Klein Genot | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Three Stellenbosch restaurants have made the 2009 Prudential Eat Out Top Ten restaurant list, being Overture, Rust en Vrede and Terroir. The first two restaurants are new entrants to the top ten list.

The Stellenbosch success is at the expense of Franschhoek, which retains only one restaurant on the top ten list, being the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, slipping from top position last year to 7th place this year. Franschhoek’s Grand Provence and Bread & Wine, on the top ten list last year, fell off the top list, with the former falling off the top twenty list. Reubens did not manage to make the top ten list, but was on the top 20 list.

Competition for the top ten list was tough, with many new restaurants making the top twenty list, from which the top ten restaurants were selected. The winners, in order, are as follows: La Colombe, Jardine, Terroir, Overture, Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient in Pretoria, Rust en Vrede, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, Roots at Forum Homini, Bizerca and Hartford House. La Colombe was selected as Restaurant of the Year and its chef Luke Dale-Roberts the Chef of the Year. Terroir won the Service Award, while the Lifetime Achievement Award was made posthumously to Frank Swainston, who was at Constantia Uitsig until his death earlier this year.

Notable upsets were the exclusion from the list of The Showroom and Aubergine. Ginja was a top ten winner last year, but did not even make the top twenty list this year.

The judges selected the top restaurants on the basis of operating for a year or more, the chefs demonstrating a passion for their business, showing a dedication to uplifting the industry, where chefs source their ingredients, and consistence and excellence in all aspects of their business. Food quality counted for 70 points, service for 20 and ambience for 10 in judging the top restaurants.

Seven top restaurants are in the Western Cape, of which three in Cape Town, three in Stellenbosch and one in Franschhoek.

Bertus Basson, award-winning chef at Overture, opens Genot on Kleingenot in Franschhoek today.

Despite the depressed economy, the restaurant industry appears to be confident about the future, with a number of new restaurant openings.

The first restaurant to open is the re-awakened Roundhouse in Camps Bay, once the site of one of Cape Town’s finest restaurants. Owner Fasie Malherbe proudly brags that his restaurant will become the best in Africa! He is unashamedly Proudly Capetonian, and states that he only wants locals to support his restaurant – he is not interested in tourists. Also owner of the training company Let’s Sell Lobster, which has just been contracted by Wines of South Africa to train 2010 winestewards to deliver excellent service, Malherbe recently supported his GM’s rudeness, on the basis that his shareholder interests were being protected!

Franschhoek already is the Gourmet Capital of South Africa, with three of the country’s Top Ten restaurants located in this beautiful village. Competition is set to increase, with three new restaurant openings. Richard Carstens is said to be opening on Huguenot Road, not far from the Monument, in a newly renovated Victorian Cottage. Carstens was a Top Ten chef when he headed up Bijoux in Franschhoek about 5 years ago, and continued wearing the Top Ten chef crown when he left Franschhoek for Lynton Hall near Pietermaritzburg. A stint at Manolo in Cape Town followed, but ended before it had really got going. Carstens may not be opening in Franschhoek after all, given an alleged fall-out with landlord Trevor Kirsten.

Bertus Basson is cooking up a storm at his restaurant Overture on the Hidden Valley Estate in Stellenbosch, and will turn up the heat in Franschhoek when he opens his restaurant Genot on Kleingenot in December. Ever evolving Solms Delta is opening its new restaurant Fyndraai in the season. Reubens has undergone a make-over and expansion, and newly married Maryke Riffel is back on the floor, welcoming patrons.

Camps Bay too will see a further four new restaurants opening this season, with the Grill House, an Indian restaurant and a Paranga Bar opening below Blues. The Grand Cafe will open in the Opium location, as a restaurant well-known to the Plettenberg Bay jetset for its simple yet yummy menu and exceptional music. The Grand in Plettenberg Bay was the brainchild of Gail Behr, who has since sold her Grand Cafe and Rooms. The Grand in Camps Bay will also offer accommodation.