
We recently sampled the new terrace menu at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre, in Benoni Road.
The terrace overlooks the pool area where a fountain plays and birds (robins, weavers and wagtails) flit to and fro, all adding to the peaceful atmosphere while you relax and wait for your meal to be served.
New dishes include oven roasted Portuguese sardines (oven roasted with rock salt and olive oil, served with peri-peri sauce and a side salad), beef trinchado (marinated rump sautéed with onion, galic, chilli finished off with red wine served with a rosemary and black pepper focaccia), a choice of pizza toppings and a selection of toasted tramezzinis (Cajun chicken and guacamole; chicken mayo and gherkin; smoked mozzarella, tomato and basil pesto; and bacon, scrambled egg and Emmentaler cheese).
Although the menu is not extensive it has something for all tastes and cravings.
Could have chosen the cheese steak roll (French baguette toasted with garlic butter, layered with thinly sliced sirloin steak with a cheddar cheese sauce and braised onions), or the snack basket (ribs, fish bites, chicken wings, spring rolls and potato wedges) but instead plumped for the smoked salmon salad, oven roasted Portuguese sardine and chicken peri-peri,
The smoked salmon and cream cheese salad looked magnificent when it was brought to the table, big enough for two to share as a starter or as a main course for one.
The salmon melted in my mouth and the cheese was smooth and creamy, set on a bed of greens and all offset by the salty capers and, a delight and new to me, topped with pickled quail eggs.
The sardines had the fresh tang of the sea and the peri-peri sauce added just the right bite of heat to round off the dish nicely.
The chicken peri-peri (a drumstick and thigh portion of baby chicken) was tender and the juices from the chicken and peri-peri sauce had soaked into the potato wedges, making them delicious and very moreish.
All in all a pleasant outing, relaxing in the pool/garden setting with tasty food.
Restaurant manager Sgogodela Babadu said the terrace menu is available seven days a week, at all hours, as the restaurant caters for conference centre and other guests.
The Kopanong also has a buffet meal service, but it is best to phone and confirm this as it is dependent on numbers at the hotel. HG
