{"id":13241,"date":"2010-10-27T10:23:45","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T08:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=13241"},"modified":"2010-10-28T22:27:57","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T20:27:57","slug":"restaurant-review-buitenverwachting-asparagus-menu-a-good-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/restaurant-review-buitenverwachting-asparagus-menu-a-good-tip\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Buitenverwachting Asparagus Menu a good but expensive tip!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I had the pleasure of rediscovering Buitenverwachting about three weeks ago, having been invited to try their Sunday buffet lunch.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

It was a lovely summer’s day and we sat on the terrace outside the restaurant, facing the Courtyard.\u00a0 It was much quieter than on my previous visit, yet noisy from a field close by, where a sport’s day was being held.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Courtyard menu cover is\u00a0made from black leather, is branded, and contains only a few pages,\u00a0with four pages dedicated to\u00a0the Asparagus special menu, costing R 260 for a 3-course meal plus a glass of Buitenverwaching Sauvignon Blanc or the Meifort.\u00a0\u00a0It 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0Two 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,\u00a0or B\u00c3\u00a9arnaise,\u00a0with parsley potato.\u00a0\u00a0 Other asparagus starter options range from R75 – R110, and are asparagus served with potato and an onion salad; \u00a0asparagus served with quail;\u00a0 asparagus with parma ham; and asparagus with baby chicken.\u00a0\u00a0 Main courses are expensive,\u00a0ranging between\u00a0R145 – R165, and choices are asparagus served with salmon trout gnocchi, hanger steak, veal involtini, ravioli espuma,\u00a0or with grilled line fish.\u00a0 One of the desserts is served with asparagus, also containing rhubarb and strawberry gratin, and is\u00a0served with saffron honey ice cream, at R69.<\/p>\n

I could not get the waitress to explain to me exactly\u00a0how the asparagus and linefish dish is served,\u00a0and the French restaurant hostess came to assist, being very professional with her\u00a0care of our table.\u00a0 The waitress, by contrast, sulked the minute we said that we did not understand her reply about how the asparagus is served.\u00a0\u00a0 The hostess was able to offer a compromise, and\u00a0Chef 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.\u00a0 I savoured it slowly, to enjoy every bit of the wonderful taste.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My son is not an asparagus fan, and\u00a0ordered the Entrecote steak with porcini dauphinoise at R152, and proclaimed it to be excellent, tender, and with a wonderful taste\u00a0due to the shallot\u00a0sauce on the steak.\u00a0\u00a0 Asparagus is one of the vegetables that comes with the dish, and a large thin fried potato\u00a0slice added a lovely design touch to the presentation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Courtyard menu options are\u00a0a caeser salad served with anchovies and salmon (R95), a vegetable tian\u00a0served with sorbet, smoked onion puree and crostini (R73),\u00a0and Sissy’s open sandwich (R44).\u00a0 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\u00a0a 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!\u00a0\u00a0 Dessert options are rhubarb and ice cream, and Kardinalschnitte, a mousse cake slice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0is even more expensive.\u00a0 The menu is a very restricted one in terms of number of choices, but is beautifully presented, in a\u00a0black leather cover too, with cards that can be changed as the menu changes.\u00a0 So, for example, a starter Buffalo Mozarella and peperonata terrine is paired with Buitenverwachting’s Buiten Blanc at R20 per 125 ml glassful.\u00a0 A Curry Leaf pan-fried langoustine-scallop starter at R 195 was paired with a Jordan Riesling at R25.\u00a0 A veal main course costs R215, and is paired with\u00a0 Whalehaven Pinot Noir at R35.\u00a0 A Raspberry souffl\u00c3\u00a9 costs R55 and a chocolate variation R85, both paired with Buitenverwachting 1769 at R35 for 75ml.<\/p>\n

I was shocked at the wine prices, not having seen them on my last visit.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The Buitenverwachting Buiten Brut costs R272, and other MCC brands appear very expensive,\u00a0with Pierre Jourdan Belle Ros\u00c3\u00a9 costing R383, Graham Beck Brut R474 and High Constantia\u00a0Clos Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Cuvee Brut R479.\u00a0\u00a0 Mo\u00c3\u00abt & Chandon costs from R990, Veuve Cliquot R1020 and Krug Grand Cuvee R2335.\u00a0 Imported wines are from France (R761 and up), Italy (including a Barolo at R1218), and Australia, the USA\u00a0and New Zealand (more reasonably priced\u00a0between R342 – R583).\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 I have not drunk such an expensive coffee elsewhere in Cape Town.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The Sunday Buffet lunch is however excellent value at R240 for the four course meal.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0 It was quite disappointing – it is quite a large room with comfortable seating, looking much like someone’s lounge but not with much class,\u00a0and display cases for the wines, as well as jewellery made by the wife of the\u00a0 Buitenverwachting GM Lars Maack.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I left with a bottle of Buitenverwachting Meifort wine, having tasted it at the Sunday \u00a0Buffet lunch, at a cost of R60.<\/p>\n

Buitenverwachting<\/strong>, Klein Constantia Road, Constantia,\u00a0www.buitenverwachting.com<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Tel (021) 794-3522.\u00a0 Monday – Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday Buffet lunch.\u00a0Corkage R55.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the pleasure of rediscovering Buitenverwachting about three weeks ago, having been invited to try their Sunday buffet lunch.\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,20,21],"tags":[2426,8078,7802,8080,822,7809,8073,402,1967,32366,421,8065,32378,7814,32391,4731,8066,1034,8068,2645,8079,2696,8075,7899,8070,4002,8077,7799,7408,8069,698,8067,8074,3625,422,3761,145,8064,7773,1721,8076,32373,8071,8072,2500,705],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t