By Allison Doucette, Semester at Sea, Spring 2017

“Food you want to leave home for.  Food you feel at home with.”  It says it right on the menu and it is 100% true, as I found out on my three separate occasions.

 The first night I went to Life Grand Café it was purely out of convenience and atmosphere.  The restaurant had décor that I liked and it was one of the first ones I came across.  We were starving and decided to sit here.  We even brought our own wine and they uncorked it and poured it for us.  The food was about a 20-minute wait which seemed like 4 hours because we were hungry but the restaurant was packed so we knew it was something waiting for.  Once it finally came out the table was silent and we only made sounds of amazement because the food was so good.  I chose to have a pasta dish with filet on top and it was amazing.  I had it with my red wine that we brought from a vineyard earlier in the day and I left barely able to move because I was so stuffed. 

On the next night when we were debating where to eat, we thought, why not go back to a place we know is amazing?  They sell their “comfortable classics from the kitchen with a little twist” very well and kept us coming back for more.  This time we sat outside and they even offered us blankets in case we were cold, which we declined but the offer was still there.  This time I had a fetta and butternut squash, brick-oven pizza paired with a strawberry margarita.  Everything was amazing once again and the service seemed a bit quicker this time. 

The third night was when we were truly amazed.  I tried to order a white Russian, which they were unaware of and didn’t have the capability of making, so instead I ordered a whisky and ginger and had to walk them through how to make it.  When I received my drink the Jameson was in the glass with ice and the ginger ale was on the side, an odd way to serve a drink, but it was the best one I had ever had.  I chose to splurge this night and have the Afrikaners beef which was the chef’s cut of beef and melted in your mouth.  I had it with a mushroom sauce and some grilled vegetables. 

This night it was raining so all of their outdoor seating was eliminated, making a very intimate setting and very speedy service due to the lack of customers.  We were able to ask our waiter for recipes, we talked to the manager, and we were able to rave to them about how much we loved their food, which they truly appreciated.  Never did I think I would go to a foreign country and eat in the same restaurant three nights in a row but the Life Grand Café was too good to resist for a second and third time.