Sometimes you walk into a restaurant and feel right at home, like you could pull up a chair and have a chat, while enjoying delicious food. The Woodlands Eatery in Cape Town’s Vredehoek is such a place.
“We want the restaurant to feel like an extension of our dining room,” says owner and chef Larry Steenkamp, who previously ran the successful Emily Moon in Plettenberg Bay and has been involved in the food business for over 18 years.
In the four months the restaurant has been open, he’s certainly achieved that.
How was restaurant born?
The idea of having something of my own has been germinating in my mind for some time. When, on a weekend visit to Cape Town in August last year, my wife and I took a wrong turn and came upon the To Let sign, we knew we’d found the right spot.
The quaint and quirky setting suited our vision perfectly.
Who runs the show?
My wife, Sarah Cronwright, and I run it together – I do most of the cooking with the help of a small team.
We believe in being involved and getting to know our customers.
We are also fortunate to have an amazing staff who’s been with us for years, most notably our bar manager, Lucky, who followed us from our previous restaurant and without whom we could never have done it.
What's on the menu?
It changes weekly according to what’s in season, but the thin-based pizzas are an expanding fixture.
I love cooking with fresh herbs and, while nothing beats a classic, I enjoy experimenting with new dishes.
Seasonal highlights include the artichoke and mushroom pasta with pine nuts and goat’s cheese, a fresh fig and walnut pizza and a decadent chocolate fondant.
Cute and quirky, the decor is as much a part of the appeal as the food.
Who masterminded the restaurant's look?
My wife and I did everything ourselves and almost all the furniture is repurposed junk that we collected from scrap yards, auctions and secondhand shops.
Sarah has a real talent for breathing new life into things. She also designed our logo.
Where to from here?
We would love to become the reliable, unpretentious local – an institution that people can rely on for good food.
That said, we’ll continue to evolve so that we never become stale or complacent.
WHEN TO GO
Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9 am to 11 pm. The Woodlands Eatery, 2 Deer Park Avenue West, Vredehoek, Cape Town; tel: (021) 801-5799