Okay, so we all know I’m having a love affair with Pigalle right now. Their seafood platter special (R495 for two) is the shizzle’s nizzle and every time someone tells me they gave it a bash and was totally blown away I totally get off on being all ‘I know, right?! I totally told you so!’ You’d swear I was slaving away in the kitchen frying up the monster Natal lobster they give you myself.

Still, let’s not forget about their other winter special – 2 courses for R210 (R250 with wine) or 3 for R240 (R290 with wine).

I took lifestyle blogger Dax along as my date with strict instructions not to grill the waiters until they cry and essentially try his best to not be the foodie version of Simon Cowell with a lurking migraine and am pleased to say he was impressed. And Dax’s version of ‘impressed’ is like a regular person exploding into a cloud of unicorn-shaped confetti. Interestingly, that’s exactly how I felt when he introduced me to Pigalle’s garlic rolls which are supposed to this iconic Cape Town institution and I was the last to know about.

If you order one thing next time you visit Pigalle just make sure it’s this. You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about this mister since experiencing it and it’s made me wonder if I’d be considered a total weirdo if there was the odd afternoon where I literally just pulled in to eat a garlic roll with a Coke Lite before buggering off. Could I do that? Would that be, like, totally weird?

Anyway, there are other things you need to know about, namely this dude.

That meat literally fell off the bone, the gravy was fabulously rich, dark and salty (just the way I like it) and that mash might as well have been Soft-Serv the way I guzzled it down.

Other highlights included the starters being Dax’s butter soft trinchado…

…and my creamy, dreamy mussel pot with a sauce that tasted like garlic, cheese and cream, essentially the Trifecta of Awesome.

To finish up, we hit the dessert menu, trying the creme brulee (two thumbs up from Dax, I’m not a brulee meisie) and a duo-tone chocolate mousse made from both white and dark choc, the latter coming all the way from Belgium, with a creamy mint-infused vanilla sauce for drenching.

Thanks again Pigalle for an incredible lunch. I’m already counting down the days until I’ll visit you next. That garlic roll is whispering my name…

Love, love

Leigh