A chip off the old surfboard

Surf Riders Boulevard

Where: 17 Park Lane, uMhlanga Ridge

Open: Daily 6.30am to 5pm

Food writer Ingrid Shevlin has been itching to try it. In fact we arrived two weeks earlier to find that they weren’t open yet, and had to do a quick scurry around uMhlanga to find somewhere to eat (more next week). 

But when she heard it had opened we had to stop in for Sunday lunch. We were joined by her brother Pierre.

Fortunately it was a late lunch because when we arrived it was packed. Earlier people had been queueing to get in. Now that’s always a good sign. So the good residents on the ridge knew they were on a good wicket.

The restaurant is a small modern space looking into a kitchen down the one wall that was an absolute buzz of activity. None of the refined sense of style you get watching chefs at The Chefs’ Table assembling creations with tweezers. No, this was a real all-hands-on-deck getting the orders flying out in double quick time.

The restaurant spills outside onto a wide verandah and paving area that wraps around the corner property. It’s a relaxed and convivial space. People tucking into massive mile-high burgers, giant tomahawks or baskets of prawns.

The food is much what you would expect from the mothership on South Beach. It’s always generous, tasty and fresh. Think juicy home-made beef burgers topped with an array of scrumptious sauces and toppings like onion rings or jalapenos or crispy bacon, or crunchy panko crumbed chicken burgers given a similar treatment. 

There's square thin-crust pizzas too topped with a plethora of tantalising ingredients and then there’s breakfasts. Their eggs Benedict on honey-glazed bacon is one of my favourites in the city even if it’s not 100% traditional, and there’s often one with seared tuna, when they have it in stock. 

Plus you have an array of decadent shakes and smoothies. The lady on the table next door was tucking into a lumo-lime-green one topped with hundreds and thousands. And biscuits. And then you have to try their famous carrot cake if you want a quick pick me up snack. Well it’s more than a snack really

Head chef Samantha Small Shaw was busy putting the new kitchen through its paces. She insisted we try some items off her specials list. They’re exciting and each is her creation, regarded much like one would the kids. 

Starters might include poppers with smashed avo and habanero mayo, or woodfired snails in garlic and gorgonzola. There’s a deliciously messy sounding nachos and tacos with shortrib, sour cream and avo salsa.

There’s whole fish and prawns cooked in the pizza oven with either garlic or peri-peri sauce. There’s said tomahawks smothered in bone-marrow butter and a surf and turf that can either be traditional as in topped with prawns or served with mussels in a creamy chardonnay sauce. Plus a few vegan options that take in crispy tofu.

We love the fresh soy and miso glazed Norwegian salmon done Asian style on a bed of rice and surrounded by a spicy Asian broth with bok choy and green veg. The fish was perfectly cooked and we fought to spoon the last morsel of that broth out of the bowl. We also enjoyed a dish of udon noodles cooked with whole calamari tubes and prawns tossed in a tangy Asian sauce. It was another occasion not to wear a white T-shirt.

And then there was her peri-peri chicken. I’ve written about it before but even Ingrid who thinks this dish is beyond boring agrees. This was a succulent baby chicken smothered in her not over hot but super creamy peri-peri sauce. The chicken sat on top of some good chips, made all that much better for drowning in that sauce. We mopped it all up ravenously.

We finished up with sharing two homemade milk tarts, suitably tarted up with drizzles of chocolate sauce and salted caramel. And I relished a good double espresso. The coffee at Surf Riders has always been good.

Food: 4

Service: 4

Ambience: 3 ½

The Bill: R384, but Small Shaw comped the meals.