I was chuffed to receive an award for travel writing at the recent Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) Congress in Gweru.
Report by Dusty Miller
Afterwards, one of many congratulations I received was from a delegate who said: “I never miss any of your articles Mr Dust…and I love your restaurants!”
While he can’t have read ALL my articles closely, otherwise he would have remembered that if there is ever any mention of Miller’s Café (at Borrowdale) or Miller’s Grill (at Ballantyne Park) or their principal directors Ian or Angela Miller, the standard international Press disclaimer [no relation] appears after those names.
I have no financial or other interest in those eateries; neither are Ian or Angela related to me by blood or marriage.
It was that reference at the Fairmile in Gweru, plus sitting at the same table as Miller’s Café resident director Llew Hughes at the Restaurateurs’ Association lunch on the Monday, that made me decide to visit one of the outlets before leaving for the Tiger tournament.
As I needed to replace some camping gear at Fereday’s Safaris, Borrowdale, for the Kariba trip, the Café it was!
I rarely sit indoors in a restaurant if it has an al fresco section…even on cool days. Last Thursday was broiling, but I sat inside mainly because it was marginally cooler there than in the courtyard…especially near some upright fans. Also, indoors there’s no smoking. Outside it’s a matter of choice, but I always seem to choose a table where smoke from at least two nicotine addicts goes straight up my left nostril!
Llew wasn’t there. I was thinking on Monday what a very Welsh face Llew [Llewellyn] has, especially now he’s 30 or 40 years older than when I first knew him (running Clovagalix at Fife Avenue, then Café Med, Borrowdale!)
And Miller’s [no relation] Café is on the site of the former Café Med, of fond memory. It seems but five minutes since we went there on Wednesday’s for good, affordable food and to listen to the great Graham Hall singing and on electric guitar. Graham was also star attraction at Billy Fudpucker’s Bar, Newlands on Thursdays. (It may seem like five minutes, but it’s about five years since he gapped it!)
The newish Miller’s operation tries fairly successfully to be all things to all men. An impressive laminated menu is crammed with eating experience ideas from breakfast (US$5-US$14), continental US$7, French toast US$5/US$7 omelettes US$9-US$11 through sandwiches and rolls to lunch and supper.
Sambos are US$6-US$11, with chips and side salads They cook their share of pizza (US$6-US$16), burgers at US$9-US$13 and pasta (quite pricey, I thought) at US$13-US$19.
I suppose it makes sense that breakfast type meals are at the start of the menu, but still seems fairly odd to find appetisers (US$6-US$10) half way through, along with salads at US$11-US$14. (Café Med made perhaps the best blue-cheese salad in the country; there’s a similar-sounding dish on its successor’s menu, which I’m sure, is worth trying.)
I was tempted to order it, but due to the exigencies of the service and a jam-packed diary if I were to get away to the Tiger tournament two days later, lunch was likely to be my main — possibly last — meal of the day.
I went for ever popular fish and chips with minted peas. Fish came in a Miller’s wrapper obviously meant to look like the newspapers this dish used to be served in the Disunited Kingdom (before “Elf and Safety” and bullying from Brussels) and was very good. Crisp, golden brown beer batter over piping hot pearlescent white “catch of the day” which I think was hake — a nice generous portion at that — and tasty too.
I could see no sign of mint leaves in the peas, but the petite-pois certainly tasted of mint: perhaps the cooking water was infused with the aromatic herb?
I’m afraid I found the chips very ordinary: Those thin, wobbly pre-cooked, frozen, re-heated jobbies which the British Press said a fortnight ago could cause cancer. You’d probably have to eat five kilos a day of them forever to succumb to the big C, though!
I thought they lacked crispness… and flavour, despite adding salt, pepper, vinegar and dipping the odd one in tartare sauce. Hardly any proper potato taste! Despite that, the place was perhaps 60% full indoors and out. I got the impression many punters were regulars and most of them ate…chips with something! Fish and chips were US$14, other fish and seafood dishes peak at US$23.
Half a rotisseried-chicken (good cooking method to retain and even enhance the natural flavour of the bird) was US$12, which is about the going rate in a sit-down restaurant, full chicken US$18. Steaks were US$19-US$19, plus US$3 for sauce and another three-bucks should deep-fried onion rings be needed. Half-a-kilo of spare ribs will set you back US$19, a 750g rack US$26; pork chops US$16.
I sat and munched and sipped rather dear lager [US$3 a pop — same as cocktail bars in our 5-star hotels] and watched a fascinating Twenty20 cricket match on a huge (silent) plasma TV screen. Beamed from Johannesburg, Trinidad and Tobago [a Caribbean country] were due to play (separately!) Yorkshire (an English county) and UVA Next (Sri Lankan franchise side).
All puddings were US$6. I had a colourful, large fresh fruit salad: Lots of strawberries, loads of apple and a hint of pineapple with vanilla ice-cream and raspberry coulis. I finished with a satisfactorily strong cappuccino which came with a biscotti neither sweet nor savoury, somewhere in between.
They have an interesting range of cocktails available, thankfully without those “naughty” names I always find embarrassing when in mixed company!
Mains, pudding, two lagers, coffee: US$28.Miller’s Café, (no relation!) Borrowdale Village. Opens daily. Tel 853137.
