Tag Archives: Pax Verbatim

Makaron Restaurant: The ‘model’ Eat Out Style Restaurant?!

On Friday I had lunch at Makaron Restaurant at Majeka House in Stellenbosch, which re-opened after a R10 million new construction and decor upgrade in September.  It is a huge improvement relative to my visit to the (unbranded at that time) restaurant more than a year ago.  Given that its menu was developed with input by Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly,  it may be a good idea for chefs to analyse the Makaron Restaurant menu, if they aspire to make Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant next year.

My motivation for going to the restaurant was to try the talented new Chef Tanja Kruger’s cooking, which I had experienced at De Huguenot Restaurant, from which she moved three weeks ago, and to see the newly created Makaron Restaurant, which is now branded, in line with a recommendation we made in our review after eating Chef Anri Diener’s creations there last year, and pronounced it ‘cuisine paradise’.  Chef Tanja is a talented winner of the Chaine de Rotisseurs Young Chef of the Year 2008, and a member of the South African Culinary Olympic Team, who moved to De Huguenot Restaurant earlier this year from Hunter’s Country House in Plettenberg Bay, having worked at Lanzerac, the Radisson Hotel and Five Flies before.

Majeka House is a 5-star boutique hotel, suitably located for the accommodation establishment in the quite Stellenbosch suburb Paradyskloof, off the road to Vriesenhof.  Its location as a restaurant is less favourable, as one has to know where to find it, as minimal signage is allowed in the residential area, and the name of the establishment and not of its restaurant is signposted.  When I arrived at the gate, the security guard wanted me to ring the bell, but one does not get close enough to the intercom (or does not have an arm long enough) to ring the bell, so he obliged.  There is ample parking on the property, and staff member Jacques was at the entrance, waiting to take me inside. What was once a restaurant leading into a lounge previously, has been separated. The original restaurant has become the ‘M’ Lounge, while the restaurant is in a new space on the opposite side, off the Reception.  The designer is Etienne Hanekom, who is an art director at New Media Publishing decor magazine VISI.  The reception area has been changed around slightly and modernised, and Hanekom’s love for quirky animals, especially pigs and deerheads, dominates the ‘M’ Lounge, which is blue-lit, with very busy decor, the luxury room crammed with leather couches and other furniture.  It must look cosy at night, when it is fuller.

Opposite is Makaron restaurant, with a glass door with the restaurant branding, flanked by a glass-encased collection of fine wines.   The restaurant is far more less-is-more in design, and there is no carry-over of the decor from the ‘M’ lounge, other than the gold colour of the lamps.  As one enters through the glass door, one sees the generous and trendy Gregor Jenkin table (also at Dash and Dear Me), filled with a large container of bottles, multi-coloured menus, and vases with beautiful garden-grown roses, over which hang gold-coloured lamps.  Against the wall are golden pots filled with succulents.  The restaurant has an L-shape, of which the ‘leg’ of the L can be cordoned off via a curtain for a private function, or closed off if it is not very busy.  With the curtains closed, the restaurant seems much smaller than the 60 it can seat inside (with another 30 outside), and becomes long and thin-shaped.  I saw some gold-upholstered chairs in the cordoned off section, picking up the recurring gold colour.  The bathroom is glitzy, with a glass sliding door with sensor, and the space inside is a little tight.  The floor is glass-lit perspex, perhaps an über-design element.  Off the restaurant is a cigar lounge, and a design feature is the collection of glass ashtrays on the coffee table.

I chose to sit outside in the restaurant courtyard, on the first real Cape summer day, not realising that workmen were busy laying paving around the nearby indoor pool, with a very strong adhesive smell and resultant noise.  There was good music to cover some of it, and I picked up that the music choice has improved from my previous visit.  There are fresh roses on each table, decked with a cloth, a silver underplate, and two sets of cutlery are pre-laid, an interesting mix and match of antique sterling silver and plate, none of the elements matching, or being part of a pair, but it is impressive that the owners are spending so much money on quality.  On the table were two bowls, one with black pepper and the other with beautiful Amoleh Iranian blue salt.  I absolutely loved the menu cover design, and this was a concept from the designer too – they are made to look like book covers, some with titles too, but the front has a cut-out spoon shape, behind which is a gold background.  For me, this was the most stylish element of the design at Makaron.  The spoon logo is on the menu and on the winelist, and even on some plates.  The menu has an introduction: “We have sourced the best produce available in the country; by doing so, we keep it real and fresh – the perfect recipe for a great dining experience”, and I could not help think that these words were written by Mrs Donnelly.

While I was there, I did not yet know that the restaurant would be named on Sunday evening as the Eat Out DStv Food Network winner of the Boschendal Style Award, but I did know that it was one of 18 contenders. The Style Award for Makaron Restaurant is controversial, as far as I am concerned, in a number of respects, as I wrote yesterday about the Eat Out Awards.  First, two independent sources told me in one day, when I mentioned that I had been for lunch, that Mrs Donnelly, Eat Out editor and sole restaurant judge, is a consultant to the restaurant.  I would have thought that Makaron would have not allowed itself to be in the running for any Eat Out award as a result, or that Mrs Donnelly would have recused herself from the judging of this award category, but she did not, and did not disclose her business link to this restaurant, blowing her credibility, in my opinion.  Second, the restaurant had only been open for a month at the time that the winner had to be decided, so that photographs could be taken, and the magazine go to print.  The designer is part of the New Media Publishing staff, which could be criticised too, from an Awards perspective.  Having Tweeted that Mrs Donnelly consults to Makaron, the PR company of the restaurant replied as follows: “Get a grip. Makaron is no where to be seen on Top 20. AD (Abigail Donnelly) has assisted on a project basis to get the menu right”, confirming Mrs Donnelly’s involvement with the restaurant. One of my information sources confirmed that he had been called by her earlier in the week, about a specific food item, demonstrating a far greater involvement!  In the Eat Out 2012 magazine, the Award is motivated and described, commending its dramatic lighting, quirky details, as ‘simply beautiful and unlike anything else ever seen in South Africa’ (a dramatic overstatement, in my opinion), calm, sophisticated, with playful touches, highly contemporary, functional and cosy without a commercial feel, ‘metal meets plastic and wood’, ‘chairs are ever so comfortable, making you feel very special’, with attention to detail.  Having been there so recently, the platitudes feel overwritten.

Chretien Ploum is the F&B Manager, and he attended to me.  He has worked as part of the opening team at the Table Bay Hotel, was the owner of the Ou Pastorie in Somerset West for four years, worked on The World Resort boat, and has been a F&B consultant.  He was very informative, patiently answering my questions. The 4-course meal costs R325, but one can order a la carte too. Chef Tanja has had little or no input to the current menu, inheriting it from her predecessor (via Mrs Donnelly, it would appear), but has changed small things already, she told me, and will develop her own menu over time.  What is interesting about the menu is that each course is not only paired with a recommended wine, but with a craft beer too!  The lovely waitress Phelisa, who served me on my last visit, brought a slate plate of beautifully presented breads and lavosh, with anchovy mayonnaise (not everyone’s taste), and olives.

Starters range in price from R55 for the warm salad of duck confit and foie gras, served with cherries and blackberries, which was my choice, to R85 for pan-fried sweetbreads, a Muscadel reduction and cauliflower purée.  Other starter options are a garden pea risotto with garlic froth and smoked olive tapenade; Franschhoek cured salmon, raw trout, beetroot and asparagus; and peppered beef carpaccio, parmesan mousse and garden fennel salad.  Eight main course choices are offered, starting at R95 for duck egg ravioli, young artichoke, white asparagus and truffle, up to R180 for springbok loin with red cabbage and walnuts, and also for Asian pork belly, scallop, pickled radish cucumber salad and honey jus.  Other options are Angus beef rib eye on the bone, served with foie gras butter and fine green beans; poached prawns, salmon, truffled bisque and celeriac; a beautiful and excellently prepared kingklip served with verjuice butter, confit tomato, bean fritters and chorizo crumbs (R110); Spier chicken, ‘local foraged mushrooms’, cepes sauces and lemon broad beans; as well as quail, masala and coconut cream.  I was not planning on having a dessert, but succumbed to the description of the Strawberry jelly, rose panna cotta and fresh strawberries, quirkily served in a glass jar with lid and fresh rose petals (R50).  One can also order coffee soufflé and peanut butter ice cream; Valrhona chocolate tart, naartjie pears and grapefruit sorbet; Elgin apple tart fine and salted caramel ice cream; or a cheese plate with lavosh and plum paste.

The winelist is presented in A4 size, with the same book cover feel and spoon logo, and contains a selection of mainly Stellenbosch wines. Five sparkling wines range from R44/R139 for Villiera Tradition Brut NV to R219 for High Constantia Clos Andre, with Pol Roger Brut NV costing R485.  There is a small selection of wines per variety, and one of these comes by the glass, with very reasonable prices, ranging from R31 – R38 for the white wines, and R35 – R44 for the red wines. Shirazes offered are Edgebaston 2008 (R38/R137), Tamboerskloof 2006, Pax Verbatim 2007, Rust en Vrede 2008, and Haskell Pillars 2007.

Chef Tanja proudly showed me her newly revived herb and vegetable garden, with baby plants growing through the straw, which has been designed by the Babylonstoren designer. Fruit trees on the property are creating new opportunities for Chef Tanja, and so a harvest of peaches has led to the creation of peach fruit butter, for example.  Chef Tanja and Chretien are also looking at ways to attract more business to the restaurant (I was the only patron there on Friday), and on 1 December they are hosting the first Fine Dining and Craft Beer pairing evening, at R295, which includes 4 courses, each paired with a Boston Breweries beer and a wine. Chef Tanja brought me a taste of her specially created Pumpkin beer ice cream which she has made for the tasting evening.

It will be interesting to see how Makaron Restaurant develops in the next year.  It is clear to me that the owners of Majeka House will do everything to get to the top, which includes getting Relais & Chateaux accreditation (they did not succeed a year ago) and to make Eat Out Top 20 (my speculation).  Its only downfall is its unfavourable location.  With the talent of Chef Tanja, Makaron Restaurant will be the place to watch!

Makaron Restaurant, Majeka House, 26 – 30 Houtkapper Street, Stellenbosch.  Tel (021) 880-1549  www.majekahouse.co.za. Monday – Sunday, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Restaurant Review: Delaire Graff Restaurant is friendly professionalism and class!

In the past one and a half years that the Delaire Graff Restaurant has been open, I have had two excellent and one negativeexperience, the last one unfortunately having left such an impression on me that I did not return for a year.  Last week I went back, and was blown away (almost literally by the South-Easter too) by how professional and friendly Delaire Graff and its staff are.   The restaurant is not inexpensive, and therefore it is the perfect place at which to celebrate a special event or achievement.   Its setting above the Helshoogte Pass in Stellenbosch gives it a perfect view onto the surrounding vineyards and mountains.

The wine estate must be one of the Winelands’ properties which is supported by one of the largest investments (the owner is Laurence Graff, a Switzerland-based jeweller owning 30 branches of Graff Diamonds around the world, in the news last year when one of its London stores suffered the biggest jewellery heist ever).   Graff bought the estate from John and Erica Platter, spent millions of Rands and years of time to redevelop the property, first building the Delaire Graff Restaurant, winery and winetasting centre, and earlier this year adding the Delaire Graff Lodge with Indochine restaurant.  I have written previously about the monumental artwork spread across the estate, not only in terms of the top artists whose work is displayed, but also the sheer size of many of these.   The artwork displayed is by father and son Anton and Lionel Smit, Dylan Lewis, William Kentridge (the s-shaped leather seating in the restaurant was matched in colour to the Kentridge!), Deborah Bell, Fred Schimmel, Sydney Khumalo, Cecil Skotness and Maurice van Essche.

As I entered the restaurant building I could not miss the new Lionel Smit painting in the reception hall, overshadowing even the massive Christmas tree.  The attention paid to decorating the Delaire Graff building for Christmas cannot be overlooked, with massive Christmas trees in the restaurant, reception hall and winetasting room, each decorated in a specific colour scheme, putting me into a Christmas spirit I have not experienced in a restaurant so far.   As the external gates were open when I arrived, the gatehouse could not report my arrival, so that there was no one to personally welcome me in the car park, as used to be the case.   Yet there were three staff members in the massive Reception Hall, all beaming in friendliness, but none asked where I was going and if I needed help to find my way to the restaurant.  I did note a new shop selling clothing as well as some display stands selling Graff jewellery off the Reception Hall, which had opened a few days before.  (Both the jewellery salesladies were not available when I wanted to get an idea of prices, and the clothing shop salesladies hazarded a guess at R80000 for a pair of diamond earings).

But once I had reached the restaurant, charming new Maitre’d Nadia Kotze was waiting for me.   She had reserved a table inside because of the wind, but I chose to sit in a sheltered section outside, due to my cellphone being particularly active that lunchtime.   Quickly a table was set up, a jug of ice water brought to the table, with a lovely linen serviette, WMF cutlery, and a Peugeot grinder for the pinkish Himalayan rock salt filled with lots of mineral goodness, with a matching pepper grinder.   Everything is colour matched in the restaurant, the interior designer being David Collins from London, in that the table underlay, the decorations on the Christmas tree, the menu and the winelist cover all are in shades of yellow/gold/orange.  The menu holder is stylish, with blue edging inside.   Music is piped throughout the building, and has a distinctly European feel, including French and Italian songs.

Chelsea came to introduce herself, and offered me a choice of three breads – ryebread, focaccia sprinkled with rocksalt and rosemary, and ciabatta.   Nadia pointed out the barbeque as we stepped outside, with which chef Christiaan Campbell is experimenting, she said, preparing kingklip and chicken on it on alternate days.   Staff look smart in white shirts and black pants, and a black Delaire branded apron.   Everyone coming to the table beamed, and called me “Mrs von Ulmenstein”, showing their professional touch without familiarity. Even Johann Laubser, the Delaire Graff Estate GM, came to greet me.   Nadia has only recently moved across from Zacharay’s at Pezula.  She has previously been a Food & Beverage Manager at the Liz McGrath Collection of hotels, and has done the cruiseliners.   Chef Christiaan has been at the restaurant since it opened, and must be one of the few original restaurant staff still there.   Chef Christiaan laughed when I said this to him, when he came to say hello, and said quietly that he is a loyal chef, a nice answer!   He said that they had been disappointed to receive negative feedback about the restaurant’s service levels, but had taken stock earlier this year, and have addressed the shortcomings in this regard.  The service I received was excellent.

Given that it was the chicken barbeque day, and that I sat close to the barbeque outside, I ordered the Roast chicken, confit leg deep-fried in a batter, and a smoked corn and parsnip mash.   I loved the colour the corn added to the mash, and the smoky barbeque taste of the roast chicken (R155).  Having been ill for the four days prior, my appetite was not yet back to normal, and therefore I took some of the dish home.  Starter options cost between R85 – R105, and include paprika squid, buffalo mozzarella, goat’s cheese fritters, cured beef, ceviche of red fish, and yellow fin tuna.  Main courses start at R110, for Primavera, and peak at R295 for Cape Rock Lobster.  Other main courses include fish and chips, pork belly, seared salmon trout, Waterberg beef, and line fish.   A number of sides can be ordered too.   Nadia was such a good salesperson that she persuaded me to have a refreshing fruit feast for dessert, being apricot panna cotta, with nectarine sorbet, star anise marshmallow, plum soup, with macerated apricots (R55).   Other dessert options cost R65, and include a chocolate sandwich, pistachio nougat, and strawberries.  Gelato costs R25 per scoop.  “Handcrafted cheeses” can be ordered at R95.   Interestingly, the dessert and cheese options each had a wine pairing suggestion on the menu.   I had a lovely frothy cappuccino with my dessert, expensive at R30. 

The winelist contains the Delaire wine collection, including Sauvignon Blancs (R170 – R320), Chardonnay (R210), Rosé (R140), Shiraz (R175), Red Blend (R220), Port (R320) and Semillon Noble Late Harvest (R300).  A small selection of other wine brands is offered per variety.  Champagnes are by Taittinger (R1500), Billecart-Salmon Rose NV (R1650) and Louis Roderer Cristal (R7750). Méthode Cap Classiques range from R245 (Colmant Brut Reserve) to R950 for Graham Beck Cuvee Clive.   Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc costs R170, and an imported Domaine Lafond Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc costs R620.  Pax Verbatim 2007 Shiraz costs R295, Cirrus 2006 R455, and Stark-Conde Three Pines 2007 R 550.    Wines by the glass cost R 40 – R 55, and are predominantly by Delaire, with Bon Courage Brut Reserve costing R55.

The bathrooms at Delaire Graff are the best-smelling, cleanest, and tidiest I have every experienced at any restaurant.   I had not seen the tasting room before, and saw in it not only the attractively labelled Delaire wines, branded shirts, but also the latest Platter and Rossouw’s Restaurants guides.  My eye also caught the attractively packaged Delaire Graff chocolate slabs and mini-chocolate collection packs, which looked like they could make the perfect Christmas presents, even if not inexpensive.   Michael walked me out of the building to the car park, a nice touch I remember from the early days of Delaire Graff Restaurant.

Delaire Graff Restaurant has an interesting counterpoint with the “new” Tokara Restaurant with chef Richard Carstens across the road.  I could not see any dramatic changes to the Delaire Graff Restaurant menu as a result of the “new” competitor, and the service is very much improved.   It will be interesting to see how both restaurants fare on the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant list in 2011.  

POSTSCRIPT 7/8/11:I popped in at Delaire Graff this afternoon, after lunch at the close-by de Huguenot Restaurant.  I was impressed once again with how classy and professional this wine estate is.  It was the perfect afternoon to sit outside.  I had a frothy, almost creamy, cappuccino, and a study in strawberry with it – there were dried and fresh strawberries, strawberry granite, meringue crumbs, vanilla pastry creme, black pepper shortbread, and strawberry ice cream, a refreshing and attractively presented dessert.

Delaire Graff Restaurant, Helshoogte Pass, Stellenbosch. Tel (021) 885-1270.  www.delaire.co.za  (The website contains menus for both Delaire Graff Estate restaurants, and has an Image Gallery).   Mondays – Sundays lunch, Mondays – Saturdays dinner.   Booking is advisable.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage