{"id":5060,"date":"2009-11-04T12:21:09","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T10:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=5060"},"modified":"2009-11-09T00:46:55","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T22:46:55","slug":"restaurant-review-bosmans-too-grande-for-its-own-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/wine-news\/restaurant-review-bosmans-too-grande-for-its-own-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Bosman’s too Grande for its own good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After a three year absence, an unbooked\u00a0dinner at Bosman’s at Grande Roche in Paarl earlier this week was an impromptu decision and a disappointing experience.<\/p>\n

Bosman’s has everything going for it – it is housed in a beautiful manor house, has a captive audience with\u00a0the Grande Roche\u00a0hotel guests dining there, it is a 5-star hotel, and it\u00a0is\u00a0a member\u00a0of Relais & Chateaux, an international quality accommodation association.\u00a0\u00a0 For years the restaurant competed with Le Quartier Francais for first and second place in the gourmet stakes, and both were Top 10 restaurants for many years.\u00a0 Bosman’s introduced a tasting menu, with winepairing, before Le Quartier did.<\/p>\n

What is it that has made Bosman’s fall off the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant list completely over the past 3 years or so, and not even make the top 20 shortlist in the past two years, I asked myself, and the new German waiter Tom.\u00a0 He diplomatically declined an answer to the question, and I wondered if it was the lack of awareness of Executive Head Chef Roland\u00a0Gorgosilich that may be the reason.\u00a0\u00a0 He has worked at Bosman’s for at least 4 years, and took over the\u00a0kitchen when his predecessor Frank Zlomke passed away last year.\u00a0\u00a0Yet no one knows of Roland, and the hotel has not publicised his appointment, except on Facebook.\u00a0\u00a0 Tom the German waiter ventured one comment – perhaps the very new team at Bosman’s has not quite jelled, he observed.\u00a0\u00a0 Every winter the hotel and restaurant closes for a substantial break, and it loses staff who take on part-time winter jobs elsewhere and then stay on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, for example, the staff told me, a lot of staff left for Reubens, and more recently, to Asara, where ex Grande Roche GM Horst Frehse is the new GM.\u00a0\u00a0 In the past 2 years the hotel management has been (surprisingly) taken over by the Mantis Collection, the company running Shamwari, amongst others, and hardly known for its gourmet food there, and also was running the restaurant at Delaire Graff, but has already been relieved of its restaurant involvement there.<\/p>\n

As a local one is surprised when an establishment that sets itself up as the extreme epitome of dining, can treat locals so shabbily.\u00a0 The man at the boom, George, did not welcome me on arrival, just pointing his arm in the direction of the hotel, a robot just doing his duty.\u00a0\u00a0 When I walked in, I stood for a while in the entrance foyer, waiting for attention, and finally Edwina van der Westhuizen, the head waiter (no gender specification in her title) arrived.\u00a0 She showed me to a table, and immediately asked if I did not want a Bistro menu instead.\u00a0\u00a0 Was this because I am a local, or because I came on my own?\u00a0\u00a0It turned out that Edwina was the most senior person on duty, with all waiters and sommeliers reporting to her.\u00a0 No\u00a0restaurant management was on duty,\u00a0despite the restaurant\u00a0being\u00a0fully booked, mainly with hotel guests.<\/p>\n

Edwina talked me through the Bosman’s menu, like\u00a0a machine, at an extreme speed\u00a0so that\u00a0one could not understand what she was saying.\u00a0 She was repeating something off a ‘song-sheet’, without having the passion for what she was talking about.\u00a0 All she tried to say was that one can mix and match the items between the a la carte and the tasting menus.\u00a0 Tom, the new German waiter, took over the table, and took the order efficiently.\u00a0\u00a0 The bread plate arrived, and a dry slice of wholewheat bread and another type was served, with (soft) butter, a cream cheese and a balsamic\/pine nut kernel spread, a threesome that has not changed\u00a0in 3 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was asked what I wanted to drink before the winelist was presented, and had to ask for it.\u00a0 It is intimidating, at 77 pages of wines, separated by variety and by region, making it easier to choose a wine than at the One&Only, where the region is dominant, and one has to find one’s favourite variety region by region throughout the whole winelist.\u00a0\u00a0 In total, 550 lables are stocked by the hotel.\u00a0 Surprisingly, the Assistant Sommelier took some time to come to the table, to help with the wine-by-the glass choice.\u00a0\u00a0 The head sommelier ignored my table completely, only stopping briefly once, to clear the glasses without a word.\u00a0\u00a0 As a shiraz lover the choice of only two wines-by-the glass was disappointing, especially as the Migliarina was an unknown.\u00a0\u00a0 The sommelier said that the wine is made by an ex-Bosman’s sommelier, but he did not have any further details about the winemaker, himself probably being new to the restaurant.\u00a0 Interestingly the sommelier tastes the wine before he pours\u00a0a tasting for the guests, but only for full bottles sold, and this did not happen for the wine-by-the glass.<\/p>\n

The white wine by the glass is as inexpensive as R 38 for a Graham Beck ‘Gamekeeper’s Reserve’.\u00a0\u00a0 Red wines-by-the glass range in price from R 43 for a De Waal Pinotage to R 155 for the Zorgvliet Richelle.\u00a0\u00a0 I was allowed a tasting of the 2005 Migliarina (R 57 per glass) \u00a0and the 2006 Ataraxia ‘Serenity’ (R 65 per glass), and chose the former.\u00a0\u00a0 The most expensive shiraz by the bottle was a Mont Destin ‘Destiny’, at R\u00a0 1 150, a 2005 De Trafford costing R 850, and the Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2005 costing R 850 too.\u00a0 The 2004 and 2006 Boekenhoutskloof were a little more reasonable in price, at around R 650.\u00a0\u00a0 The most reasonably priced shiraz is a Black Oystercatcher, at R 220.\u00a0\u00a0 Meerlust Rubicon costs R 950 for the 1999, R 800 for the 2001, and R 1 100 for the 1998.\u00a0 Water was brought to the table without a slice of lemon, despite a request.<\/p>\n

Bosman’s is unashamedly expensive, more so than maze at the One&Only in Cape Town.\u00a0\u00a0 It offers a “Harmony of South” menu choice, with mainly seafoods, at R 525 for 4 courses and R 580 for 5 courses.\u00a0 The tasting menu costs R 620 for 6 courses, without wines (Le Quartier Francais’ Tasting Room charges R 550 for 5 courses and R 700 for 8 courses).\u00a0\u00a0 A vegetarian menu option costs R 320 for 3 courses and R 480 for 4.\u00a0\u00a0 On the a la carte menu there are a limited number of choices, starters ranging in price from R 60 for the veloute’ of potato and sour cream, braised white leek and pickled duck breast\u00a0– R 125 for the veal cassoulet of sweetbread.\u00a0\u00a0The chef’s amouse bouche was a pepper-crusted impala. \u00a0I chose the veloute’, and\u00a0it was poured over the pre-prepared duck and leeks, the little that there was on the plate, at the table by a junior waitress.\u00a0 It could have been done with panache by\u00a0a professional.\u00a0\u00a0 It was tasty, but tasted very floury.\u00a0\u00a0 The 6 main courses range from R 125 for a sundried tomato and marjoram risotto to R 235 for a springbok loin, the beef fillet costs R 230, the kingklip R 210 and the rack of lamb R 225.\u00a0\u00a0 The beef fillet was extremely tender, so much so that one could take it apart with one’s fork, but quite salty in taste.\u00a0 The portion was tiny, as was the accompanying 3 minute baby potatoes.\u00a0\u00a0 It was amusing to see the silver dome serving still happen at Bosman’s, but the more modern rectangular plates do not lend themselves to the round dome.\u00a0 The impressive simultaneous dome ‘upliftment’ of the past has been lost in the past 3 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The few dessert options were of no interest, and as the wait for the main course to be served had been 2 hours after arrival, they were declined, but an apple strudel from the Bistro taken home in a most boring cardboard box, with no attempt to decorate it, other than sprinkled with castor sugar, as it would have been on a plate.\u00a0\u00a0 The full menu price was charged.<\/p>\n

A visit to the cloakrooms showed up another 5-star hotel, the second in a week (see the review of Seafood at the Marine Hotel in Hermanus here<\/a>), with a less than adequate public bathroom.\u00a0 The toilet doors and seats are wooden, giving these bathrooms a cottage-like feel, contradicting the crystal chandeliers and high gloss tiled floors in the restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0 Some messy trunking to hide the wiring of the airconditioning caught one’s eye immediately.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A definite bathroom upgrade is needed.<\/p>\n

Grande Roche\u00a0has been known to have a large following of German guests, and it was a language heard spoken by the guests throughout the evening.\u00a0 Only one German speaking waiter was on the floor, and the head sommelier appeared to be able to speak the language as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Given a full restaurant, and more staff than guests, it seemed, this must be a disappointment for them.<\/p>\n

The most glaring deficiency of the evening was that no one came to the table to check on one’s satisfaction with each course, and this is where Bosman’s falls short.\u00a0 The staff seemed static and mechanical, lacking spontaneity, only Tom the German waiter responding to questions put to him.\u00a0\u00a0 Not one staff member was interested in one’s reason for coming to the restaurant, one’s past history with it, or the motivation for coming to eat there – in fact it seemed that the restaurant staff are totally disinterested in their clients!\u00a0\u00a0 It took a concerted effort, after a number of reminders, to obtain details of the new F & B Manager Alan Bailes\u00a0– he is so new that it took some time to find his e-mail address in the computer!\u00a0\u00a0 What was impressive was the spontaneity and service interest shown by the German-speaking hotel receptionist, the only staff member seemingly enjoying her job.\u00a0\u00a0 On driving out one had to hoot for George to open the boom, despite the longish driveway between the restaurant and the boom, which should have made him stand at the boom already when the car arrived.\u00a0 He got into an argument with the guest about the fact that he felt that he had been at the boom promptly.\u00a0 His attitude was a\u00a0disappointing end to an evening that confirmed that the staff’s arrogance at Bosmans, bar an exception or two, is the downfall of this once\u00a0highlight of gourmet grandeur!<\/p>\n

The total cost of the veloute’, the beef fillet , the glass of red wine and the ‘take-away’ slice of strudel\u00a0was R 402.\u00a0\u00a0 Bosman’s Restaurant, Grande Roche Hotel, tel 021 863-5100. www.granderoche.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

After a three year absence, an unbooked\u00a0dinner at Bosman’s at Grande Roche in Paarl earlier this week was an impromptu decision and a disappointing experience. Bosman’s has everything going for it – it is housed in a beautiful manor house, has a captive audience with\u00a0the Grande Roche\u00a0hotel guests dining there, it is a 5-star hotel, […]<\/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":[124,20,21,19],"tags":[2622,50,394,2618,143,32378,392,2620,1736,2615,2614,2616,226,144,51,146,549,2611,1195,1148,2617,2619,503,32384,310,2610,41,2613,2612,32373,2621],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\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\n\t\t