Flocking to the flamingoes
Tipsy Flamingo
Where: 15 Old Main Road, Kloof
Open: Wednesday to Thursday 3pm-11pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 2am, Sunday 10am-6pm.
Call: 083 556 5851
The Glass Guy and I were going to go Thai. He felt like duck pancakes. But we got side tracked.
In a restaurant strip in Kloof, we spotted the Tipsy Flamingo, its neon pink sign flashing at the entrance. And it was pumping.
We both flocked to it.
Part bar, part club, part simple pub grub restaurant, it’s a multi purpose space dedicated to having fun. There are ferns and baskets hanging from the ceiling. The woodwork is painted pink. A neon sign on the wall encourages all to Go Wild. There’s lush jungle wall paper, the staff shirted in similar fabric dotted with flamingos dropping in. The DJ is pushing out 80s hits to which the young ones know all the words. Miley Cyrus a rare foray into the 21st century.
It’s also Ladies Night with large parties of women taking advantage of some super specials. The tall blond wearing reindeer antlers is holding court at a table near us. And then there’s the paddle club having a festive outing.
The cocktail menu too takes in various shades of pink. Besides the signature tipsy flamingo, there’s a pink lady, and a passion flockstar and the devil wears pink. Certainly bucket loads of pink, red, orange and champaign coloured drinks were flying past to the antler gang behind us, the bonhomie rising with each massive round. There’s also a reasonably priced selection of wines and bubbles.
The Glass Guy and I would be more prosaic - and stick to beer.
The menu is simple and designed to soak up the booze. Our waitress apologises that there’s no steak tonight, but everything else is available. There’s a selection of pizzas, a burger, and fish and chips and a couple of ways with chicken including a deboned peri-peri option.
Starter options include jalapeno poppers and chicken strips and chicken livers. There are garlic prawns and springrolls. We settled on a plate of deep fried calamari (R135) and some pork potstickers (R80). The potstickers were enjoyable, especially with a little bowl of chilli on the side and the calamari a generous portion in a nice crisp and light batter. Ideal for sharing with those pink drinks.
For mains I spotted the Zulu oxtail (R135) which intrigued me. This was a toasted sandwich made from deboned oxtail in steamed Zulu bread (jeqe) with an oxtail gravy as a dipping sauce. Someone should patent this. It came with good, crisp chips and was really enjoyable. The oxtail had good flavour and the gravy was delicious and gave it a decadent feel.. With the thick slices of jeqe it was very filling. The Glass Guy helped me finish it.
I’ve always liked jeqe when you wrap it around a piece of juicy wors straight off the fire and dip it in a good chilli sauce.
He tried the lamb chops (R145) which were enjoyable. Three meaty grilled chops with more of those good chips. For me I would lose the barbecue basting sauce, but this is pub grub after all.
I asked for a side of onion rings. While not on the menu, our quick thinking waitress said they did serve them with one of their burgers, so she would ask the kitchen and charge it as a plate of chips. These were pleasant but perhaps could have been a little longer in the fryer.
Dessert was chocolate brownies or chocolate lava pudding. Instead we asked for a Dom Pedro, which was no problem for our resourceful waitress. Obviously not a common order, and with no ice cream in the kitchen we saw her sneaking in with two cups of soft serve from Steers across the car park. They were wonderfully boozy.
By now the Boerboel set was arriving to join the ladies, and the music was notching up a volume or two and the dance floor was getting going. As a Mariah Carey hit belted out, I half expected the blond with the antlers to lead the flock in a conga.
We enjoyed the vibe over a few more whiskys, leaving while the flamingo was still standing upright - just.
Food: 3 ½
Service: 3 ½
Atmosphere: 3 ½
The Bill: R846