Tag Archives: Richard Holmes

Eat Out: who decided on inclusion in the 2015 Eat Out 500 Restaurant guide?

Burrata 'Pick me Up' dessert Whale CottageLast year New Media Publishing changed its annual Eat Out magazine, having featured 1100 restaurants in earlier years.  Last year the Eat Out Top 500 restaurant guide was based on applications sent by restaurants themselves, and the top 500 selected by 50 food and restaurant writers and lovers.  This year the Eat Out 500 top restaurants could be nominated by anyone, mainly the public, and chosen and reviewed by a panel of 30, mainly food writers.

Earlier this week Eat Out announced the Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, which will guarantee those restaurants a space in the 2015 Eat Out Top 500 Restaurant Guide.

The selection and evaluation of the Eat Out Top 500 is sketchy: ‘...a list of candidates was selected (how, on which criteria?), rated (on which scale, on which criteria?), and reviewed by the panel‘ (the criteria for reviewing are mentioned as food – defined as menu composition, seasonality, and presentation – and ambiance, service, and wine/beverage selection).  Surely they mean that a particular member of the panel reviewed a particular restaurant?  The end result is described by Eat Out (twice in its media release) as a ‘power list of great restaurants‘! Someone alerted me to the hard sell to new restaurants by Eat Out to be listed on Continue reading →

Eat Out selects Top 500 restaurants for its 2014 Guide!

Burrata Pick me Up dessert Whale Cottage PortfolioOne of the changes New Media Publishing has introduced for Eat Out‘s 2014 edition is that its printed Restaurant Guide will only list 500 restaurants, as opposed to 1100 last year.  The method of selecting the included restaurants has changed too.

The process commenced with Eat Out announcing that it was looking for applications from restaurants to be included in the 2014 Eat Out Guide, such applications closing on 30 June.  It described the application process as follows: ‘This call to action turns up the heat and shifts the onus onto the restaurant to put themselves forward in a simple process‘.  The restaurants that wanted to be considered for inclusion had to complete a Continue reading →

Eat Out Editor’s Choice ‘Best Of’ Restaurant Awards 2012: another Abi farce?

Last year Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly introduced a new series of complementary awards to the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards, having been the sole judge of both sets of awards.  This year Mrs Donnelly made the fatal error of choosing UK Blogger Bruce Palling to give her credibility for her choice of Top 20 restaurants, out of which the Top 10 Restaurant list will be announced tomorrow evening.  She also has named the ‘Best Of’ awards her ‘Editor’s Choice’ awards, making it clear that she is the sole judge of the awards, and that Palling had no input in these awards.  We have already seen irregularities on the Top 19 Restaurant shortlist, so it will be interesting to see which of Mrs Donnelly’s favourites and friends will be rewarded in the ‘Best Of’ categories.

What is interesting this year is that the finalist restaurants in the six ‘Best of’ categories have been pre-announced, unlike last year, when only the Boschendal Style Award finalists were announced.   There is one exception, being the Best Italian category, for which the finalists have not been announced. Could it mean that this category is once again reserved for Mrs Donnelly darling Chef Giorgio Nava of 95 Keerom Street, last year’s winner in this category?

Something else that is noticeable is the vast number of listings in each of the ‘Best Of’ categories, which makes one think that New Media Publishing is dreadfully short of money this year:

*   they did not have enough money to put their Eat Out 2012 judge Bruce Palling into a first class seat to attend the Awards event tomorrow evening, as per Palling’s Tweet and confirmed by New Media Publishing

*   advertisers were hounded to place advertisements in the new Eat Out magazine, and the rates tumbled the closer it got to the deadline date!

*   even worse, the 24 reviewers were not invited to the Gala Awards dinner until a week ago, having been invited to the dinner in all the past years.  They were fuming in having been left out, and many made other plans for tomorrow evening, and will therefore not be able to attend.  The Eat Out Review Team is interesting in itself, with long-standing Eat Out reviewers Graham Howe, Diane de Beer, Greg Landman, and Errieda du Toit, to which have been added bloggers (but not known as restaurant reviewers on their blogs) Dax Villaneuva, Tandy Sinclair, and Ishay Govender. The remaining 17 reviewers – Carla Rossouw, Charlotte Pregnolato, Colette du Plessis, Frank Chemaly, Hennie Fisher, Janine Walker, Kate Ziervogel, Lee Middleton, Lisa van Aswegen, Louise Liebenberg, Marie-Lais Emond, Nothando Moleketi, Paula Mackenzie, Pero Lotz, Priscilla Urquhart, Richard Holmes, and Sdu Gerasch – are unknown.

*   linked to the above is the vast number of ‘Best of‘ restaurants listed per category, e.g. 43 in the ‘Best Asian Restaurants’ category, 24 in the ‘Best Steakhouses’ category, 33 ‘The Best Country-Style Restaurants’, 15 ‘Boschendal Style Award’ nominations, and an astounding 52 nominations for ‘Best Bistro’, a total of 167 restaurant nominations minus some duplications!  If the restaurants were to send a representative or two in the hope of winning the category award, a large number of seats for the Gala Awards dinner will have been sold!

The Bistro category sounds more like a ‘Proudly South African’ cuisine listing, and contains some odd nominations such as Hemelhuijs, Babel, Bread & Wine, Fyndraai, Gaaitjie, Ile de Pain, and many more on the list of 52!  A Bistro is defined by Eat Out as offering fresh and seasonal produce, having a small kitchen, limited staff, being homely, with congenial hosts, ‘endless amounts of wine‘, ‘spectacular food’, and regular menu changes.  An obvious exclusion is Bistrot Bizerca from this category, but being a Top 19 finalist may have excluded them from this category.  Worthy winners would be Bistro Sixteen82, Dear Me, and The Foodbarn. The nominees are in Johannesburg (Bellagio, Coner Café and Bistro, Eatery JHB, The Leopard, Possums Deli and Bistro, Salvation Café, Tashas in Sandton, Hyde Park, Melrose, Arch, Morningside, Rosebank, Village View, Thomas Maxwell Bistro; in Pretoria (Carlton Café, Karoo Café, Silver Orange Bistro, Zest Bistro); in Durban (9th Avenue Bistro, Bellavue, Craft Trattoria, Marco Paulo, Café 1999, Unity Brasserie and Bar); in Cape Town (Bistro Sixteen82, Constantia Uitsig, Dear Me, The Foodbarn, Hemelhuijs, La Mouette, Societi Bistro, Societi Brasserie, Woodlands Eatery);  in (undefined) ‘South’ (96 Winery Road, Babel, Bar Bar Black Sheep,  Bread & Wine, The Burgundy Restaurant, Café Felix, The Common Room, Fyndraai, Gaaitjie, Hilda’s Kitchen at Grootte Post, Ile de Pain, The Kitchen at Maison, Pembrey’s, Reuben’s Franschhoek – not meeting any of the defined Bistro criteria – Scotty’s, Sofia’s at Morgenster, Stables at Vergelegen); in (undefined) ‘East’ (The Bistro, Gordon’s Restaurant, Haricot’s Deli & Bistro, Skye Bistro at Fordoun, Two Dogs Bistro); and in (undefined) ‘North and Central’ (Mrs Simpsons, O’s restaurant).

The Best Country-style Award nomination list includes the controversial winner of 2011, being The Table at De Meye, a regular past photographer colleague of Mrs Donnelly.  Surprise omissions are The Kitchen at Maison, The Long Table, Fyndraai, The Millhouse Kitchen at Lourensford, Tamboers Winkel, Creation, Sofia’s at Morgenster, Oep ve Eet in Paternoster, and Johan’s at Longridge.  A likely winner would be Mariana’s, a regular past winner of a similar award, and a regular contributor to Taste magazine, as well as Babel, the restaurant with the most nominations (on Top 19 list, as well as Style Award, and Best Bistro nominee). Defined as ‘homely, heart-warming and belly-filling kos’, food in the style of one’s grandmother. The nominees are located in Gauteng (Bellgables Country Restaurant, Die Ou Pastorie, Meadow Green, Roots at Forum Homini, The Other Side Restaurant, Monaghan Farm, The Rambling Vine); in the Western Cape (Babel, Bramon, The Country Kitchen at Mont Rochelle, Dassiesfontein on the N2 highway near Caledon, De Kaap in McGregor, Eight at Spier, Fynboshoek Cheese, Fresh, The Goatshed at Fairview, Havercroft’s, Hilda’s Kitchen, Houw Hoek Farm Stall, Karoux, Mariana’s, Mogg’s Country Cookhouse, The Stone Kitchen in Wellington, The Table at De Meye, Thyme at Rosemary’s Restaurant, Towerbosch, The Wild Apricot); and in KwaZulu-Natal (Café Bloom, Caversham Hill, Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse, La Lampara, Nicolson’s Café, and Tumble Downs).

The omission of Belthazar from the Best Steakhouses category nomination list may relate to Eat Out ex-judge Bruce Palling‘s last South African dinner!  This category is typically won by a Johannesburg restaurant, the city being known for its collection of good steak restaurants. Nominees are in Johannesburg (Butcher Shop & Grill, Gray, The Grillhouse, HQ, Karoo Cattle and Land, The Local Grill, Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse, Thundergun, Turn & tender, Wombles); in Mpumalanga (Pioneers Butchery & Grill); in The Free State (The Phatt Chef); in the Eastern Cape (Flava); in Cape Town (Barristers, Carne SA, Cattle Baron – The Grill House, HQ, The Hussar Grill in Camps Bay, Karoo Cattle & Land); in Durban (The Grill Room at The Oyster Box, Havana Grill, Joop’s Place, Steak & Ale); and in Pretoria (Karoo Cattle & Land).

The Best Asian Restaurants list was an easy one to fill up, and contains last year’s winner Kitima, as well as popular Willoughby’s at the V&A Waterfront, potential Top 20 candidate Indochine, and Nobu (not eligible to make Top 20 list this year, due to a chef change).  The nominees are in Johannesburg (Al Makka, Dawaat Pakistan Restaurant, Ghazal North Indian REstaurant, The Good Luck Club, Koi, Kong Roast, Midori, The Red Chamber, Shanyana Vegetarian Restaurant,  Sitar, Yamato); in Pretoria (Guia, Shilla Korean Cuisine, Wing Hin); in Durban (China Plate, Gounden’s, House of Curries, Mo’s Noodles, Spice); in the Eastern Cape (Just So Chinese Restaurant, Shanghai); in Bloemfontein (Nagoya); on the Garden Route (Firefly Eating House); in the Winelands (Genki, Indochine at Delaire Graff, Okamai); and in Cape Town (1890 Sushi House, Biesmiellah, Bombay Brasserie, Bukhara, Chandani, Chef Pon’s Asian Kitchen, Erawan, Haiku, Kitima, Kyoto Sushi Garden, Maharajah, Maharaj Pure Vegetarian, Nobu, Saigon, South China Dim Sum Bar, Takumi, Willoughby & Co).

Pierneef à La Motte, Makaron Restaurant, Babel, The Greenhouse, Overture, Planet Restaurant, and The Tasting Room are nominated for a Top 10 and a Boschendal Style Award. Makaron Restaurant won last year, without Mrs Donnelly disclosing her consultancy relationship with the restaurant, and her accolade about the restaurant described the M Bar of Majeka House rather than Makaron!  Almost all the restaurants are more than a year old, with the exception of Burrata, a restaurant which Mrs Donnelly only got to eat at six months after it opened!  The nominees are Burrata, Keenwa (odd choice), The Restaurant at Waterkloof (consolation prize for losing out on Top 20 nomination?), Craft Trattoria in Durban, Babel at Babylonstoren, Café del Sol, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français, The Greenhouse (lots of bunnies), The Walnut Grove in Sandton, The Red Chamber, Tasha’s Le Parc, The ‘Greenhouse’ (sic – actually called the Babel Tea House!) at Babylonstoren, Hemelhuijs (an Abi favourite), The Kitchen at Maison, Pierneef à La Motte, Overture (a consolation prize?), Planet Restaurant (a consolation prize?), LIFE Grand Café, and last year’s finalist Kream.  Obvious omissions in this category are Casparus, Delaire Graff, and Indochine.  There is no obvious winner, especially as so few of the restaurants are new, but Hemelhuijs would be a strong contender, changing its decor regularly.

We await the announcement of the ‘Best of‘ category winners on tomorrow evening with interest!  It is clear that Mrs Donnelly could not have visited or eaten at each of the 167 ‘Best of’ nominated and Top 20 Finalist restaurants in the course of one year!

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

Restaurant Review: Societi Bistro cycles through France

I love seeing innovation in a restaurant, and was excited when I saw the first menu of Societi Bistro’s nine-cycle “Tour of France”, which started at the beginning of this month.  Three French speciality dishes representing a particular region are presented at R150, and the menu changes every Wednesday over the nine week period.  A suitable wine is recommended week on week, and the prices charged are most reasonable.  One does not have to order all three courses, and there is no choice per course.  One is able to order from both the a la carte and the French menu.

I am a slow convert to Societi Bistro, not having been overwhelmed by it in the past.   I enjoy their tongue starter, and two enjoyable dinners there with Clare and Eamon McLoughlin from Spill Blog have improved my opinion.  I invited Jacqui from Charly’s Bakery to join me, but we did not realise that the Onion Soup and the Pot au Feu would contain pork, so Jacqui ate from the a la carte menu.  What impressed me was the passion for the French tour by Chef Stef Marais, who came to the table regularly to explain the French menu to us and to check on our satisfaction with it, and let his staff bring a media release to the table – it is not often that restaurants are good at marketing themselves, and have such documentation available.  Stef is third generation South African, and is proud of his French heritage.

Chef Stef explained the background to the “Tour of France” coming from the Bistro style of the restaurant, and this is an annual “thanksgiving” to the regions that they represent in their menu.  Stef had worked with French chefs in London, and has travelled in France.   He comes from Nelspruit, did his apprenticeship at the Table Bay Hotel, went to work in London, before returning to the Mount Nelson Hotel, and from there he came to Societi Bistro, just as it moved from the V&A Waterfront to its Orange Street location.  Chef Stef spontaneously invited us to visit the kitchen and we did so when it was all cleaned up after the dinner service.  He told us that he had a paying guest, journalist Richard Holmes, on his “Kitchen UnConfidential” programme, working alongside him in the kitchen all day.

Societi Bistro has a bistro feel, with chanson music, dimmed lighting, candles, a fireplace in almost every room, almost making it too hot for the unseasonally warm August evening.  There are blankets over some of the chairs, if it is really cold, and they add touches of colour.  Subtle paint effects are on most walls, with an unplastered brick wall in one room.  Material table cloths cover the tables, and the chairs are Bistro style.  A ‘chef’s table’ close to the kitchen is cosy, and right at the action, with its own special menu.  A very cosy bar/lounge The Snug is popular for smokers, in winter especially, and it is here that Jacqui and I retreated to after our dinner, chatting to Chef Stef again, and bumping into Mervyn Gers, the founder of Radio Kontrei, which became Kfm. Our waitress Julie was exemplary in her ability to make one want to order every menu item she described, and in looking after us and checking on us regularly.  

The a la carte menu offers an interesting mix of very local dishes and Bistro ones .  The starters offered are “skilpadjie” (lambs liver) with “krummelpap” – cooked mealie meal (R32), Beetroot carpaccio (R38) and ox tongue (R49).   The pasta dishes have two prices, ranging from R36 – R65 for half portions, and R53 – R96 for a full portion of Limone Fettucine and Mushroom Risotto, respectively.   Specials on offer were a stuffed and deboned harder, and a winter salad of ricotta, beetroot and orange.  Jacqui loved her roasted bone marrow (R40) and her Sirloin Bearnaise (R98), being a Bearnaise sauce addict, she said.  One can also order the steak with a Cafe de  Paris sauce.  Other main course choices include prawns, lamb shank, venison bourguignon, an ostrich and oat burger, coq au vin, and Vietnamese pork belly.  Dessert choices are disappointing in only being cakes (baked cheesecake, lemon tart, chocolate nemesis), creme brulee and ice cream, costing between R40 – R46.  We both did not like our coffee, my cappuccino being too milky and the coffee just not of a good quality, and we were not charged for it.   We were impressed with the nice packaging for Jacqui’s doggy bag.

The wine list does not specify vintages, and a good number of wines-by-the-glass is available, but some seem expensive in that the costing for the Shiraz brands is based on three glasses per bottle, while the norm is four.   Three Shiraz brands are stocked, for example, a Hoopenberg (R35/105), Joubert Tradouw (R55/165), and Saronsberg (R90/R269) .  For the Sauvignon Blancs, however, the glass of wine is based on 1:5, and the prices are very low (Joubert Tradouw Unplugged R13/R75, Warwick Professor Black R26/R155).

Paris was the first region to be represented by Societi Bistro, and its three courses were Gratinee de (sic) Halles – French Onion soup – (R30), Pot au Feu of braised pork belly (R90) – described as a “porkbelly potjie” – and Paris Brest dessert (R30).  The onion soup was brown and rich, made with bacon, sherry and chicken stock, served with gruyere cheese croutons, a lovely way to start the meal, with a glass of Thelema Mountain Manor good value at R 32.  However, the bacon in the soup is not a conventional ingredient, according to ‘Larousse Gastronomique’.  The Pot-au-Feu is usually made from beef or chicken, says my French guide, and I felt that Chef Stef had taken some creative licence in its preparation, with potato, leek, celery, onion, garlic, thyme and carrot cooked with the pork, and served with the broth as well as a gherkin and Dijon mustard relish.   The 200 gram pork slice was tough to cut, until I discovered that it had been rolled and was held together with string, which one could not see.  The highlight of the menu is the Paris Brest dessert, which represents the story of a cycle race between Paris and Brest in 1891, and a local patissier creating a dessert in its honour in the shape of  a bicycle wheel.  It is made from choux pastry, a little dry Jacqui and I thought, making it too crispy and hard and unlike eclairs, but filled with the most amazing creme patisserie, and sprinkled with caramelised slivered almonds, making it creamy and crunchy.

Currently (until tomorrow) the ‘Massif Centrale’ is the featured region, and its menu is ‘Tourain Blanchi a l’Ail’ (garlic soup), Cassoulet, and Creme Caramel.  The rest of the ‘Tour of France’ at Societi Bistro is as follows:

*   From 18 August the focus is the ‘Pays de la Loire’ – the Gardens of France (Oysters a la Poitou-Charentes, Pork Noisettes with prunes and ‘Crepe Angevines’- served with apple marinated in Cointreau, and Chantilly cream).  There is no French menu from 24 – 31 August. 

*   From 1 September the featured region is ‘Normandie and Bretagne’ (Moules au Cidre – mussels cooked in cider, Baked Gurnard with fennel, leaks and capers, and Apple Tarte Tatin).   

*   From 8 September the focus is Alsace and Lorraine (Quiche Lorraine, La Potee Lorraine – smoked bacon, white beans and pork shoulder – and Tarte Alsacienne – an apple tart). 

*   Week 6 (from 15 September) focuses on the ‘French Alpes’ (Salade Lyonnaise, Fricassee de poulet a la creme – chicken in a white sauce – and Profiteroles with warm dark chocolate sauce). 

*   There is a break, and the next French region focus is on Burgundy from 6 October (Pork rillettes, Beouf Bourguignon and Pain d’epice et poires au vin – a Honey Cake with pears in wine). 

*   The South West of France is the focus from 13 October (Garbure – “rustic country soup” with confit duck and vegetable broth – Beouf a la Bordelaise, and Labnah cheese served with brandy prunes.  

*   The focus on the Cote d’Azure starts on 20 October, and the menu consists of Bouillabaisse, La Daube Nicoise – braised beef with black olives, celery and carrots – and Gratin de (sic) fruits rouges.

We had a lovely and long evening, and enjoyed the attention from the excellent waitress and from Chef Stef, the homeliness and friendliness, and the care taken in compiling this interesting menu (except for some of the typing errors).  The disappointment was the poor coffee, and the bathroom I used was shocking – dirty floor, old-fashioned, so bad that I had to run out.  Jacqui had used another one, and was equally put off by it.   Chef Stef is really trying hard, but I got the feeling that they are not quite there yet in terms of food quality.

Societi Bistro, 50 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town.  tel (021) 42 42 100. www.societi.co.za (The website has the Tour of France menu details, but has a technical problem in that text is written over other text on most pages.  The website is short on food pics, with three only, and has no Image Gallery. Innovative is the You Tube video on the site).  A newsletter is sent out weekly, creating top of mind awareness and appetite appeal.   Twitter @SocietiBistro

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