Headquarters Restaurant, Cape Town - a review.
May 25, 2009
I have mixed feelings about my experience of this new restaurant in Cape Town.
I must say when I heard about the simple concept menu and the touts that they serve the best quality cut of steak in Cape Town, I was excited.
You only have one choice at HQ and that is how you want your steak done because the only thing on the menu is the following: salad, steak and chips.
Oh and they have a handful of choices for dessert and of course a wine list.
I took two very good friends from JHB for dinner at HQ last week and can report the following:
Vibe - excellent; trendy and social with an awesome bar
Concept - excellent; bold and fun.
Service - excellent; very attentive, friendly and efficient.
Wine List - good but not excellent; prices reasonable but choices a bit bland.
and now
The Steak - average; cut wasn’t the best and mine was underdone.
and finally
Price - a bit on the expensive side for what you get.
HQ has so much going for it but it falls short on it’s main offering - the steak. In my opinion there is only one thing they need to do right and that’s cook the steak they are serving to perfection (and perhaps source a better cut - they may say it’s one of the best but it’s not).
You see of all three steaks we ordered not one was cooked to order - two were underdone and one was overdone. Sure we could have sent them back for correction but come now - they only have one thing to cook and you would expect it to arrive according to spec. It’s not good enough especially if you’re paying R140 for the meal.
So in short - had the steak (any of the steaks) been perfect I would not hesitate to recommend it highly as a dining experience. Sadly, that wasn’t the case so all I can say is go for the concept but expect to over pay for what you’re going to get.
In short, HQ was a cool experience but I expected more from the main ingredient. With this in mind I’m going to give it the following rating:
6.5/10
PS: the simple side salad was one of the tastiest I’ve ever had - but the point is, I wasn’t there for the salad…
Posted in Restaurants
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Interesting - the only restaurant i haven’t tried in the whole of Cape Town, gets a luke warm review, lowering my chances of going there anytime soon, I’ll still to just the bar area. I hear you’re the one to thank for the Winter Specials list, thanks
I’ve started using it, I went to Myoga and wrote a review on it!
http://fabulosity-capetown.blogspot.com/2009/05/restaurant-of-day-myoga-vineyard-hotel.html
September 16th, 2009 at 5:12 am
What put me off from this place, the first time we went we were standing at the bar having drink when my wife felt something on her foot. Upon looking down she found a monster cockroach run up her pant leg!! We will never go back because of this and I advise no one else to either!
April 10th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I must say this was the worst dining experience I have ever had. I went with 3 other people on their recommendation and I was shocked. The bar area below is great for young people hanging out over a glass of wine all night. The music was loud and fantastic but the upstairs dining area was a mess. We couldn’t speak we shouted at each other. The salad was horrible, the dressing bland and it was lettuce. Pine nuts could not be found. The steak was not good. The chips were very nice but that isn’t why I paid R155 for the meal. A glass of decent wine was R73! The glass wasn’t even that large. I would never return to this place. You can get a great steak at other restaurants and Hussar Grill in Green Point was very good. I don’t understand why anyone would want to eat at a place like this. They don’t really know if they want to be a niteclub, bar or restaurant and so they are confused and it shows.
August 4th, 2010 at 8:52 am
I had heard a lot about HQ so my girlfriend and I decided to try it out. I LOVE steak and I’m always very indecisive on what to get on a menu so no choice sounded like a good choice to me. After a few drinks they brought half a lettuce with some parmesan cheese on it which my pet rabbit would have loved. They then brought a 250g steak which was very good and up to standard with pretty much any steak house, in other words nothing different. So if you don’t mind spending more money then something is worth HQ is a good choice but if you expect something different for your money don’t go there!