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# Quick Bite: Arlecchino restaurant
- URL: https://brain-food.ghost.io/quick-bite-arlecchino-restaurant/
- Published: 2026-08-14T16:06:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-14T16:06:31.000Z
- Author: Adèle Sulcas
- Tags: #Migrated-1793180770901, #sqs, #Import 2026-10-28 09:46

The suffix “by Tashas” augured well for Arlecchino - even if you (like me) think the “by …” bit somehow cheapens the name - given Tashas’ immense appeal and success since as an upscale that started in Atholl, Johannesburg in 2005, and now can be found in 18 locations across Joburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, and another 11 overseas, including Dubai and London.

Arlecchino ratchets up the “upscale” part, but remains relaxed and cool - a modern, vaster-than-it-looks-from-the-outside ground-floor space underneath the (super-cool, some might say too cool) The Cole Hotel. Nomenclature quibbles aside, the overall effect is pleasing, if a bit self-consciously instagrammy: Plush banquettes, white tablecloths, well-spaced tables, soft golden light, servers dressed in gleaming harlequin-patterned silk pyjamas, the occasional waiter tableside at a trolley serving cocktail granitas pounded (authentically) before your eyes, or dishing out a huge dollop of commendable chocolate mousse from a silver salver, and a seasoned DJ (Jonny, I was told) whose clever design of 80s and 90s classics during the dinner hour was perfectly pitched (for the equally seasoned customers, at least). My dining partner said, “It feels like you could be in New York.” High praise indeed.

The menu announces its intentions with sections titled in Italian - antipasti, insalata, panini, pasta, terra, mare, dolci - managing to make nearly everything sound luscious. Our meal was delicious - the fritto misto of calamari, prawns, and courgette thinly battered and piping hot, the lamb chops succulent, and the grilled calamari both a bit charred and unusually tender.

But reality did not quite meet expectation in the case of my calamari, which were more or less drowning in a thick lemon-butter sauce (the menu’s description of “garlic, olive oil, tomato & green olive concasse” did not suggest a heavy sauce) and the “fragrant rice” accompaniment was clearly the same coconut rice that accompanied the Asian-inflected seabass repurposed for a patently non-Asian dish (in the hope that no one would notice?). An unfortunate error of judgement, I would say, to so brazenly take advantage of some customers’ more easygoing natures than mine.   
  
My companion’s dessert order required special treatment, given that the “mousse al cioccolato” on the menu described “chocolate mousse, chocolate chip cookies & salted caramel sauce” - we both thought “why mess with a classic” so requested just a small-portion scoop of the mousse, without the over-elaborate accoutrements. We got the tableside scoop from the family-sized silver salver (classy), but the manager insisted we try at least the salted caramel with it, and we happily ate our words, even while lamenting (a bit) that the quality of the chocolate could be stepped up.

This review is a “quick bite” because I have only eaten there once (so far) - but I am totally up for another round.

*Arlecchino by Tashas, 16 Regent Road, Sea Point, Cape Town* [*arlecchino.co*](http://arlecchino.co/?ref=brain-food.ghost.io)