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Restaurant Review: La Mouette Restaurant flying high

A Tudor-style restaurant building, built in the 1930’s, has become the home of one of Cape Town’s best “finer dining” restaurants, offering excellent value for money.   La Mouette (The Gull) has opened on Regent Road in Sea Point (there is no branding on the outside yet, so one must look for the number 78, near Checkers), and is named in honour of the noisy landmark of this suburb, even though there were no seagulls to be seen nor heard while I was there.  The building was previously the home of Europa and The Carvery.   Coats of paint, chic decor inside, and a bubbling fountain filled with Koi in the entrance courtyard and surrounded by French-style bistro tables and chairs, have given the building a new lease on life. 

But it is the owner trio of General Manager Mari Vermaak, Chef Henry Vigar, and Marketer/Righthand Gerrit Bruwer that has “rejuvenated” the building and its interior, with a refreshing approach to running a restaurant of excellence, based on Henry and Mari’s experience in the restaurant industry in London.    Vigar is a passionate chef whose cooking style is modern French-style cuisine with a Mediterranean influence.  He has worked at a number of Michelin-starred restaurants (The Square, La Noisette and The Greenhouse in London, Rascasse in Leeds, and Hotel des Pyrenees in France) as well as at The Quayside in Sydney.  He was the Head Chef at Kensington Place, where Eric Bulpitt, chef at Jardine on Bree Street, worked for him for a while.

Mari is a bubbly yet serious restaurateur, who has a firm hand on the operation of the restaurant.   She has done all the staff training, and impressed me with her description of how they employed the best of more than 400 applicants for the waitron and kitchen positions, including making applicants write food and wine knowledge tests.   All the staff have sampled all the dishes on the menu, and whenever a new dish is introduced, Chef Henry explains it to the waiters.  Wine estates like Villiera and L’avenir have come to the restaurant, to train the staff about their wines.   The service from my waiter Peter was perfect, a reflection of Mari’s thorough training. 

Mari grew up in George, and was a graphic designer before moving to London, where she was a Restaurant Manager at Gilmours on Park Walk, at Kensington Place, and at Launceston Place.   It was at Kensington Place that Chef Henry showed her his interest by sending specially made chocolate macaroons to her desk. The rest is history, as they say in the classics!  Mari’s London background shows, in her neat black shirt, skirt and stockings, the ultimate classic front-of-house dress.  Mari is a warm, friendly, down-to-earth and generous hostess, giving up three hours of her time, sitting and chatting to me about their background, and receiving a quick overview about the importance of social media marketing from me.   Whilst they have just started a blog, they agreed that it is time to embrace Twitter, especially given their gull theme, and did so immediately!   Gerrit and Mari both studied graphic design at the University of Potchefstroom, and Gerrit has designed a beautiful corporate identity for the stationery, menu and winelist, with flying seagulls and flowers.  Mari and Henry are partners, and both Leos!

Mari felt it important to not alienate locals, and hence all menu items were named in English instead of their French equivalent.   The menu has a small selection of dishes, making it relatively easy to choose.   The lunch and dinner menus are almost identical in terms of dishes offered, but the prices differ somewhat.  For lunch, for example, one can order extra sides, at R 25 each, whilst they do not appear on the dinner menu.  For lunch all Starters and Desserts cost R 35, and Mains cost R 80, a total of R 150 for a 3-course lunch, whilst the dinner cost is R 210 for 3-courses, or R 50 for the Starters and Desserts, and R 110 for all Mains. The dinner menu offers one or two more options for each course.

I had the Chicken liver parfait, chicken reillette, pear chutney and toasted brioche as a starter, a lovely combination, the pear chutney being a surprise but well-matched.   I overheard a neighbouring table proclaim that the French onion soup was the best they had ever eaten.  Other lunch starters are a tomato salad served with tapenade and smoked mozarella; mushrooms on toast served with walnut salad and roasted fig; and prawn and ginger ravioli.   I ordered the sweetcorn risotto served with the cutest tempura pea shoots, almost a work of art, and decorated with lime and coriander gremoulata.   Alternatives are “house-made” linguini (by an Italian in the kitchen), hake, chicken, confit duck, and minute steak.  The dessert options are really interesting, and gives one a feel for Chef Henry’s creativity (he still seems somewhat more classic, but with a twist, on the starters and mains), and I will come back for these:  peanut butter parfait and chocolate ganache; a “gin and tonic” with a difference; and passion fruit curd, doughnuts, Greek yoghurt and honey foam.   The cappuccino was excellent, the coffee being supplied by Deluxe, a small specialist coffee roastery in Cape Town.

An alternative to the menu is a choice of tapas style dishes to share, at R 35 each: marinated vegetables and olives; truffle and cheese croquettes; tempura style vegetables and roasted pepper dip; sweet onion tart, olive, thyme and marinated anchovy; and crispy calamari, smoked paprika and saffron aioli.

The winelist is neatly presented, and offers an impressive list of 15 wines-by-the glass, and about 75 wines.  One senses that many of the wines stocked are because of a special relationship that developed between the wine estate and Henry and Mari when they were compiling their winelist, and Avondale, Villiera, Springfield and L’avenir feature strongly on the list, as does Tokara Zondernaam.   Champagnes are stocked (Moet & Chandon, Billecart Salmon Rose, Champagne Barons de Rothschild and Bollinger Special Cuvee), while the very recently launched La Motte Methode Cap Classique (R500), as well as Villiera, Pierre Jourdan and L’avenir sparkling wines are also stocked.   A number of Shiraz options are available, ranging from R 150 for Villiera Shiraz, to R 280 for the Thelema.   No vintages are offered on the winelist, one of few points of criticism.

Mari refused to allow me to pay for the two course lunch, glass of bubbly and two cappuccinos I enjoyed with her.   I therefore returned for a paid-for dinner with a friend three days later, and we were impressed with the Butternut squash soup served with toasted pine nuts and blue cheese, and the sweetcorn risotto and the pan-fried Duck breast as main courses.  We were spoilt with a taste of the Bouillabaisse, with a plump prawn, tiny mussel, tender tube of calamari and crayfish.  For dessert we had the signature “Gin and Tonic”, consisting of tonic jelly, gin syrup, and lime ice cream, the most unusual dessert I have ever experienced, refreshing and revitalising. 

La Mouette is planning themed evenings, and will open a chic wine bar upstairs in December.   One can sense the energy and innovation in what is still a very early start for the restaurant, my visit having been a week after opening.   La Mouette is a restaurant to watch, and will soon be flying high on the Cape Town restaurant scene.  

POSTSCRIPT: I was privileged to have been invited to the Chef’s Table at La Mouette on 20 May, in the company of Clare Mack of Spill Blog, JamieWho of JamieWho Blog, Kim Maxwell, Rey Franco, and Sam from L’Avenir.   The amuse bouche was a butternut soup served with a to-die-for cheese and truffle croquet, followed by a prawn and ginger ravioli, mushrooms on toast served with walnut salad and vanilla roasted fig, a highly praised Bouillabaisse, Rib of Beef, the famous “gin and tonic” dessert of Chef Henry, passion fruit curd served with mini-doughnuts, and the “crunchie” dessert, served as a chocolate fondant, honeycomb espuma and ice cream. Every course was perfectly paired with a L’Avenir wine.  Such a good time was had that the last guests left long after midnight.    The La Mouette branding has now been erected at the entrance to the restaurant, and should make it easier to find the restaurant.

POSTSCRIPT 4 JULY: I have returned to La Mouette a number of times, and always had attentive service from Mari.   My last visit was a disappointing one, probably due to Mari not being on duty that evening.   The manager on duty was not on the floor except for showing us our table and apologising about the winelist error.  A winelist “typing error” for an incorrect Villiera wine-by-the-glass vintage, which had been identified ten days prior as an error, was still on the winelist.   The waiter stretched in front of us to put down the cutlery.  The wrong amount was taken off my credit card for payment.  There was no one to greet us when we left the restaurant.  I wrote to Mari after the dinner, and received a very defensive “Dear customer” letter.

POSTSCRIPT 2/9:  I returned for the first time in 2 months today, sitting in the fountain courtyard, dominated by a massive motorbike parked there.  Mari was professional, yet very changed in attitude, due to our feedback about the 4 July dinner.   The restaurant has changed to a Spring Special menu at R175 for 6 courses (or R350 for wines paired to 5 of the courses), with a typing error.  An Express 2-course lunch at R99 has been introduced, which was not good value – my colleague had the marinated tomato salad and chicken.  We shared a bowl of Chef Henry’s new cheese and ham croquettes, and I ordered my favourite, the chicken liver parfait.   The Beef Sirloin was average, four small slices expensive at R105 – one pays a R25 supplement for it.   The Tapas selection has been taken off the menu. The service from Hazel was sweet, and she was very willing to please, but stretched across us in replacing the cutlery.  Mari did not want us to pay for the meal today, due to the problems with our 4 July meal, but we refused her generous offer.  

La Mouette, 78 Regent Road, Sea Point.  tel 021 433-0856. www.lamouette.co.za (the website is one of the best I have ever seen for a restaurant, informative, with menu and winelist, and link to the blog).    Twitter @teamlamouette.    Open Tuesdays – Sundays for lunch, and Mondays – Saturday evenings for dinner.

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

Restaurant Review: An interesting spin on 6 Spin Street Restaurant

I am an occasional attendee of the ‘Brutal Review of Restaurants’ Facebook group, which is the initiative of Dirk Odendaal, owner of 17 on Loader Street in De Waterkant.   An invitation to attend an evening at the new 6 Spin Street Restaurant (it opened two months ago) was accepted immediately, even if it meant that I only arrived after the City Hall classical concert had finished at 22h15.   It is a restaurant in a setting with a difference, with excellent food.

Spin Street is hard to find the first time, yet it is a street most of us have driven past a million times, except that we did not know that this short section of the road near the Groote Kerk and opposite Church Square is called Spin Street.  The street is one of the oldest in Cape Town, and was once the home of a short-lived silk spinning industry.  The building in which the restaurant is housed was once the home of the South African Association bank, with vaults in the basement, the safety deposit boxes still in place.   When one steps inside the massive entrance hall, one enters IDASA’s Cape Town Democracy Centre, and sees the bookshelves of its book shop Lobby Books, and the tables of the restaurant.   The ‘marriage’ between the restaurant and the bookshop has led to a shared ethos: “eat.drink.talk.read.think”.

The Brutal Reviewers were in a cosy room, a perfect size for the group of 10.  The 1902 Sir Herbert Baker building has high ceilings, and the room used by the Reviewers had copper light fittings, reminding one of Five Flies.

I arrived as the Reviewers were taken on a guided tour, and were in what is the seminar room, with a fascinating piece of art – a “windswept” chandelier with a flying archbishop hanging on to it for dear life (the artist has intended it to depict that the Archbishop is “having the time of his life”) – called simply “Arch”.   It is a real conversation stopper, especially as one does not know how the artist Ed Young managed to create the windswept look and attached the figure to the chandelier without using strings or wire.  Apparently the artist called in engineering help to cantilever this piece of art.  Another unusual work of art is a large metal mobile at the entrance to the restaurant.

As I was running behind on the menu, I expected to join my fellow reviewers for a coffee and dessert.  Robert Mulders, the owner of the restaurant and previous owner of Rozenhof at the bottom end of Kloof Street, and who has an uncanny resemblence to violinist Andre Rieu, immediately offered me a starter and a main course.  I was strongly recommended the cheese souffle as a starter, something I would never have chosen myself, but it was outstanding, served with a herb and mustard cream.  It costs R 70.  Other starter choices are a Chicken and roast pepper salad (R 56) and a Mixed six leaf salad (R 32).  The Suppli with pancetta and zucchini (R 55) sounded wonderful too.

Six main courses were offered, ranging from R 105 for linefish and a vegetable trio, to R160 for beef fillet served with a mustard crust, Bearnaise sauce and mushroom ragout, sounding delicious.  A second linefish dish costs R110, kingklip R125, and Moroccan lamb with couscous is R165.   I heard duck mentioned, a special at R 175.  I had read a brutal review earlier in the week about the duck (and the restaurant), and thought that I must give it a try.   Two generous pieces of duck were served in an orange sauce, with roast potato slices, as well as a large portion of diced carrots and courgette.  I loved the duck with its crispy skin, but I did not like the roast potato slices, which were too tough for my taste.   I did not have dessert, but saw them served: citron tart, chocolate nougat terrine, panna cotta with smyrna figs, an unusual sounding olive oil and muscadel cake, and date almond and white chocolate torte, ranging between R36 – R45.  They were well received by my fellow reviewers. (I heard later that Rozenhof was known for its cheese souffle and duck).

As the wines had been chosen by Dirk, I did not see the winelist.  Dirk raved about the 2002 Yonder Hill  cabernet at R65, excellent value for money.  I did not like my red wine poured into a small wine glass, but I did see larger ones on the table.  We left long after midnight, Robert generously having brought us a dessert wine, and he gave no sign at all that he wished us to please go home.

Whilst writing this blogpost I vowed to go back to try the Suppli starter and Beef fillet main course.   An opportunity presented itself two days later, after an early finish of the acclaimed play ‘London Road’ at the nearby Fugard Theatre.   The Suppli (a very filling and most unusual starter of deep fried rice and herb croquettes stuffed with mozarella, topped with crispy pancetta) and Beef Fillet were excellent.  The fillet was served a little too rare (ordered medium rare) for my liking, but the roast potato slices were much better second time around.  I was unable to finish the beef, it was such a generous portion.

As the restaurant is based within a space shared with IDASA’s book shop, it opens for breakfast at 8h30 on weekdays, served at a counter facing Church Square, at a communal “Melissa-style” table, or at an individual restaurant table.  Muffins, croissants and cooked breakfasts are served.   Parliamentarians and nearby office workers pop in for snacks throughout the day.  The “Quick Spin” 2-course lunch, served in a guaranteed 50 minutes, costing R 150, is very popular.  It is also called for as a “take-away” by well-known ministers and members of parliament. A free Wi-fi service will be offered shortly.

An interesting spin on 6 Spin Street is its themed Cookery Book menu.  Every two weeks a cookery book is an inspiration for a special menu.  Currently it is Phillippa Cheifitz’s “South Africa Eats”, and a sweet potato and squash soup, or a warm salad of grilled yellowtail, parsley, haricot beans and fresh rocket is offered at R50.  Pieter Dirk-Uys’ “Kossie Sikelele” cookery book will be the next to be featured, Tannie Evita having approved the restaurant.  Mulders is planning a ‘Show and Dinner” promotion when Dirk-Uys has a show at The Fugard theatre in September.

POSTSCRIPT : I returned to 6 Spin Street on 13 May, after a concert at the City Hall, with two friends, both artists.  They were overwhelmed by the artworks on the walls and the interior of the building in which the restaurant is located.  We shared a Citron Tart with fresh cream and fresh figs (my first taste of figs ever), and we loved its lightness, tanginess and smoothness.  It emerged that Robert Mulders is also the Chairman of the Friends of the National Gallery, and he chose the paintings on the restaurant walls.

6 Spin Street Restaurant, 6 Spin Street, Cape Town.  Tel 021 461 0666. www.6spinstreet.co.za(The website is disappointing, with only the opening times, address and map, and contact details.  No menu or winelist). Open Mondays – Fridays from 8h30 including dinner, Saturdays dinner only.

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

Restaurant News: Carne ‘admits’ claims were a con!

After more than a year of claiming that all its of its beef, lamb and game is organic, and that it comes from owner Giorgio Nava’s Karoo farm, and persisting to do so for more than two months after this blog challenged this claim, Carne has finally changed the introduction to its website www.carne-sa.com, removing references to “Giorgio’s own Karoo farms” and “organically grown”, thereby doing the honourable thing!   We are surprised that it has taken him so long to make the corrections.

Originally the Carne website’s Homepage made the following claim:   “Dedicated entirely to meat as is evident from its Italian name, Carne SA is a carnivore’s paradise serving a unique offering of the finest cuts of Romagnola beef, Dorper lamb and game, all organically grown on Giorgio’s own Karoo farms.”

Now it reads as follows:  Dedicated entirely to meat as is evident from its Italian name, Carne SA is a carnivore’s paradise serving a unique offering of the finest cuts of Romagnola beef, Dorper lamb,game and more.  

When one clicks onto the word “more”, a full page explaining how Nava obtains his meat can be read.  This is what is written – difficult to follow at times, due to Nava’s ‘Italglish’: “Giorgio Nava’s flair for quality is undisputed. Patrons of the award winning 95 on Keerom have been enjoying the benefits of his culinary stance since their opening in 2003.   In alignment of Giorgios’ unwavering inclination towards supreme quality and use of only the finest ingredients has led him and his partners of Carne SA-(his latest instalment of Milanese appeal)-open since November 2008 to a intersection pertaining to the ultimate quality of meat offered at Carne.  Months of extensive research has seen Carne, a carnivores’ paradise which has to date boasted a unique offering of the finest cuts of Romagnola beef, Dorper lamb and game, all historically grown on Giorgio’s own Karoo farm- progress to a crossroad where a savoir-faire business approach and an adherence to the requests of the local market shift to now officially incorporating into-an already impressive free range selection- the finest in grass and grain fed beef. Patrons of Carne can look forward to an exclusive menu featuring the very best meat Southern Africa has to offer, aspiring to indulge the meat lover with an extensive choice of beef of which its calibre can be traced back to its farm, aging time and whether it was grain or grass fed. These all-inclusive details will be readily available to the customer-making dining at Carne an elite experience.  Absolute strict characteristics are considered before a product is included on the menu like age of animal, diet, terroir, slaughter process, fat content, and meat flavour.  Paying reverence to the meaning of its simple Italian name – meat, Carne surpasses the highest standards of all meat produce obtainable in Southern Africa guaranteeing the ultimate in carnivorous culinary.  Giorgio, his partners and all involved in Carne SA, are excited at its capacity to offer its followers both local and abroad the ultimate variety in supreme South African beef, delivering Carne SA to the status of international meat emporium“.

Initially Nava refuted the WhaleTales challenge about Carne’s organic and his Karoo farm origin claims, but did admit that he bought in meat from other suppliers for quality comparison purposes.  His supplier Gastro Foods also admitted that they supply non-organic and non-Karoo game to Carne.   The fact that Nava did not institute legal proceedings against this blog was further proof of the false claims made.

From guest feedback it was understood that Nava took great care to explain personally to all his Carne customers how he obtains his meat for the restaurant.

The Carne con correction leaves “steak” on Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly’s face, in that she refused to allow a comment about the misleading Carne claims on the magazine’s website.  She is one of the three judges for the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant list, for which Carne was nominated last year.  

The original story about the Carne con can be read here.

POSTSCRIPT: Giogio Nava, the owner of Carne, has written a Comment to this post, denying making changes to his website due to the exposure of his restaurant’s misleading claims.   Read his comment (click on ‘Comments’ at the top). 

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

Whale Cottage website receives record traffic due to social media marketing

The Whale Cottage Portfolio has increased the traffic to its website six-fold in one year, since embodying social media marketing, and has exceeded the 30 000 visitorship for the first time this month.  In 2009 a total of just fewer than 200000 unique visitors was recorded.

In January 2009 4850 unique visitors (i.e. unduplicated visitorship) had accessed the website, four months after Whale Cottage had started this blog www.whalecottage.com/blog.   At the end of December this had grown to 27 928 unique visitors.

The major impact on the growth in web traffic has been persistent blogging, with the target of one blog post published per day having been met with one or two exceptions.   Performance improved once the blog posts were posted during mid-morning, instead of just after midnight, when they had just been written.   This post is the 500th written on this WhaleTales blog.

Twitter has made a significant contribution too, with it serving as an “announcement” of what one has blogged about, providing a link to the website which can be accessed for more information, given its 140 character space restriction.   Whale Cottage has close to 700 followers, and has written more than 2 000 tweets to date.   Facebook has played only a small role in contributing to web traffic.

Cross-referencing has also assisted in the growth in Whale Cottage’s visibility, in that the social media links are part of the Whale Cottage e-mail signature; in that the WhaleTales newsletter invites its readers to follow Whale Cottage on Twitter and Facebook; and the blog has an RSS feed link, to enable regular readers to receive the latest WhaleTales blog post, and it has links to the Whale Cottage Twitter and Facebook pages.

New traffic to the website has come from restaurant reviews in particular, especially for new restaurants.  Few restaurants have websites, and do not understand about search engine optimisation.  Some Whale Cottage restaurant reviews have outperformed the restaurant websites in terms of the Google ranking on page one of a search on a specific restaurant.   Where other websites provided a link to the Whale Cottage blog in cases of restaurant controversy (e.g. Portofino, Carne), traffic to the website has been enhanced.

In 2009 the top 10 blog posts that were read most often were the following:

1.   Spar Sweet and Limelight Sour Service Awards (8 838)

2.   Petrol price drop best Christmas present for tourists (5119)

3.   Franschhoek goes Italian (Allora review) (4394)

4.   Rebel restaurateur a hit at Portofino (3 360)

5.   SA presence on top 50 restaurant list grows (2 468)

6.   Prince Albert celebrates in Fresnaye (2 276)

7.   Whales beach on Kommetjie beach (1 984)

8.   Minstrels do it for Cape Town (1 698)

9.   Table Mountain only SA New7wonders nominee (1 570)

10.  Sun Princess to visit Cape Town (1 510)

The most popular restaurants in Cape Town at the moment, based on restaurant reviews accessed on the Whale Cottage Portfolio website via Google this month, are Duchess of Wisbeach, Vaudeville and Kuzina.   

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