Bacash

We had a fabulous lunch here today. Terrific flavors (e.g. for dessert, a deconstructed cheesecake, with pumpkin, cardamom, and nasturtium), an excellent selection of wines by the glass, and a superb location just south of the Royal Botanical Garden.
What’s not to like? ;-)

My wife and I decided to go to Bacash spur of the moment. Greeted very nicely and given a nice table for two. Very nice wine list; my wife had a nice Syrah. The gravlax was really beautiful as was the natural oysters. The mains were very tasty, a beautiful scotch fillet and ravioli. And finally the port was spectacular.
For a spur of the moment dinner the experience was excellent. Service was wonderful; totally looked after!

Bacash is a one-​hatted restaurant so when we made a booking to go there for my partner’s birthday, my expectations were reasonably high. As it turned out, it was just ok for me. I had booked a couple of weeks in advance, and at the time, requested a romantic table for two and a candle with dessert. I booked online and the next day, a friendly lady called back and acknowledged the booking and the birthday requests. So far so good. But sometime between that phone call and our dining experience, Bacash must have lost those details, because a) no birthday greeting or acknowledgement throughout the night b) poor table provided right inside the front door and c) no candle with dessert. Nevermind. Things happen right? And besides, it was a Tuesday night. But a part of me was thinking that a one-​hat restaurant should be a bit better than that.
Probably what happened next irked me the most. After the waiter seated us, he immediately asked my partner if she would like a champagne (mind you, this was before he has offered the wine list to us). My antennae (probably like most guys that are reading this!) immediately went up — there is only one type of champagne and that’s French! Internal conversation in my head — «How much is this glass going to cost?» «Who cares about the cost, it’s her birthday you cheap moron!» «Yeah but this waiter is using the oldest trick in the book!» «Forget about it, be cool man!» Well, my partner accepted his champagne offer while I asked for the wine list. The champagne was indeed French and turned out to be $ 23. Now I know that some of you reading this are thinking that I’m just cheap, but it’s not so much about the money but more about the slightly underhand way that this waiter went about securing a little more of our hard earned that bugged me.
We went on to order our food and it was good. The birthday girl had the rare roasted sea bass while I had the rib eye. Both very good. For dessert, we had a chocolate layered slice with chocolate and peanut butter ice cream to die for, accompanied by a perfectly poached pear.
Overall the food was good but we were both a bit put off by the service. We left feeling a bit underwhelmed for what we were expecting to be a wonderful dining experience. I probably won’t be recommending Bacash to others.