All Roads Lead To… Isabel’s Table

Windhoek foodies, assemble and get ready to bask in the al fresco elegance that is Isabel’s Table.

Sunny, stylish and serving Portugal’s answer to Spain’s trendy tapas, Isabel’s Table introduces pesticos, small plates of traditional Portuguese dishes meant to share, taste and enjoy as one would with family.

Named for Isabel Gamito whose table is a place of warmth and authentic Portuguese flavours, the restaurant sparkles on the corner of Liliencron Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue – the latest eatery to open its doors amidst The Village’s unofficial restaurant revolution.

Not formally open last Wednesday afternoon, a fact utterly ignored by the stretch of patrons soaking up the sun on the restaurant’s gorgeous white bougainvillea-fringed deck, Isabel’s Table bustles below its black and white striped awning as guests extend compliments to the chef.

The man earning the admiration is young Jovanko Greyton whose kabeljou ceviche, garlic chorizo, creamy mash and gingery chicken special are forked up with relish, the chef’s two-month Portu food and culture immersion evident in each bite.

“I lived where Isabel lived and brought that culture here,” says Greyton, who echoes Gamito’s sentiments that petiscos “are not tapas!”

Instead, patrons are invited to choose from the restaurant’s ‘Big Five’ which ranges from the humble beef croquette, steak tartar and octopus carpaccio to fried garlic quail and slow-cooked ossobuco with roasted butternut as well as a meat or fish plate of the day.

Sides are just as intriguing with garlic and coriander or red bean rice and esparregado (spinach mash) making a great alternative to fries while the dessert menu teases a decadent cappuccino delight, orange and thyme cake and pineapple carpaccio with pina colada panna cotta.

Scenic for sundowners, solo diner friendly and inviting of the office independent with its zippy free Wi-Fi, Isabel’s Table is open, effortlessly sophisticated and serving petiscos… “not tapas!”

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com

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