Luce Restaurant, the authentic Italian restaurant located on the pool deck of the iconic Hyde Park Hotel, has gained a reputation for its contemporary, casual dining experience - and Brunch+, in association with MANGERmanje, isn't any different.
MANGERmanje is a food platform focused on exploring food and beverage cultures from the African perspective. Manger, in French, translates to “to eat”, and manje in isiZulu means “now”.
On arrival, we were served a GH Mumm Champagne mimosa.
I commend the ingenuity of popping a frozen granadilla popsicle and a frozen berry skewer to give it that extra zing.
The star of the brunch show is the three-course tasting menu.
For starters we had an Egg Napolitano on toasted garlic ciabatta bread, drenched in mozzarella. The main course was herbed Potato Rosti, wilted baby spinach, with pulled pork and apple slaw.
For those of you who don't know, rosti is a Swiss dish consisting of mainly potatoes, in the style of a fritter. It was originally a breakfast dish eaten by farmers in the canton of Bern, but is now eaten all over Switzerland and around the world.
I loved the hazelnut-rolled pancakes, with macadamia crumble, served with Chantilly cream and cherries. This is the cherry on top of this entire experience. But the real essential reading for Brunch+ at Luce has to be the unlimited selected cocktails during your 2-hour seating - either from 12pm-2pm or 2pm-4pm. You can choose between an Altos Margarita or a Crafted Paloma, or you can have both.
DIVINE: Potato Rosti, wilted baby spinach, pulled pork and apple slaw.
As craft cocktails bars seem to open by the minute, so too do new spin-offs of this classical cocktail. Margaritas are simply too agreeable to ever be out of style.
The Crafted Paloma goes very well with the main course. Grapefruit soda and tequila seem like unlikely partners, but the pairing works artlessly and adding a little fresh lime juice really improves this already revitalising cocktail.