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Epicurean
Harare is blessed with one of the world’s finest climates and for most of the year people can take advantage of great weather to enjoy themselves outdoors. So it’s not surprising there are so many dining venues situated wholly or partly in garden settings in and around the city.

One such venue is the attractive and friendly Shop Café in the area where Highlands and Chisipite suburbs meet along Enterprise Road. It shares this delightful and colourful spot with Amanzi restaurant, and complements that well-known and acclaimed dining spot very well. Shop Café is a daytime venue and is becoming increasingly well-known for its stylish and healthful salads and vegetarian meals.

The venue also offers meat dishes, but these are by no means the central focus, and diners coming here are really captivated by an excellent selection of non-meat options. These are laid out around a central table and diners help themselves.

Additional meat offerings are advertised and a number of people take these up, but my observation is that, for the most part, most diners are after what they regard as the ‘‘healthy options’ that are created by owner Kerry Wallace and his son, LeeRoy, and their kitchen team.

I have mostly been there on Friday lunchtimes and the place has been very busy, especially as there is a Friday morning market, with a wide range of goods on offer. The gardens of Amanzi are absolutely delightful, complete with lawns and trees, flower beds and all manner of shrubs and other items, along with an attractive water feature.

The Shop Cafe was originally in the Doon Estate shopping complex in the Msasa industrial area. After closing some time in 2015, fans of the venue asked Kerry to get back in business, which he did as the secondary lunchtime venue within the Amanzi restaurant premises along Enterprise Road.

The food is tasty, appealing and carefully created, and there is enormous innovation and versatility employed in the creation of the dishes.

What I like is the variety, and each time I have been there has been a selection of favourites, but with a selection, too, of new dishes that really create excitement for the palate. My guest and I enjoyed a small sampling of each dish between us, and this was both filling and satisfying. I have never managed dessert, but these are on offer; I prefer to end with a great coffee.

The Shop Café is open at lunchtime from Tuesday to Saturday, but Friday starts earlier that the rest of the week, as the fair brings people in as early as 9am.

Kerry told me on my last visit that the bulk of the food is now prepared by LeeRoy, once at Café Veldemeer in Mount Pleasant, which leaves Kerry free to source content, not the easiest of tasks at the moment, of course, especially for the more unusual items they make use of in their cooking. They also like to do outside catering, where they focus on the same mix of cuisine.

Adjacent to The Shop Café is, of course, the well-known fine dining venue, Amanzi restaurant, owned and operated by Andrew Mama. This is a dining venue for lunch and dinner, and additional offerings include quiz nights on Wednesdays and music evenings with tapas each Thursday. The Friday market runs from 9am to 11.30am.

The Shop Café is welcoming and informal, and the cuisine on offer is both appetising and based on healthy eating. Booking can be done by calling Amanzi. There is good, secure parking on site.

Feedback is welcome and The Epicurean is keen to know what readers enjoy or dislike about Zimbabwe’s dining venues. What have been your experiences, good and bad? E-mail [email protected] :[email protected] with your input and feedback.