9 Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari (20 to 28 Feb 2020) Trip Report Menu
Day 1: Singapore – Stellenbosch
Day 2: Stellenbosch – Stony Point – Cape Town
Day 3: Cape Town – Old Biscuit Mill & Super Rugby
Day 4: Cape Town – Lion’s Head
Day 5: Cape Town – Bo Kaap, Chapman’s Drive, Cape Peninsula, Muizenberg, La Colombe
Day 6: Cape Town – Phinda
Day 7: Phinda
Day 8: Phinda
Day 9: Phinda – Singapore
Day 3: Cape Town – Old Biscuit Mill & Super Rugby
Mrs secured a lunch reservation at The Pot Luck Club a few days prior. It is located at Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, a former rundown suburb since gentrified to be a hip neighbourhood with trendy restaurants and shops.
It was a short 10-minute drive to Windstock and we paid 5 ZAR to park at the carpark of College of Cape Town, across the road from Old Biscuit Mill.
Old Biscuit Mill, as its name suggested, was a former factory converted in a community space.
Made up of several buildings, the main draw was the weekly Neighbourgoods Market which took place every Saturday.
There were stalls selling fresh produce but the main attraction were cuisines from all over the world.
Fresh mushrooms
Mrs got a cup of coffee from Origin to get the day going.
Bunga Bunga, one of the more popular stalls, got our attention.
Their Bunga Bunga flat bread seemed to be a big hit among the crowd.
We didn’t partake in any of the food offering though since we were saving our stomachs for the lunch ahead. After browsing through the food zone, we moved onto other parts of the compound.
Woof Project by Oscars Arc hopes to encourage more dog adoption through outreach; however, some of the dogs seemed sedated, which was quite worrying to us.
Area where more shops are located
Chimney
Popped inside a souvenir shop and saw Mandela Tea for sale. Interestingly, we didn’t see them being sold at supermarkets though.
ArtLab, one of the anchor tenants at Old Biscuit Mill
Some of the images found in the shop set the tone for our trip.
We also saw an old map of Cape Town, probably from the 19th century. Based on the street names, our hotel was formerly a burial ground. Hmmm…
Star marks the spot
We arrived slightly earlier than our reservation time at The Pot Luck Club. Opened by Luke Dale Roberts, the same chef behind the famous The Test Kitchen (also located in Old Biscuit Mill), its concept is slightly different from the usual fine dining; instead of having courses, dishes are meant to be shared and diners are encouraged to order three to four plates per person.
Its signature logo on the menu
Our order (pardon my poor handwriting)
From our seats at the counter, we could see all the action unfolding in the kitchen.
We were impressed how the professional chefs kept their workstations neat and clean at all times.
The seafood dishes were served first, followed by the chicken and finally the beef before dessert. Since neither of us are food critics, I will let the pictures do the talking.
The first two dishes
Fish taco
Limefish sashimi – Mrs proclaimed it to be the best dish of the day
Glazed tuna
Cape Malay fish
Close-up
Peri peri chicken
Smoked beef fillet
Orange & olive oil cake
In all, it was a good meal, although the service was kind of slow. The bill came up to be slightly above 1,200 ZAR for the two of us.
I’ve always been interested in catching live sports event whenever we were traveling; rugby union is the one of the most popular sports in South Africa, which also happens to be the reigning world champion.
Despite the impending bad weather, we decided to head to Newlands Stadium for the Super Rugby between the home team Stormers and the visitors Jaguares from Argentina, the previous year’s runners-up.
Our car was parked around 500m away, near Westerford High School, and the skies opened up as we made our way to the stadium. With a big capacity of 51,000, it wasn’t difficult to buy the ticket right before the start of the match and we found our seats right before the match kicked off.
We paid 170 ZAR each for Cat 1 tickets, way lower than the cheapest ticket at a similar Super Rugby match in Singapore.
The full time score of 17-7 to the home team meant that Stormers was the only remaining unbeaten team after four rounds and the local fans went home happy
Match highlights
View of Lion’s Head on N2
After resting a bit back at the hotel, we headed out for dinner. Instead of going to V&A where we had been the night before, we took a cheap Bolt ride (21 ZAR) to Burger & Lobster at Bree Street.
Exterior – taken after the meal
Cosy interior
It has a daily 2-for-1 special between 4pm and 7pm for certain drinks and we were just in time to take advantage of that.
Exotic Marigold – Mrs would regret later
Exotic Marigold and Watermelon
Bar bites (mini prawn roll, buffalo wings, prawn popcorn and mini burger bombs) are available for 49 ZAR per serving.
We also got a burger to share but only remembered to take a photograph after the portion was split between us.
The total bill was 650 ZAR for the two of us which was pretty decent in our opinion. We called it a day after another cheap Bolt ride (21 ZAR) brought us back to the hotel.
