The Fat Goat
Where:
Shop 20, 1 Chartwell Drive, Umhlanga
Open:
Monday to Thursday 11am to 10pm. Friday to Saturday 110am to 11pm, Sunday 11am to 8pm
Call:
031 942 0021
It’s great to see uMhlanga’s Chartwell strip has another independent restaurant - and when that restaurant is called The Fat Goat, I had to try it.
It’s a fun vibey restaurant, part bar, part kitchen and, on a Thursday evening, it was buzzing. It was noisy, but noise of the happy, convivial type, with plenty of cocktails to ease things along, and all wines available by the glass.
There’s no kidding around with the food. It’s very much good pub grub - hearty, tasty, messy. You’re expected to mop up sauces with slices of toasted ciabatta. Portions are generous and good value is there.
Starters might take in jalapeño poppers, buffalo wings or nachos. Calamari came in three options - salt and pepper, or deep fried with tartare sauce, or in a creamy lemon sauce (R65). The calamari limone was excellent. My chicken livers, in a spicy creamy sauce (R65), was a shade heavy on the onions, but then I like onions, so no complaints.
Mains do have some salad options, but the goat sandwich with rare roast beef, fried onions, mustard and beef dripping sounded good - as did the 200g goat burger royale with bacon, chilli and cheesy mushroom sauce, or the Johnny Chunk Dog with bacon, jalapeños, cheese, avo and creamy napolitana sauce. There’s also rum and coke ribs, or wet-aged rump at R125 for 200g.
I went for the hog roast roll, with pork shoulder, apple sauce and crackling (R95), which was generous and tasted good, although I suspect the crackling got lost in the kitchen.
My friend tried a daily special of kingklip in burnt butter with almonds (R200), which was cooked to perfection and came with a lovely selection of vegetables. It was certainly something to bleat about.
Desserts - cheesecake, bread and butter pudding, brownies etc - sounded a tad more conventional, but the coffee was top notch.
Food:
3 ½
Service:
4
Ambience:
3 ½