Trabella Pizzeria with the Entertainer App
Illovo is undoubtedly the hub of Johannesburg – especially for the younger crowd – with an awesome selection of bars and quaint, good quality restaurants. Recently, whenever I have visited the Griffin (one of the said awesome bars) I have had my eye on Trabella Pizzeria. I finally got around to giving it a try using my Entertainer App which gave me a 2-for-1 discount voucher. And guess what? I was on a first date. Yes, it may sound like a brave first date move, but the date happened to be a very good friend so he was just grateful that I saved him some cash money!
Trabella has a wonderful, homely feel to it, with three separate seating areas, each with a slightly different ambience. We chose the area with the softer, more romantic lighting. He’s still calling so the lighting obviously worked to my advantage.
This Italian restaurant boasts a wide range of pastas and thin crust base, wood fire pizzas. There wasn’t a huge variety of wine by the glass (although quite a selection by the bottle) but we each had a lovely Pinotage at about R40 per glass.
Tandori Chicken Pasta // R85
I was surprised to see the “tandori” chicken pasta (which I’m pretty sure is meant to be “tandoori”) on the menu as I was expecting it to be completely Italian. You get to choose between pasta with olive oil or Napoletana sauce – he went with olive oil and it’s simplicity really allowed the perfectly marinated chicken to shine. The pasta was cooked al dente and the vegetables were crispy and fresh – the date was happy with the crispy veg, although I would prefer to have them cooked a little longer.
Potato, onion and creamy feta pizza // R85
I minused the capers from this bad boy, because they really aren’t my style, and it was DELICIOUS! The base was perfectly crisp and I loved that there was no holding back on the cheese front. The potato was slightly over-cooked, and had the texture of hard, almost crisp-like pieces. I threw on a great big dollop of fresh chilli which really took it to the next level, and balanced out the richness of the cheese brilliantly.
Entertainer vouchers or not, our meal was delicious, big and very well priced. I will definitely be going back for the ambience, brilliant and friendly service and authentic, real food. I also recommend it to those poor guys who are deciding where to take your lady out, especially if you aren’t as lucky to have a woman who will make the decisions for you.
Address:
Illovo Junction
Cnr Oxford Road & Corlett Drive
Illovo
Tel:
0114420413
