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Review: La Colombe

The Proposition

La Colombe has been in its “new” venue, Silvermist, for about five years already – longer than some restaurants actually manage to stay open. So calling this restaurant an evergreen is truly most apt. Consider also the heralded chefs that have been at the helm: Franck Dangereux; Luke Dale-Roberts; Scot Kirton. James Gaag heads the team now (more on this below) but nowadays its notable when an establishment brings with it a reputation larger and more durable than the chef’s.

On the website, chef Gaag is quoted: “When it comes to food, I believe that flavour comes first! Food needs to be immediately delicious and inviting, not overthought, overworked or overcomplicated. Flavour is paramount and key in making great food and also running a great kitchen. Making it look pretty is where we get to have a bit of fun as a chef, and yes we eat with our eyes first, but ultimately flavour is what makes the guests come back.”

The Experience

La Colombe was well-rated in the very first Rossouw’s Restaurants guide, released in late 2003, the review noting how the blackboard menu was written only in French… remember those days? And the average cost per head? Two hundred and ten South African rand… 15 years later, at a recent meal, the per-head price was R1,495 before wine. The most useful comment to make regarding this may be that South African dining, at its finest, has reached price-parity with many international peers – as this is an increase that has comfortably out-paced inflation.

The La Colombe of old, and more recent, has been based on contemporary cuisine, with a bias towards classic European cooking. Service levels have always been high, indeed consistently among the very best in the country. Over the last while my concern was that, while the kitchen’s technical prowess was never in question, they seemed always to be chasing international trends instead of finding their own beat. Sometimes this adherence to trend even led them astray, such as asking guests to get up from the table to visit the “Alice in Wonderland” garden a few menus ago.

A dinner here in July reassured me that service is still a very strong suit – if more dramatic than ever before with an animated manager on duty. Wine service, led by sommelier Joseph Dafana, is very good. The wines paired to the menu were also on point – featuring a really entertaining “blind tasting” pairing with their signature tuna course (the one in a tin). For this course, a wine is poured into a black glass and guests are invited to guess the wine. This is a great example of playful creativity that also encourages relevant discovery – whimsy matched to interest. Adding to the interactive theme, courses are brought out by the kitchen brigade, with many of the team, including chef Gaag, coming out to introduce the plates.

The Verdict

This dinner was consistently excellent – and the culinary direction has now shaken itself loose of relying (heavily) on obvious “trends du jour“. Now there’s a focus on fresh and lively spice-driven cuisine – including Cape Malay, Indian, West Indian and Thai. It’s colourful, vibrant and full of clean flavours, making good on chef Gaag’s promise. Happily, La Colombe remains one of the country’s leading premium restaurants.

  • Lamb roti canapé
  • Mussel & passionfruit curry
  • Lamb & Jerusalem artichoke
  • Banana, hazelnut, tonka

La Colombe

Silvermist Estate, Constantia Nek

www.lacolombe.co.za

+27 21 794 2390

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Review: FYN Restaurant

The Proposition

From their website, this founding statement: “At FYN, South Africa’s wild freedom is tempered by the rigours of contemporary cuisine to create a restaurant at the edge.” I think cultural commentators could have some fun “unpacking” this colourful sentence, but I’ll leave it serving as their own notice of intent.

The Experience

I’ve now visited Fyn twice. It’s a knockout space, and a wonderful reinvention of a downtown square that is off most peoples’ radar, unless you work in parliament – but then you are likely to be someone that most people want off their radar. The glass box concept is contemporary and also comfortable, and the ceiling installation is impressive – feeling, as a lunch companion noted, much like an overhead kelp forest that houses the seafood-leaning items on the menu.

This is certainly a luxury space, with a commensurately luxe wine list – yet with a culinary approach that is pretty novel to South African dining, taking the form of kaiseki*. I do not think kaiseki falls into most people’s idea of “contemporary cuisine” (per their intro); and here the kaiseki concept has been modulated, albeit softly, towards local flavours and ingredients.

Notwithstanding these local modulations, many people seem to share my puzzlement over the disjunct between the deep localism suggested by the name of the restaurant and the internationalism of the majority of the menu. “Fyn” does of course simply mean “fine” (possibly as in fine dining, or the finer things) but putting it in Afrikaans made me, and others, hope that there would be a whole lot more reference to and interaction with local cuisine. Instead what you get are “luxury” ingredients, mostly taking an elite and international form. Prawns from Hawaii, crab from Alaska, scallop from Europe, Mauritian sea bass. We were even offered a bespoke gin from Japan. These are delicious foods, but I can’t help thinking this is a short-cut to what is commercially agreed as being “fine”. It’s a safe way to impress most comers. But in the light of the current zeitgeist – which I dearly hope is not just a fad, toward the use of foods with a more local provenance, I found this (ironically, given the space) somewhat old-fashioned.

The kitchen technique and presentation, however, are superb. The succession of plates and trays is a masterclass in method and beauty – which is what kaiseki sets out to show the diner. And while it draws most consistently from the Japanese cookbook, there were, as mentioned, a few innovations that introduced the local; such as a guineafowl yakitori with Malay spices and African steamed bread, dombolo, with bone marrow. The main course (fillet, with a green bean “risotto” and sweetbreads) and the desserts were again firmly Eurocentric in an “international” style. Desserts are very impressive indeed.

The Verdict

The beauty of this approach to cooking is that the menu can be tweaked and ingredients substituted with ease as they go along. My hope is that this does happen and, as time goes by, it will mean more and more towards a local focus – so that what many take as Fyn’s promise of South African cuisine reinterpreted through a Japanese idiom, can be realised.

* From Wikipedia: “… a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals and is analogous to Western haute cuisine.”

  • Bento Canapés
  • Idombolo, bone marrow coal
  • Fillet with green bean “risotto”
  • Sweet kaiseki
  • Kaiseki tray

FYN Restaurant

5th Floor, Speakers Corner, 37 Parliament Str, Cape Town

Reservations: + 27 (0)21 286 2733

info@fynrestaurant.com

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Review: Wolfgat

The Proposition

Look at this picture.

Don’t you instantly wish you were there? There’s a mesmerising quality to natural spaces like this, and Wolfgat perfectly captures the essential nature of this part of the Cape’s West Coast by being housed in a historic fisherman’s cottage (luckily) with wind-protected views – and then having the sensitivity to minimise all else so that you experience, simply, being here. It’s quite remarkable.

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Review: Eike by Bertus Basson

The Proposition

Eike by Bertus Basson is the latest addition to this dynamic chef’s collection. You can learn more about all of them on his website, and read our recent review of Overture here.

Eike is briefly introduced on his site with the statement: “I have always wanted to open a dining room that celebrates South African food”. It also explains that this restaurant offers only a “fixed” (tasting) menu. I’ve eaten here twice to date and the menu has so far seen small adjustments, but the idea is to update seasonally according to what’s fresh – but always in step with the underlying concept behind Eike, “to celebrate our food heritage” and to evoke the “nostalgia” of ideas and flavours that may no longer be in vogue – “inspired by childhood memories” says Basson. In a recent conversation with the chef regarding upcoming spring ideas, he explained that this could for instance take the form of pairing asparagus with “basic sandwich ham” – a canapé idea that may well have been a staple of middle-class suburbia in the 1980s, to go with the Barbara Streisand dinner soundtrack. (On the subject of music, Eike plays local-only tunes.) Continue reading “Review: Eike by Bertus Basson”

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Review: Overture Restaurant

The Proposition

Chef Bertus Basson has always been a highly charged individual, and of late he has channelled ever-more of this incandescent energy into his food enterprises, opening a number of restaurants and off-shoots to restaurants as well as being featured in a number of local food TV series. The latest restaurant to open is Eike (which will soon be reviewed); joining Bertus Basson at Spice Route, Spek en Bone, De Vrije Burger, The Deck and his very popular catering company.

This latter part of his career, leading to his current position as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent chefs – one could call it his “mature” phase, even though he would probably dislike this – began at Overture on the Hidden Valley wine farm just over 10 years ago. Since Overture was recently re-opened after a renovation, it was a good time to revisit the “mothership” of his current portfolio. Continue reading “Review: Overture Restaurant”

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Review: Upper Bloem Restaurant

The Proposition

The name of the restaurant is Upper Bloem, which is slightly confusing to any Capetonian since Upper Bloem is a street address in the Bo-Kaap, but the restaurant is located on Main Road in Greenpoint. What the name references are the roots of the menu here – Cape Malay and the Cape in general – as does the interior of the unprepossessing but comfortable space in its “curry” colours. As they explain, the menu speaks of chef Andre Hill’s childhood spent in the Bo-Kaap and they “invite you to (sic) a journey of flavours, spices, tastes, textures and nostalgia”.

The Experience

The caveat to this account is that lunch currently is an “opening special” set menu that is pared-down from the dinner offering, and I am unsure how often they plan to change the menus, so it may differ when you get there. Costs can be very well managed by means of set menus (and certainly are here at R195 per person), but the plates necessarily default to “simpler” and less luxurious ingredients to achieve this value. Not all diners will like the choices either, but I enjoy the exercise of a “pared down” menu, as it forces kitchens to be more creative and less reliant on the obvious “big hit” flavours or hero ingredients. Continue reading “Review: Upper Bloem Restaurant”

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Review: Skotnes at Norval Foundation

The Proposition

As of writing, the Norval Foundation building is so new that they are still snag-fixing, but it is already something to behold, and clearly adds another contemporary jewel to the crown of the Cape’s beautiful art spaces so far populated by the likes of the Zeitz MOCAA and Cavalli. The Norval is a space where creativity is on display in the architecture as much as in the sculpture garden and the exhibits within. The gallery has a strong link to the famed South African artist Cecil Skotnes, hence the name of the restaurant on the premises. So it’s an eatery with plenty of sophistication and high art around it to live up to. Continue reading “Review: Skotnes at Norval Foundation”

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Classics: La Perla

Certainly one of Cape Town’s longest-standing dining institutions, La Perla opened its doors in 1959. It’s the kind of place your parents probably ate at. It has gathered scrapbooks of famous diners and certain tables are known as “so-and-so’s”. But I struggle to get its mystique – at least by looking at the plate. Then again, by concentrating on the food, I think I’m looking in the wrong place. It’s all about the “face” of it here. Quite literally.

To start, there’s the fantastic position and its sea views, followed by the bold art that has always adorned the interior, and in human turn filled by the “see-and-be-seen” set since the beginning. Then there are the waiters, in their European white tunics, who put on a great show of being proper. They may in fact be the defining element of La Perla’s form of nostalgic food theatre, and some of them (fewer and fewer, it has to be said) have a decades-long tenure here. However, the feeling that there is an element of role-play was bolstered by our waiter, who smoothly enquired after our lunch order by starting with “ladies and gentlemen…” when there were only two men at the table. Continue reading “Classics: La Perla”

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Review: Terroir at Kleine Zalze

The Proposition

For any reader who has not yet visited this highly recommended Cape Winelands restaurant, the casual “Mediterranean” outdoor seating under the trees is a fine option during the warmer months while the equally casual interior is useful through all seasons. Service has always been a strong suit, with staff that are usually long serving and knowledgeable. The wine list is mainly focussed on their own (very good) selection, with a decent look at other quality bottles. A blackboard offers further vintage options. Continue reading “Review: Terroir at Kleine Zalze”

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Classics: The Radium Beerhall

As the first in an episodic series on South Africa’s great evergreens, a revisit to The Radium Beerhall on Louis Botha in Jo’burg. Established in 1929, it’s been on the scene, in the same place, for 89 years, and what makes it an essential establishment is its mostly unchanged nature. It comes from a time before today’s “restaurant design”, where almost every food and beverage spot is packaged to within an inch of the definition of what they are meant to be for their specified market. Even worse, so many establishments nowadays default to the “generic” – flytraps to catch all comers – with purposefully little obvious personality, so that no-one baulks or objects. Newer “hipster” joints are possibly the worst culprits, taking counter-culture iconography (café racers, skate) and repurposing it as cute sanitised titillation. 

The bar at Radium. Image courtesy of the Radium website.

Continue reading “Classics: The Radium Beerhall”