Lupa Osteria, based in Hillcrest, is a pleasant and warm Italian themed restaurant. It has a surprisingly homely feel for such a large space and contains some nice touches. These include the visible dough making area as you walk in, a processing area where the various cold meats are sliced, as well as two big pizza ovens and beautiful, large windows.
This means that much of the food is made from scratch in-house and you can definitely tell this is so, when you taste it! We attended their one year birthday celebration and enjoyed a number of various dishes, complimented by bottles of on-the-house red and white wine – Terra del Capo (Sangiovese red and Pinot Grigrio white). Lupa also offers a range of craft beers, including Liam’s favourite: fiery gingerbeer.
While the atmosphere was very festive, with two rows of long tables, encouraging everyone to mingle and meet their “neighbours”, we did notice that the background music seemed to go on and off throughout the evening. But this did not dampen the mood or the food.
Speaking of, we started with antipasti which included a platter containing olives, lemon crusted zucchini, grilled slices of aubergine done in a tomato and basil sauce, slices of mozzarella as well as, fried squid tubes and finally chicken livers in a zesty sauce. We are not liver fans, but our neighbours at the next table assured us that they were done brilliantly. The zucchini was amazing, crunchy and tasty while the squid was crispy and firm and went well with the liver’s sauce. There was a second platter of roast vegetables (carrots, peppers, rocket and cauliflower), ham and salami with garlic pita bread.
The second course was two pasta favourites – bacon Carbonara in a thick, home-made spaghetti and a tomato and basil gnocchi. Both pastas were rich in flavour and cooked to perfection. We would have been happy to end the evening there, as we felt that nothing could top these pastas.
But there was a third course, which was slipped in to the menu to showcase another of Lupa’s strengths: pizza. These were served on a perfect base, neither too thin nor too thick and the oven baking in combination with the great cheese and other ingredients resulted in one of the best pizzas we have had in Durban. Again there were two options – tomato and basil or avocado, ham, feta and parmesan.
The real star of the show however was the slow braised pork that was simply sensational, at this point we were rueing not wearing bigger pants! The pork was surrounded by a layer of fat and then a layer of crackling. It was so tender, juicy and full of flavour – it reminded us of Christmas or another special event which is usually the reason for such an amazing meal. Alongside this was roasted chicken, which was also full of flavour although a tad dry and also some roasted baby potatoes which were expertly baked. There was also a side of chilli spinach, which was rich (not bland at all) with a bit of bite.
We finished off the evening with cassata and a coffee infused tiramisu. Both of which had a nice balance of being sweet but not overly so. We were so full at this point that we really only had a taste, but those small bites were delicious.
All in all it was a fantastic evening, filled with great food, excellent service and a lovely atmosphere. And for a great price, just R250 per person! We also have it on good authority that the food is this amazing all the time – they didn’t make a special effort just for their birthday. We want to make special mention of the service, which has been by far the best that we have received in Durban…a very pleasant change! As the restaurant is based in a shopping centre, you also have easy, secure parking at no cost.
We can really recommend that you make the trip out there!
