Tag Archives: wine-tasting

Restaurant Review: Buitenverwachting Asparagus Menu a good but expensive tip!

I had the pleasure of rediscovering Buitenverwachting about three weeks ago, having been invited to try their Sunday buffet lunch.  Whilst there, I had experienced chef Edgar Osojnik’s excellent cuisine, and therefore decided to return to try the Asparagus Menu, which runs until the end of November.

It was a lovely summer’s day and we sat on the terrace outside the restaurant, facing the Courtyard.  It was much quieter than on my previous visit, yet noisy from a field close by, where a sport’s day was being held.  

The Courtyard menu cover is made from black leather, is branded, and contains only a few pages, with four pages dedicated to the Asparagus special menu, costing R 260 for a 3-course meal plus a glass of Buitenverwaching Sauvignon Blanc or the Meifort.  It also contains a one-page Courtyard menu, being a mix of starters, mains and desserts, thus giving only a few options per course for non-asparagus eaters.

The Asparagus menu offers two standard asparagus dishes that one can order on an a la carte basis, either as a starter (R82) or as a main (R104) course.  Two choices are offered : with vinaigrette, offering olive oil, balsamico or truffle oil, and a baguette; and with a selection of sauces, being hollandaise, butter, Mornay, or Béarnaise, with parsley potato.   Other asparagus starter options range from R75 – R110, and are asparagus served with potato and an onion salad;  asparagus served with quail;  asparagus with parma ham; and asparagus with baby chicken.   Main courses are expensive, ranging between R145 – R165, and choices are asparagus served with salmon trout gnocchi, hanger steak, veal involtini, ravioli espuma, or with grilled line fish.  One of the desserts is served with asparagus, also containing rhubarb and strawberry gratin, and is served with saffron honey ice cream, at R69.

I could not get the waitress to explain to me exactly how the asparagus and linefish dish is served, and the French restaurant hostess came to assist, being very professional with her care of our table.  The waitress, by contrast, sulked the minute we said that we did not understand her reply about how the asparagus is served.   The hostess was able to offer a compromise, and Chef Edgar made a special dish with a most wonderful firm piece of kingklip, a parsley potato, and crunchy steamed white and green asparagus topped with the most outstanding deep yellow Hollandaise Sauce, at R156.  I savoured it slowly, to enjoy every bit of the wonderful taste.

My son is not an asparagus fan, and ordered the Entrecote steak with porcini dauphinoise at R152, and proclaimed it to be excellent, tender, and with a wonderful taste due to the shallot sauce on the steak.   Asparagus is one of the vegetables that comes with the dish, and a large thin fried potato slice added a lovely design touch to the presentation.    

Other Courtyard menu options are a caeser salad served with anchovies and salmon (R95), a vegetable tian served with sorbet, smoked onion puree and crostini (R73), and Sissy’s open sandwich (R44).  We were served an amuse bouche, which looked very attractive in its presentation, but was not really special in terms of its content, being two minute slices of Buffalo Mozzarella (looking like a quail egg slice at first, being so tiny) and a grapeseed Peperonata terrine with a minute panfried crostini, on top of which was a tiny drop of chippollini puree – a mouthful of a description for something that wasn’t!   Dessert options are rhubarb and ice cream, and Kardinalschnitte, a mousse cake slice.  

If one chooses to sit inside, or comes for dinner, one is offered the Nuptials Menu, a very clever name for the menu which pairs food and wine, but is even more expensive.  The menu is a very restricted one in terms of number of choices, but is beautifully presented, in a black leather cover too, with cards that can be changed as the menu changes.  So, for example, a starter Buffalo Mozarella and peperonata terrine is paired with Buitenverwachting’s Buiten Blanc at R20 per 125 ml glassful.  A Curry Leaf pan-fried langoustine-scallop starter at R 195 was paired with a Jordan Riesling at R25.  A veal main course costs R215, and is paired with  Whalehaven Pinot Noir at R35.  A Raspberry soufflé costs R55 and a chocolate variation R85, both paired with Buitenverwachting 1769 at R35 for 75ml.

I was shocked at the wine prices, not having seen them on my last visit.   While the Buitenverwachting Buiten Blanc costs R45 in the wine shop a few meters away, it costs R120 on the winelist, and R40 per 250ml glassful; the Chardonnay costs R85/260; the Sauvignon Blanc R60/R180; the Meifort R60/R175; the Merlot R65/R195; the Cabernet Sauvignon R80/R245, and the Christine R160/R485.  The Buitenverwachting Buiten Brut costs R272, and other MCC brands appear very expensive, with Pierre Jourdan Belle Rosé costing R383, Graham Beck Brut R474 and High Constantia Clos André Cuvee Brut R479.   Moët & Chandon costs from R990, Veuve Cliquot R1020 and Krug Grand Cuvee R2335.  Imported wines are from France (R761 and up), Italy (including a Barolo at R1218), and Australia, the USA and New Zealand (more reasonably priced between R342 – R583).  Shiraz wines on the winelist are Boland at R279, Glen Carlou (each vintage costing a different price, most expensive being 2004 at R410), Kevin Arnold at R320, Anatu at R280 and The Foundry at R301.  

When I saw the bill, and the cost of the cappuccino in particular, at R26, it really hit home to me how expensive Buitenverwachting is.  I have not drunk such an expensive coffee elsewhere in Cape Town.  Buitenverwachting cannot be faulted in terms of its gourmet cuisine, but one pays a high price for it, positioning it at the well-heeled Constantia set as well as international tourists.  The Sunday Buffet lunch is however excellent value at R240 for the four course meal.

We popped into the wine shop/wine tasting room after the lunch, and in fact did not see that its entrance was in the Courtyard.   It was quite disappointing – it is quite a large room with comfortable seating, looking much like someone’s lounge but not with much class, and display cases for the wines, as well as jewellery made by the wife of the  Buitenverwachting GM Lars Maack.  Given the quality of the wines and the restaurant, I was shocked to see the chap behind the counter wear a Billabong T-shirt and what looked like a swimming costume.  I left with a bottle of Buitenverwachting Meifort wine, having tasted it at the Sunday  Buffet lunch, at a cost of R60.

Buitenverwachting, Klein Constantia Road, Constantia, www.buitenverwachting.com. Tel (021) 794-3522.  Monday – Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday Buffet lunch. Corkage R55.

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

Vrede & Lust Sweet and Builders Trade Depot Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award  goes to Vrede & Lust, and is nominated by Clive Friedberg of Executive Touring.  He writes:  “I was fortunate enough to have won a “Tour Guide” prize at the beautiful Wine Estate, Vrede en Lust, near Franschhoek. A weekend at the ‘Manor House’. Exquisite.  When they heard it was my birthday, they offered a Braai Party for all my guests as well, which included all the food and wine of course.  Unbelievable. What a fantastic Estate and a wonderful team of people. I strongly recommend a visit by ALL Tour Guides and their clients for the best Wine Tasting experience in the Cape”.

The Sour Service Award  goes to Builders Trade Depot, a building supplies company in Hermanus.  The company struggled to provide a Tax Invoice meeting the SARS prescriptions, taking a whole day and three revisions to provide the correct documentation.  Then it would not release the goods, because proof of payment had not been sent – the payment was visible to the store in its bank statement, as both parties bank with ABSA.  It is clear that the store was not in need of business to the value of R 11000!

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website

Cape Town: “I’ve found my favourite City”

Whale Cottage Camps Bay
Whale Cottage Camps Bay

A flattering article about Cape Town was published in the Sunday Mail in Scotland yesterday, with the headline “Thanks to its Low Prices and Cool Vibes, I’ve found my Favourite City”.

Journalist Mickey McMonagle visited Cape Town in January, and sings the praises of our beautiful city.  He paid for his own accommodation, and selected Whale Cottage Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles Hotel for his accommodation, both of which were highly praised:   “If you want to live well on the cheap, Whale Cottage is ideal.   Our room had a private balcony overlooking the sea, there’s a pool and honesty bar and everything is clean, fresh and friendly – plus it’s a five-minute walk to Camps Bay. We were reluctant to leave. ”   

The Twelve Apostles Hotel was praised for its excellent service, its rooms, its setting and facilities offered, even though “it’s not cheap but it is worth every penny”.

The article praises Cape Town for its “staggering setting, with a backdrop of mountains overlooking amazing little bays”.   It says that there is so much to do that one would “barely scratch the surface in a month”.    It recommends visiting Boulder’s Beach, World of Birds, the V & A Waterfront, the Aquarium, the cable car ride up Table Mountain, Camps Bay for its night-time entertainment,  eating at the Codfather restaurant in Camps Bay, wine tasting in Constantia, and the children-friendly facilities in Cape Town.

The journalist ends his article: “All in all, Cape Town is my new favourite city, and I’ve already  planned the first of many return trips.”!

Cape Town goes Independent

A coastal view towards the Twelve Apostles mountainsThe Independent on Sunday featured Cape Town in an article entitled “48 hours in: Cape Town”, one of a series of “48 hours in ” articles,  last Saturday.

The article motivates Cape Town for its “dramatic location, tumultuous history and collision of cultures, Cape Town should be on everyone’s wish-list.   In January South Africa’s most attractive city offers the ideal escape from the northern hemisphere winter: near-perfect days and cool nights.  And, bluntly, it’s a cheap city: the South African rand has mirrored sterling’s decline, and the exchange rate at the start of this year is exactly the same as a year ago.”

The article recommends accommodation in the Mount Nelson, or the “boutique hotel for a more modest option”, An African Villa, or Cape Town Backpackers.   It recommends the following for the 48-hour visit:   going up Table Mountain with the cable car, window shopping in Long Street, lunch at the Noon Gun restaurant to eat koeksisters, museum visits, visiting the Castle, dinner at Nyoni’s Kraal (“dining with the locals”!), attending a church service at St George’s Cathedral, the Footstep’s to Freedom city walk, lunch at Andiamo in De Waterkant, a picnic in Kirstenbosch, and wine-tasting in Constantia.

Sadly, the article has neglected mentioning the beauty and popularity of Camps Bay’s and Clifton’s beaches, and the restaurants in Camps Bay, which are jam-packed this summer.