With two young girls in the mix, we generally don’t go out at night, preferring to do all our activities during the daylight hours and leaving the dark for sleepy time. However, sometimes we do have to break this routine – case in point, earlier this month, on one Saturday evening after a long day of sending out The Helderberg Cake Company celebration cakes, Chantelle decided that she just couldn’t spend a minute longer in the kitchen, and with fridges bare, shops already closed, and not wanting to do takeaway food again (which is generally something that we do on a Friday night when she’s in the thick of it in terms of decorating cakes), we took the snap decision of popping out for a late supper somewhere local instead.
The unassuming Rooibos Restaurant sits off a corner along Main Street in Strand, and has been happily operating since around 2016. Although the original guys that put together this pizza slinging local eatery have long since left, the current owners have done a good job of keeping the restaurant going and continuing to attract hungry families from all over Strand. Based out of an old (but spacious) converted home, the operation is split into two main sections, the first being the ever popular bar area, and the second the more family orientated and much larger dining area, with most of the outside garden converted into extra seating opportunities as well.
The menu is pretty large in terms of item spread, including the selection of pizza varieties that they pump out from their custom built pizza oven. Lots of craft beer, massive milkshakes, and a warm welcoming atmosphere that matches the decor, Rooibos comes across as very cozy to me. As it turned out for this particular visit of ours, given the time of the evening that we stumbled through its doors, we were literally the only people in the dining area – pretty much putting in our orders just before the kitchen stopped taking any more. So we had the run of the dining room while everyone else partied in the bar next door, a perfect set up for us in these times of Covid-19, though I suspect not one much appreciated by the owners of the business, that’s for sure!
Unfortunately it should be mentioned that the bases of the pizza were a little substandard, so they weren’t the best pizzas that I’ve ever tasted, but the toppings were good and generously applied, and the girls were in love with their milkshakes, meaning that everyone left pretty much happy by the end of the meal, which is all one ever wants anyway. So there you go, if you are looking for a family-friendly eatery option in Strand, Rooibos Restaurant ticks all the boxes.
Related Link: Rooibos Restaurant | Strand