Reviews

The Cape Times/Escape. November 2012
CASUAL SUBLIME: Chef Bruce Robertson, the ‘Radical dining expert’,has kicked off his solo showroom venture.
Acclaimed food Crit and writter, Jos Baker gives The Boat House a very rare Five Stars! “Just be content to admire the picture-perfect plating, savour the masterly flavours and soak up the relaxed ambience (and wines).


 
Food and Home Entertaining Magazine – November 2012
 
“Dear Chef Bruce. Words couldn’t possibly describe what a great luncheon experience we had at your home! Collee and I will remember it for the rest of our lives!!! Thanks sooo much. Colleen & Bert” Irish Links Group/Tours & Travel. Www.Irish-Links.com

 Bruce – Lunch with you was clearly the highlight of our entire trip to South Africa. You can quote us as follows:  

 “Dining with Chef Bruce is an experience you will never forget.
The food, it’s preparation and presentation were truly over the top.  Bruce is to food what Picasso is to art in that both are beyond imagination. Irrespective of who you or where you have been you will never have a greater culinary experience than lunch with Chef Bruce at The Boat House in Cape Town.”

Barbara and Ralph Cox
Ft Worth, Texas

 Pat and Dee Osborne
Houston,  Texas 
Lew Rood says….
For those touring the Cape Peninsula for the first time, or coming back to admire the beauty of the drive, book ahead for talented chef Bruce Robertson’s great new venue which opened during the year.  In a seaside house in the coastal village of Scarborough, “With Chef Bruce!” (www.chefbrucerobertson.com), for a truly memorable, personal dining experience with loads of atmosphere. Book now or you won’t get a seat at the table …

 http://lewrood.com/




CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER/USA
ESSENTIAL:DISCOVERY Page 26
JULY 2012 WORD OF MOUTH
A Cape Town Chef Gets Personal
The in-the-know eater is no stranger to pop-up affairs. (Fancy five-course meal in a decrepit warehouse? Check. On a boat? Yessir. In a bodega? Of course.) But the trend has gotten much more intimate in Cape Town: Vaunted chef Bruce Robertson now opens his home to a few lucky diners everday. His Boat House ‘restaurant’ on the top level of his two-story home in historic Scarborough, just south of Cape Town, serves a three- and a five-course seafood-centered lunch: One might begin with gnocchi in prawn chowder with seaweed “confetti,” moving on to smoked mackerel pâté with mascarpone cream, tuck into an entrée of bluefish with warm salad niçoise, and finished with melkkos, a cinnamony-sweet traditional Afrikaans pudding, and Cape Peninsula cheeses with sour fig chutney.
But why,  in an age of closely guarded personal space, would a chef allow strangers to enter his sunny haven? “I’m in love with my continent,” says Robertson. “I’m in love with the people-and I’m certainly in love with the food.”

36 Beach Rd.;27-21-780-1789; prix fixes from $42, including wine.

‘Our sublime meal’…GILTEDGE TRAVEL ‘World Travel Awards’ Winner 2011/South Africa’s Leading Luxury Tour Operator

Jenny and I left our offices on a grey and rainy Friday, heading down the Peninsula towards Scarborough. Winding along the coastal road, past surfers resting on the rise and fall of the ocean at Misty Cliffs, we were reminded of the beautiful city we are privileged to call home.

The Boat House is a charming Cape Cod style beach house, located along gravel Beach Rd, with only a grove of milkwoods between the house and sea.  Bubbly Bruce met us, barefoot (despite the cold!), looking relaxed in faded, rolled up denims as we made a dash inside between cloudbursts.
Brightly coloured towels and picnic baskets line a bench in the entrance, waiting to be collected by those wishing to picnic on the nearby beach.

Bruce’s home is warm & welcoming, dotted with the many treasures from his years of globetrotting. Glimpses of his past successes are evident everywhere, ghost chairs from the Showroom grace the patio, canvasses from the Long Street bunny chow shop dominate one wall and his many awards another.

Whilst we sipped a glass of sparkling wine, delicious aromas emanated from the open plan kitchen where Bruce began to prepare or meal. We sat at a driftwood sculpted rough table, laid simply with small tiles as a side plate. Bruce only serves 5 Cederberg wines, courses paired with Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin & Rose for the starter & mains and a Bukketraube & Shiraz with dessert.

Our sublime meal began with a seafood chowder  – homemade gnocchi, mussels and baby marrow served in a deep bowl and topped with a fresh mung bean sprout, grown on Bruce’s windowsill.
Bruce chatted easily with us as he cooked and sat with us to explain each course and accompanying wine. We watched as he plated our mains,  olive oil mash, topped with fresh line fish, warm Nicoise cream and a little quail egg. All ingredients are sourced within a 20 km radius, fish from Kalk Bay, veggies and cheese from locals, herbs homegrown.  Bruce is also a SASSI supporter.  We talked about travel, food and life in general and managed to squeeze in a beautifully plated dessert in between, traditional ‘Melk Kos’ Boeber jelly, home made stewed fruit samoosas, nachtmusik and honey caviar (pollen removed from the sacs of honeybees!)

All of our clients and friends would be privileged to experience this intimate and very Cape Town chef’s table with Bruce as their Chef/Cook/Waiter/ Sommelier and Host. Located just 8km’s from the gates of the  Cape of Good Hope Nature, this is a perfect Cape Point day lunch stop.


‘Travel & Leisure‘ Magazine/Blog June 2012
“…And what a lunch it is. Five elaborate, seafood-centric courses are artfully presented over the course of a languid afternoon, while the barefoot chef engages guests with rip-roaring anecdotes from his adventurous life (he’s hitchhiked from Cape Town to Cairo, and lived to tell the tale)…”

 Cape Fusion Tours
“…I loved it.  How wonderful to be able to visit Bruce in his own home, and what a home, it is on the sea and it is gorgeous.  Just visiting this space would be special to me.   Add to it spending time with a very relaxed and charismatic host, who is passionate and full of  energy, plus the opportunity to watch a top chef working in a relaxed and laid back environment – and then to sit back and enjoy five delicious courses paired with delicious wines.  This was my idea of paradise!  Book immediately and spoil yourself….”

 Whale Cottage Portfolio
“…One should not think that Chef Bruce’s food is as casual as his dress. Effortlessly he was preparing the food in his open plan kitchen/dining room.  As one chats to one’s table companions one is not so focused on what Chef Bruce is doing in the kitchen.  He comes to the tables regularly, checking all the time that all is in order and to one’s satisfaction, and he provides snippets of information about his food or about the Cederberg wines.  Chef Bruce not only has culinary skills, but he could recareer as an interior decorator too. In eight months he has made a home of the house, with all his special things, creating groupings of this and that,  with lots of family photographs, and his past restaurant awards grace the walls with many other special pictures.  He has two rustic wooden tables covered with glass tops and matching chairs, with the odd ghost chair (Chef Bruce probably was the first restaurateur to use them in a restaurant, at The Showroom), a reminder of his great career.  If there is one thing that will stand out about the lunch then it is the most beautiful composition of half a lime, olive oil, salt and pepper, butter, and the cutlery, on a sheet of miniature tiles, providing perfect ‘compartments’ for the items, and doubling up as a side plate.  A beautiful warm mini-seedloaf was added to this collection….”