Although not a mother, I spent my Mother’s Day with a friend at the most perfect spot in Cape Town.  The Riempies Restaurant at the Cape Sun offered a lovely Mother’s Day buffet lunch and wow, this was a treat of note.  From entering the hotel foyer and then moving on to the restaurant, patrons were greeted by some of the friendliest hotel staff I have come across in ages.

Families from all over Cape Town spoiled and celebrated their deserving mothers to a real old school buffet lunch at one of Cape Town iconic hotels, The Southern Sun Cape Sun, situated in Strand Street, Cape Town.  Access to this hotel was easy on a Sunday with only light traffic in town and plenty of secure parking available at the parkade across the road – all lunch guests on the day even received a free parking voucher.

Apart from the friendly hostess that greets guests when entering the restaurant, we were also greeted with the lovely aromas of the many dishes prepared for this buffet and lovely calm guitar music by a musician placed close to the entrance.  First stop after ordering drinks from our neatly dressed and charming young waiter Francois, that served me and my dining companion, was the bread station.  A selection of freshly cut breads with various patés and preserves awaited and I had to limit myself to two slices of farm fresh bread, with the reminder to self that a whole smorgasbord of tasty treats awaits at the other serving stations.  My favourite at this stop was the delicately flavoured snoek paté.

Next stop was the cold starters’ station.  Fresh fruit pieces like pineapple and spanspek was displayed and ready to be scooped up, also a selection of vegetable crudités, a mixed herb salad and cold cut meats and chunks of delicious feta cheese.  I couldn’t resist the moreish mozzarella and tomato salad with basil pesto, so tasty you almost want to lick your plate, and also a very palatable smoked salmon and pasta salad.  A special treat was the individually served shrimp and crab cocktail.

After a little breather, it was decided to move onto the hot buffet and carvery station and here we had to be very cautious with our selection.  Everything was freshly prepared and looked so tasty and very tempting but one can only squeeze so much food into your tummy. We decided to break our main meal down to two “shifts”. For the first round we decided to have a small piece of roast chicken and some roast beef which was really flavourful and tender with Yorkshire pudding and yummy gravy. We also had some gravy on the yellow rice with cinnamon and raisins as that just brought back some childhood memories of long Sunday lunches past. Added to this we piled our plates with cauliflower and broccoli with cheese sauce, roasted veggies, minted carrots and lovely roasted potatoes.  For our second round we had some naan bread made with butter, garlic and cumin, a freshly made roti filled with delicious vegetable curry and some of the slow cooked tomato bredie.  On the side we tried some of the sambals and this was a brilliant taste experience.  I sadly did not have space left to taste the grilled line fish, but one of the guests at a neighbouring table assured me that it was delectable.

Our final stop was at the desert station and although it’s very tempting to try everything we just couldn’t.  The fruit pavlova with passion fruit and crème fraîche is a personal favourite and so was the deliciously decadent crushed Oreo pudding.  My dining partner had some of the cheesecake, a chocolate brownie, which he claimed was to die for, and the mouth-watering piece da resistance, the baked malva pudding with custard which was absolutely scrumptious.  We never got to try the fresh fruit salad or the sherry trifle which looked very appealing, but a girl can only eat as much as  girl can eat.

To finish our meal our waiter, who has also received barista training from Sun International, served us freshly made Americanos with steamed milk.  This was the absolute perfect way to finish out lip-smacking good lunch fest.

Overall I was very impressed by the freshness of all the produce and dishes served, and also by the fact that there were never empty dishes in site.  As soon as a bowl came close to empty at a serving station, it was replaced with a bowl of freshly made food….no matter what time during the lunch time you got to a station, you couldn’t help but get the feeling that they filled the bowls just for you.  A visitor to the restaurant could only feel like a VIP.

As we left the restaurant, we not only left with very full tummies and a small fresh flower posy in hand, but received warm smiles and goodbyes from staff that at the end of our lunch date felt like family.  This was definitely a lunch experience that I can recommend to anyone who wants to feel special or treat someone special and one I will definitely repeat at the drop of a hat.