Lupa Osteria

Cape Town is a hub of delightful vegetarian as well as vegan restaurants but where do you go when not everyone at your table is going to be partaking in these menu options. You look for cuisine with versatility and for me, that cuisine is almost all the time Italian. Some of the best vegetarian dishes I’ve had the pleasure of tasting have been Italian. And because of this I would sometimes in an Italian restaurant choose a vegetarian dish over a meat dish. A quick daytime trip to the V & A Waterfront led us to Lupa Osteria.

There were five of us at the table as my parents and little sister came to visit us in Cape Town. My husband was the only person who had a meat dish and chose the chicken pasta, which was also on their lunchtime specials menu. Hip Hip Horray for saving money. The four of us chose vegetarian dishes and ended up gravitating towards the same dish. We chose the butternut and ricotta ravioli with a sage and brown butter sauce. As I type those words I am salivating and wishing I could experience that dish again. The dish cost R104.50 which is reasonable considering the portion size.

Butternut and Ricotta Ravioli

This pasta dish tasted divine and I would be so bold as to state that it was the, in essence, one of the best pasta dishes I have had the opportunity to enjoy. The ravioli was amply filled with smooth ricotta cheese. Whilst little-roasted butternut pieces were scattered around the ravioli together with a few sage leaves. Now let’s talk about, in my opinion, the absolute star of the show and that was the brown butter and sage sauce. This sauce was outstanding. It was smooth and buttery with a complete melt in your mouth experience being felt. I am unashamed to reveal that once I consumed all of the ravioli and butternut, I was left with this velvety sauce. I picked up a spoon and began to scoop up the sauce and continued indulging.  The portion size was ample and was an incredibly satisfying meal.

If given the opportunity, I would choose to indulge in this meal every day but being that the main component of the sauce is butter, I have an inkling that this may not be the wisest choice. That being said though, it is definitely a meal I wouldn’t mind having again.

Drinks

On this particular occasion, I didn’t order an extravagant drink but rather went to my go-to option which is passion fruit and lemonade. When my drink was presented, our waiter handed me a straw which was made of pasta. Being that it is an Italian restaurant it was rather innovative but yet authentic to see this. The pasta straw does not emit any flavour which is perfect to use in drinks.

The City of Cape Town, and in particular the restaurants in Cape Town are aiming to reduce and ultimately do away with using single-use plastic. According to earthday.org, half a million straws are used in the world every day. They also state that frequently these single-use-plastics (like straws) do not make it to landfills. Alternatively, are not recycled and they, therefore, end up in our oceans. So, every little bit helps to reduce these alarming statistics. And it is absolutely impressive and rather encouraging that Lupa Osteria has also chosen to not add to these statistics. Hopefully, they have set the mark and other establishments will follow suit to help reduce the waste.

Recommendation

My entire experience at Lupa Osteria was incredible. From our patient, friendly and informative waiter, to one of the most delicious meals I have had the pleasure of consuming, to being entirely impressed by their innovative way of reducing single-use straws. I would two hundred percent recommend that you try them out. For those in despair as the V & A Waterfront is rather far, don’t despair as Lupa Osteria has nine branches. They are located in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Maybe I should try out all their other branches and let you know whether the food is consistent everywhere. That’s a good idea if I do say so myself.

If you do try them out, please let me know in the comments below how your experience was. Did you enjoy the delectable pasta?

Lupa Osteria Contact Details:

Website: http://www.lupa.co.za

If you liked this, why don’t you check out my post on 5 Things to do at the Spice Route in Paarl, Western Cape.