Poplars Restaurant

…………………………..An awesome-lii well located venue that we have visited before but never in the broad day-light or on a beautiful summers day, so with Valentine’s day approaching and the fact that we still had a 2 coarse gourmet-meal Hyperli voucher in our “Voucher-Vase” we decided to redeem it and go out on an exploration escapade to see what exact-lii is on this absolute-lii lushes wine-estate D’Aria! As always it is never a problem to secure a reservation here! Malcolm whom we spoke to was friend-lii and helpful and took the liberty to explain to us that we will not be able to come on the 14th February for lunch because they had a special menu planned for Valentine’s day at R425.00pp so what-the-hack of a difference will it make if my wife and I came on the 13th February to celebrate our 46th Valentine’s day together with a 2 coarse gourmet-meal lunch! Even with Eskom’s load-shedding program in place and very functional on our arrival here the chef himself came to inform us that he will do his best using Gas to prepare our meals which will exclude “Fries” cos they don’t have a gas deep-fryer and also the steaks, fish & burgers will be seared on the gas burners grills served with Health-ii green salads! So to start-off we ordered a Durbanville D’Aria Blush-Rose’ which was fruit-ii and not too dry! Sitting out-side in the beautiful picturesque gardens under the big trees and also big garden umbrellas with the occasional peacock’s wandering by and hoping to be feed by the patrons made this occasion very romantic indeed! Our meals were grilled sirloin steak and a fresh green-toss salad with feta & a seared salmon chunk, tartar sauce with a fresh green-toss salad! The meals were insidious-lii delicious and very professionally prepared so the chef was so right that he would do everything in his power to make and prepare our meals so that it would be a memorable occasion and it was indeed! For some or other reasons the dessert options came-down to either apple-tart & ice cream or lemon-cheesecake! We went for the lemon-cheesecake which was on-point, presented and taste! With the electricity been off a few patrons left and didn’t stay but for us who did stay we enjoyed the full attention of management and waitron faffing around to make double sure that we stayed happy and contented! After lunch we went exploring the grounds in and around Poplars! Behind the main restaurant and through the nice big bar-area we found what is called “The Back-Yard” here there is a love-lii big area with a nice Braai-facility & Pizza-oven and many picnic-benches, a Jungle-Jim structure where kids can play as we were informed that the Back-Yard opens for Live entertainment and junk-foods on Friday nights and week-ends! We will have to make a point of coming around to experience this! Also in this area is the vine-yards where they have a few well maintained cottages for hire (which probably goes hand-in-hand with the D’Aria Functions Venue) The functions venue is a lone standing building with a large marque attached to it which can be hired for various occasions also here there are beautiful well maintained lush gardens which will make any special occasion look heavenly! The D’Aria Wine Tasting Room is also a building on its own nice-lii situated and well decorated which leads off onto a porch overlooking a rather greenish-watered lake (No swimming No fishing & No dumping) but adds a love-lii outdoor-ish touch to the scenery and ambience! Wine-tasting is offered at very reasonable prices R40.00 for five tasting of the non-premium wines & R40.00 for three tasting of the D’Aria premium wines! Also so on offer are cheese-boards & cheese & meat-boards at about the normal going prices! See the Price-List! Here they also cater for children visiting with their parents a nice suggestion which many wine-tasting facilities hard-lii ever consider…..This is a must visit wine-estate if and when in the Durbanville Wine-Route area!...................………… .

Had my friend's birthday lunch at Poplars Restaurant. The venue was lovely and really cosy with a fire going in the corner. I can recommend their gourmet burgers as well as the open steak sandwich and Tagliatelle Napoleana. Very flavourable and just deliscious. And to compliment the meal we had some of D'Arias lovely wines. They surprised my friend with a lovely birthday plate to round the meal off. The only problem we found with the meal is the normal table knife they gave us to eat our steaks and burgers with. It made cutting the meats very difficult. Other than that I will definately recommend the restaurant for Sunday Lunch.

Great food and excellent live reggae music. The service was good and the meal sizes are ample. Great for a chilled afternoon lunch with friends in a beautiful and relaxed setting.

Have been there before and went there again. The staff is friendly. The scenery is pretty. And the food was fresh and delicious. Would like to do wine tasting next time.

Cosy Saturday afternoon lunch. Nice fire in an intimate setting. Beautiful garden outside. Food was great. Comfortable bar area

I really enjoyed my meal (grilled calamari and salad). I would like to go back to enjoy some of the other meals. I like that the meals are simple and the short menu has some sort of variety. The staff are friendly. On the downside, I personally don't like the farm's wine and luckily there are other brands on the menu