Head to this Joburg eatery when a craving for confectionery-style carbs strikes

Andrea Burgener discovers it's best to leave room for dessert when dining at Glenda's in Joburg

Glenda's in Hyde Square in Johannesburg is code for ladies who lunch. The décor is girly-camp with a kinda 1980s glitz-meets-Tricia Guild vibe, sprinkled with a dusting of Parisian café. Bright floral wallpaper, flashes of zebra print, a mirrored bar and plenty of fuscia pink set the tone.

The menu runs from smaller dishes doing fashionable charcoal and soil antics to more no-nonsense offerings such as chicken pie and steak and chips.

The robust dishes are where the kitchen is comfortable. Steak is well cooked, shoe-string chips really great. Fish cakes and chicken pie succulent.

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The dishes getting clever with odd combinations are the kitchen's undoing. Pan-seared gnocchi with pea puree and smoked carpaccio is less than the sum of its parts. The dish arrived without the carpaccio. It was brought after we asked about it, but didn't help things.

Fillet with dauphinoise potatoes and braised short-rib pot-sticker sounded interesting, if quite beef- heavy, but the dauphinoise and pot-sticker didn't materialise.

When we again asked the missing items arrived, but the crispy stack of potato slices, while not bad, was not related to the creamy dish the name suggests and which would have given some moisture to the whole affair.

The pot-sticker, weirdly, was just the filling: a small pile of chopped up beef, sans wrapping. A deconstructed pot-sticker, perhaps?

The mozzarella and artichoke dish with "mint-chovy" dressing was without the dressing and, though the mozzarella was wonderful quality, it was screaming out for some lubrication and seasoning.

At this point we felt depressed and a bit cross, but very thankfully we had room for dessert. Because suddenly all was forgiven.

Glenda's is the solution when a blinding need for confectionery-style carbs strikes. The popcorn caramel cake is a work of art in every way. It's fluffy-light and buttery-rich at the same time. The Italian meringue on top is what you imagine angels must eat all day long and the caramel buttercream had even my children - who usually loathe icing - fighting over the last blob. It's in a league of its own.

Colourful eclairs, each flavoured subtly with everything from classic vanilla through to coconut and rose, are a joy, bursting with perfect, silken crème patisserie.

Lemon meringue pie, ethereal chiffon cake, toothsome, huge scones and more are on offer too.

So, go to Glenda's to feast on the steak and chips and then let yourself loose on the cake counter.

The espresso is pretty good, too.

• Find Glenda's at 285 Jan Smuts Avenue, Hyde Park. 011-268-6369.

• This article was originally published in The Times.