Haiku

 I have been wanting to go to Haiku for years now, my brother went a few years ago and he raved about the place for weeks, Finally I asked friends of mine who are regulars there to please let me join them and to make it as soon as possible.

It is situated on a small street with its entrance on Burg street which has an alley way feeling when you walk towards the door. I love the interior, the lighting is dim and the Chinese style decor is quite glam so I had this feeling of almost illegal underground entry.

The barman welcomed me with a glass of wine as I awaited my friends arrival. The bar is beautiful all dark wood but the bar stools were a bit low as I sat eye level with the bottles pictured above.

I left the choices to my friends who are all foodies and know what's really good to try, there are specials on at the moment, 2 course meal R179, 5 course meal R249 and lunch specials which are assorted platters for R119 but we went with A La Carte. We were 4 people which is a good number as most dishes come out in fours so we could each try everything except the spring rolls.

On the table they serve condiments, pickled cucumber, sesame oil bean sprouts, a chilli sauce and I think a tomato chutney of some kind. We started with BBQ duck spring rolls and hoisin sauce, delicious prawn toasts, spinach and cream cheese translucent steam dumplings ( Har Gau) and chicken potstickers which are pan fried dumplings. 

These were all absolutely divine, the food kept coming, next was a raw tuna salad which had a sesame dressing, lettuce, raw onion slices, avocado and cucumber.

Lastly were our two main courses which was a saucy stir fried calamari, crisp fresh vegetables, sticky coconut rice and another favorite of mine, Peking duck pancakes with cucumber, spring onion and hoisin sauce.

Everything was really tasty with perfectly balanced flavours, I heard there is a system they use to help you order using star ratings however this was not explained to us and I can't help but think its not quite the same as in it's heydays when they were on the top of all restaurant lists, the service was a bit slack but I can't fault the food. I can say that I will go back and eat plate's full of dim sum, in fact just the pictures are making me crave to go back. The mains were perfectly made however you could get these dishes at Chef pons in town and be just as satisfied.

Our meal came to R250 per person with 2 bottles of wine and a tip.

Haiku Restaurant

33 Church street, enter from Burg street

021 - 424 7000

Pictures and article is copyright by Tamsyn Wells