Dinner at Il Leone...

Last week, after a very hard month of work, Josh finally received his first pay check... YIPEEEEE!!!

To celebrate he took me out for a wonderful day at the V&A Waterfront, where we ate a lot, drank a few cocktails, walked very far and laughed a lot. Then he bought me some pretty shoes(I think that was so he wouldn't have to feel bad about wanting to stop somewhere to watch the rugby), and took me for dinner at Il Leone.

Spoilt right??

My Completely Irrelevant, but Very Pretty New Shoes :)

Tea Time, Primi Style!

I have never been to Il Leone before, but I have heard that it's supposed to be one of Cape Town's TOP pasta restaurants. I don't know if they were having a bad night, but what a disappointment...

We booked a table quite early, but when we arrived at 18.30 they were hardly ready for us. We were seated in the upstairs area, where it was freezing cold, and right smack bang next to a 12 seater table.

Luckily we arrived and managed to order before the big table arrived, because after that, our waiter lost all interest in us. I was not offered another glass of wine after my first and couldn't even get his attention for long enough to ask.

That said, our starters were magnificent. After being told my original choice in starter was not available, I had a chicken broth with chicken tortellini. I don't know how they packed so much flavour into a little bowl of soup, but WOWEE!

My Chicken Broth, Not Much To Look At But So Yum.

 Josh had the Carpaccio and was also very happy with it, though I doubt it was as good as my soup :)

Josh's Carpaccio

 Then after waiting a while for our plates to be cleared, our main course arrived almost too quickly. Again, we were not offered more wine, and by this stage the big table next to us was getting loud and rowdy. So much so that I could hardly hear or concentrate on what Josh was saying. 

We both chose to eat one of the dishes recommend by our waiter, A tomato based Penne, with prawns, chilli and cream. Doesn't that sound yum?? Well yes, but it didn't live up to my expectations. 

It hardly tasted like tomato, mostly cream, there was definitely NO chilli, and the prawns tasted as if they had had better days.

Our Very disappointing main course with my very empty wine glass

 Needless to say neither of us finished our food, and our waiter didn't bother asking if we enjoyed our meal.

After about 20 minutes of sitting around with an empty table, plates cleared, no dessert menu and no drinks (by this stage my wine glass had been taken away by a runner without being offered another. Their loss really, at almost R40 a glass, they could have made some good money off me), I eventually got up to find our waiter and ask for the bill.

All in all, even though my starter was out of this world, my over all experience, from the ambiance, to the service, to the food itself was horrible. I will not be returning and I won't be recommending it to anyone.

 That said, if you do go, or have been I really hope you have/had a better time than we did. They must have done something right to get their good name in the first place.