Lazy Sundays: Buds on the Bay

One of the tricky things about being a newcomer to Durban is mastering all of the recently re-christened street names. Cowey Road is now Problem Mkhize Road (tip of the hat to Mr and Mrs Mkhize) Victoria Embankment becomes Margaret Mncadi Avenue and so on. The improbably named Grunter Gully Street, however, has somehow evaded a name change, and remains the site of Buds on the Bay, down on the Durban docks.

Many of the reviews of Buds mention how hard it is to find, and I can imagine this to be the case, located as it is, without benefit of signage, at the end of a long industrial looking road which you probably wouldn't want to travel down at night. Google Maps lead me there without any difficulty.

Buds on the Bay is now apparently owned by the Prawn Shak people and is being renamed BayShak. If you have been to Prawn Shak, you'll find that while some of its menu items and decor have made the move to Durban, this venue does not share the fish braais or heavy drinking of its sister restaurant and remains more conventional in its approach.

The venue, once you arrive, is quite attractive, with views of remnant mangroves and small boats bobbing idly in the harbour. Several swings hang under an eave on one edge of the building, and the general ambiance is laid back, with chunky wooden furniture and dingy plastic chairs. Service is unhurried to the point of negligence, which is fine if you want to while away the afternoon. If another drink was needed, standing up and waving generally got things going again.

The menu is fairly eclectic, with a smattering of seafood, steaks, curries and a few Asian and Mexican inspired dishes. Prices are on the reasonable side. I ordered the 'Larney Prawn Bunny' which was two hollowed out rolls filled with prawn curry and served with an interesting apple curry sauce and chips. Other orders included 'Chips and Strips' (fried, battered chicken strips, chips, wasabi mayo) and a Vietnamese chicken curry on noodles. The prawn curry in my bunny was tasty, but lacked any serious chilli. The chicken curry was similarly mildly spiced - a disappointment by Durban standards. Chicken strips were better than expected, hot, well flavoured and nicely matched by the wasabi mayo.

Coffee drinking is frowned upon on the docks (so says the menu) and so cappuccinos were offered along with the disclaimer that they came out of a sachet - and they tasted like it.

Pudding was surprisingly good (twice in a row!) with the lemon meringue a traditional height, and without the towering stack of soggy meringue as popularised by Mugg & Bean. Another order was for a mocca something or other pie, which turned out to be chocolate ice cream on a bed of crushed Romany Creams - simple and delicious.

Buds on the Bay seems like a good place for a party, or a lazy afternoon. The soundtrack is straight out of East Coast Radio's playbook (we heard both the Macarena and Nkalakatha), but the effect was nostalgic more than grating and everybody had a good time. The food is nothing special, but it certainly wasn't bad either, and the beers were cheap and served ice-cold.

More about the buds than the taste buds.