On a gastronomic marathon for Eat Out 2007, I reviewed more than 60 restaurants in the Franschhoek and Robertson Wine Valleys from McGregor and Montagu to Tulbagh.
Terroir at Kleine Zalze wine farm in Stellenbosch was named South Africa's restaurant of the year in Eat Out 2007. The Western Cape dominated this year's Eat Out awards as the home of seven out of South Africa's top 10 restaurants.
A clutch of newcomers scooped the culinary Oscars - Jardine's (chef of the year), Bruce Robertson's Showroom, Haiku (last year's best new restaurant) and Ginja in Cape Town - as well as Terroir (restaurant of the year), Bread & Wine and Reuben's in the winelands.
The Eat Out awards set foodies abuzz across the country.
The winelands beckon as a gourmet destination with three highly-prized top ten restaurants, namely Terroir, Reuben's and Bread & Wine in Franschhoek.
Auberge Michel did a hat-trick for Gauteng while Lynton Hall and Ninth Avenue Bistro came tops in KwaZulu Natal.
Gauteng-based judge Arnold Tanzer, vice-president of the SA Chefs Association, says the number of fine dining establishments is declining as foodies look to convenience cuisine in a more informal setting. Culinary consultant, Peter Goffe-Wood, another Eat Out judge, believes diners are more adventurous in the Cape as they can explore a wider range of venues within a diverse culinary catchment area from the city to winelands.
The judges felt service needed improvement - and identified trends towards simplicity and balancing local ingredients with a global accent.
I've chomped my way through the winelands for Eat Out for three long years.
You might think it an enviable assignment, but it requires dedication, staying power, a huge appetite and an elastic waistline.
You'll find 800 restaurants reviewed in Eat Out 2007. I'll recommend 10 of my favourite new venues - seriously good owner-chef restaurants which serve contemporary Cape fare with dollops of flavour.
George Jardine, winner of Eat Out Chef of the Year 2007 is a familiar name. The Scottish chef trained under renowned restaurateur Jean Christophe Novelli (of Maison Novelli fame) in London before making his own mark at Cellars-Hohenort Hotel in Constantia.
"We feed the body and not the mind," he says.
After working in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, he's back with his stylish new restaurant Jardine that opened mid-2006 in Cape Town.
The colonnaded heritage building has a wedding-cake façade, warm verandah, wooden interiors and minimalist design with an open-plan kitchen where the chef does his thing. The a la carte menu is as modern as the decor - and as unfussy as the setting. A refreshingly succinct menu, clean and streamlined, it avoids a paragraph per dish - and changes regularly to showcase seasonal flavours.
A well-priced tasting menu tempts with seven courses for R250 - plus R125 for matching wines by the glass. We dined on divine crayfish and basil tortellini (the crayfish risotto and pork belly are very popular), tender seared springbok with soft, herbed polenta in a mushroom jus, poached pear with gorgonzola and an intriguing almond mousse in espresso jelly.
The food is artily plated, matching colour, taste and texture. This restaurant is highly recommended. - Saturday Star
- Jardine, 185 Bree Street, Cape Town, Phone 021-424-5640.