We're not often invited to review the restaurants that we write about, so when we were asked to visit Sinn's in Wembley Square (map) to try out their summer specials, it was a no-brainer.
Owner and chef Thomas Sinn was on leave for the day, but left instructions for his chefs to prepare taster-size portions of 5 of the 6 dishes on his Summer Lunch Specials list, some of which I've included in the photo above. Each of these Summer Lunch Special meals costs just R50. Based on the size of the dishes and the quality of the food, it's a definite bargain!
Below we've ranked the five dishes in order of our preference. Even though we've ranked them, allow me to say that every dish was pretty impressive, and each would have been perfectly satisfying on its own.
The first on our list, and top-right in the photo, was the Zorbian Chicken - a very mild chicken curry served with basmati rice, poppadums, and sweet-and-sour aubergine. This one won first place because of the variety of tastes and the unusual (and yummy!) sweet-and-sour aubergine.
Paprika Chicken was next on our list, and was in fact a strong contender for first place. The dish consists of chicken in a rich and creamy paprika sauce, served with spaetzle. The chicken in this dish was tender, the spaetzle was a good accompaniment, and the paprika sauce was out of this world - so much so that we both highly recommend this dish.
The Oriental Seared Sirloin is, in our opinion, the next logical choice if you'd prefer not to have chicken or a cream-based sauce. The (perfectly) grilled pieces of marinated sirloin were carefully laid over a salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sprouts. I'm not exactly sure what the dressing contained (it was sweet, with perhaps a hint of chilli), but what I can say is that I found myself scooping every last drop from the bowl. The dish was pretty darn good and if I were in the mood for red meat, I'd definitely have this one again.
I can't recall that I've ever had Croque Madame. For someone who enjoys toasted sandwiches, this was a real treat. The sandwich (bottom left in the photo) contains cheese and ham, and is topped with a fried egg. The dish also includes a variety of simple salads and a portion of chips. The sandwich itself was very good - I enjoyed it plenty - and the salads offered a nice range of flavours. Although Kerry-Anne enjoyed the chips, I can't say that they were the best I've ever had.
The final dish on our list was the Roast Vegetable and Tomato with Chilli Penne. This is the vegetarian option, which I guess is part of the reason it ended up in last place on our list. The pasta dish tasted nice: the vegetables were yummy, the penne was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was good. As I mentioned, we only had a small portion each, but after some thought I decided that a full portion could have become monotonous to eat (I usually have this problem with pasta dishes, though, so perhaps that's just a matter of personal taste).
After such a massive quantity of food (which I'm mildly embarrassed about finishing), it was a real treat when Dylan, our waiter, brought around a lovely apricot sorbet (bottom right) to conclude our lunch. Kerry-Anne loves sorbet, but I'm not usually partial to it. This one was pretty good, though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
In conclusion, all the dishes were very good, and any one of them is truly a bargain at R50. All the staff seem to enjoy working at Sinn's (which creates a great atmosphere) and our waiter specifically was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable about the food and its ingredients.