Nelson's Eye

Nelson's Eye July '13

7/31/2013

Two years on, and we return to the birthplace of Steak Night - Nelson’s Eye.

Nelson’s Eye is the epitome of old school steakhouse. The same decor for four decades - old wood panels, burgundy napkins, and chunky wineglasses. Reminds me of my 21st birthday. But we’re here for steak, not shortlisting venues for Top Billing – so I’ll guess we’ll…turn…a..blind…eye.

Fortunately they were able to convert the upstairs bar into a private dining room for us, so we were quite happy.

Now it must be said that in terms of price, it is at the upper end of Cape Town steakhouses. A 230g fillet (grain fed nogal) will set you back R170, but luckily it was winter special time and you could get a 200g fillet for R90. Yup – you guessed it – you may as well order two of those babies. Grilling and serving 30 steaks proved a challenge though, and half of us had to wait 10 minutes to be served. Points shall be docked.

The evening nearly turned ugly though, as a rival steak “club” enjoyed a brief drink at the bar. It must be what the Italians feel like when they face the Haka; quickly realising they’d brought a (steak)knife to a gunfight. They sheepishly retreated, muttering “jeepers now that’s a steak club”.

As per the “Best Steaks in Town”, unfortunately there were some very mixed steak reviews. My fillet was well-aged and perfectly grilled, and accompanied by healthy portions of fries and veggies.

But others complained their meat was tasteless and bland, and after tallying up the reviews it scores a lowly average of 6.7 out of 10.

So in the end, Nelsons Eye turned out to be an average dining experience. Fair enough, if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it, and they have served quality steaks for many years. But the dated décor, cheap cutlery and poor ambiance certainly don’t reflect the high prices. This may have been acceptable 25-30 years ago, but there are now many local restaurants that serve better fare for cheaper.

Overall:    6.8 (average of scores)

Steak:        6.7
Sides:        7.0
Service:     7.0
Value:        6.6

4 Comments

Albert

7/31/2013 07:45:44 am

Thanks guys for welcoming me back as an alternate…
I enjoyed it thoroughly and was amazed to see how it has grown since I last attended.

Steak 2/10: Now y’all know I am not a big red-meat eater, but k’maaan, I would expect to be at least tempted back into the fold, but the most exciting part of my steak was the mushroom sauce. I could not finish a 200g fillet. The soggy chips had more character. Bland, sinewy and totally unappealing. Not how I remember a good steak being.
Sides 3/5 : spinach was good and chips were ok, but onion rings could learn a thing or 2 from the spur.
Value 2/5 : R350 for a 200g steak, a beer and a dom pedro. Another casualty of Aidan’s Rule. Thank goodness Black dog’s penalty lagavulin made up for it. Next time you know there will be at least 3 deserts ordered by me…
Service 2/5: Forgot my one and only beer order. Earned points for not snitching on Fraz.
Ambiance 4/5: private enough to absorb the escalating volume of the kak-praatery. Did anyone even notice Mike’s “steak-night” crew come in to stand awkwardly at the bar, observing the intimidating melee that is the Steak and Wine Club Function??
Post dinner 5/5: Still reeling from Fraser “Lagavulin” Black’s interrogation and redemption, I enjoyed this part of the evening the most. Personal highlight was when I backed down the alley a bit to let out some of the gas that was being produced by the indigestion of my sub-standard meat dish (steak is too much of a compliment) not to notice a lady of the night approaching. Her comment to me as she walked past us was “Jislaaik, djy’s gevaarlik”. Lag

Thanks for the laff’s, but I think next time I will stick to the tofu steak ;)

7/31/2013 07:53:31 am

To get an idea of how good each steak and wine club function™ is, I've deduced that a reliable barometer is to simply check my bank account... A quick R1k later indicates that it was an "up there with the best of them" nights. Although 50% of that total was my Tough Crowd™ admission of guilt fine. That sneaky 16 year old Lagavulin!!

Steak: 4.5/5 - my fillet was exceptionally good. cooked to perfection and melt in the mouth. very good basting sauce and the steak itself was matured to perfection. One of the best I've had.
Sides: 4/5 - the onion rings were a bit naf otherwise the rest was good. My chips were crispy
Service: 4/5 - only thing letting him down was serving one side of the table about 15 mins after the side had tucked in...
Value: 3/5 - saved by their winter special. full stop. I don't know that many people who would be happy to pay R240 for a 330g fillet...
Shenanigans: 4/5: a good nightcap and kak praat but not nearly enough eye candy at Asoka

7.8/10

Nice private dining room Mundo! A good call... I think it's pretty much a necessary requirement as we get pretty rowdy!

Fella

7/31/2013 08:27:24 am

Nelson's Eye was the inaugural venue for the Steak & Wine Club function when it was a mere Steak Night, and it had disappointed.

Eighteen Steak Nights and Wine Club functions later, and it had a chance to redeem itself with a second pass from the Tough Crowd™.
And it did, although it was saved by its winter special prices which offer a lot better value than their ridiculous Summer Shafting fillet prices.
Steak:7/10 - I have never ordered two steaks at once before and 400g is a whole lotta cow to take down, but it was interesting two get two pieces of meat. The one was bland (6/10) and had a mushy texture, the other was flipping good and tender (8/10).
Sides: 4/5 - abundant. Good onion rings, good SA steak house standard butternut and creamed spinach, pretty good chups
Service: 4/5 - I was on the side of the table that go their steaks pretty damn quickly and I thought the waiter was attentive and a pretty good sport.
Value: 3/5 - Not bad, although those abnormal 'normal prices' can chuck.
After dinner entertainment: 5/5 - that Lagavulin16yearold-AidansRules-BDF*cksAGoat incident was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Classic how the whole thing played out and fair play to BD for taking it on the chin and redeeming himself with round of drinks. Charlie's new chauffeur Taffy gave me one of the most amusing and event-fulled minute-long car rides of all time, and Asoka was great with some big laughs at the bar with Fraz and Monk.
Overall 23/30 = a very respectable 76%. Good work, Kev Bwoy.

Larry

7/31/2013 08:36:32 am

Great night for me mainly because of the company, kak praat, afters and private room.
Steak - 5/10. Tasteless and hard work on the jaw. Disappointing! Jim across the table looked as impressed as I was with my steak.
Sides - chips not great. Veggies ok butt not timed very well with the steak.
Value - As I had a bad run with my meal in general I will have to give it a 2.5/5.
Kak Praat - Always great value and the private room set the scene for loud and rowdy banter. No need to consider other patrons most welcome. Especially with loud mouth Jimbo on good form. 5/5
Food and beverage consultant - 3/5 average service that wasnt helped by the crazy owner serving half the table 15 minutes late. He should be able to handle a table that size. Waiters finest moment under heavy pressure from a tough crowd baying for blood was covering for Blackdogs sins. Well done BD for doing the honourable thing!!!! Great laugh that was!!!
Great night. Shot for organising Kev.
6.5/10.

Nelson's Eye July '13

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