North End Grill Brunch

North End Grill has been open for a while now, but because of the spat between Peter Wells and Adam Platt, I didn't bother going... oh and the suits crowd dominates this joint on weekdays.

But, if there's one meal that's not for suits, it's brunch. During brunch, North End Grill is like any other restaurant within walking distance: full of children.

I got the lobster egg custard with sea urchin and bonito flakes. I couldn't help myself. It just sounded so interesting. The lobster wasn't folded in as the waitress described... it was more of a bisque custard.

The urchin was unbelievably fresh. I really liked this dish, but I wouldn't recommend this for everyone. It is the most concentrated seafood that I've ever had. If you're not ready to drink the sea, don't do it. The custard was incredibly light and fresh, and the bonito flakes were fun to eat. They weren't as strange of an addition as I thought they would be.

The burger expert in the family said that the burger's excellent. I agree. I had a bite and the meat was succulent. The bread looked overwhelming, but compressed quite well. The fries/chips tasted distinctly Indian - like papadum. It turns out the executive chef's Indian! Taste buds don't lie.

Milk chocolate with pomegranates and mascarpone sorbet. This was insanely good. The chocolate sandwich was difficult to cut properly, but it was so creamy that I suspect I was eating butter. Every single component of this dish was plate-licking good. Not that you can do that at North End Grill... they wouldn't want to scare off the wives and babies of the suits.

Their bread pudding was phenomenal. It's even better than the chocolate. And to think (!) neither of these are supposedly as good as the cheesecake, which they did not have! Anyway. bread pudding has really been elevated in the past few years... once thought to be the dessert equivalent of stuffing, it's now something of a craft. This brioche was soaked in cream and honey and baked to custardy perfection. The roasted apples on the bottom of the sherbet was just the right amount of tartness. I could eat dessert from here every day.

Overall, brunch was a great success, and we're thinking of going back soon. We were both torn between 2 entree choices, and I still haven't had the cheesecake!

Wine and Dine @ Planet Restaurant (Cape Town)

The day after we dined at the regular restaurant, we went back at Planet Restaurant for their monthly wine and dine event. The wine of the night was sauvignon blanc, and tables were set around the room by local vineyards. The restaurant provided a trio of hors d'oeuvres.

I didn't take any pictures because it was a rather formal social event... and I was already making a fool of myself stalking the mushroom dumplings, which were absolutely divine. There was a mango and fish ceviche that was rather boring but actually paired well with the wine. Then there was an ostrich carpaccio that was quite good, but impossible to pick up with the contraption to which it was attached.

30 minutes later, we were seated for the meal with wine pairings.

Asparagus: 9/10 amazingly fresh. The sauce was much lighter than it looked.

Pork croquettes: 7.5/10 It had a delicious flavor, but the fried exterior had no crunch... and this whole dish was cold! I've never had a cold croquette... maybe it was because of the delicious gelee on the bottom, but surely there's a way around that?

Seared tuna salad: 7/10 Everything was very well made, and the ingredients were very fresh, but the fish wasn't very high grade. This was also the 3rd cold dish in a row, and even the announcer (who had been talking about wine nonstop) apologized for the aggressively low temperature of the meal.

Lemon and mint sorbet: 10/10 This was one of the best palate cleansers ever. It was a little icy, but not only did it scrub my tongue, nasal passages, and throat of any savory flavors, but I think it cleansed my face.

Quail and aubergine: 9.5/10 The perfect quail that I've been waiting for. I think the menu only mentioned the quail being done two ways, but in addition to the succulent seared breast and buttery confit, I found some liver on the side. Shredded quail was also stuffed into the eggplant and fried. There were so many delicious elements to this dish. The only miss was a strange bread product at the bottom of the quail that was at once savory and sweet and dry... I have no idea what it was, perhaps a strange interpretation of stuffing.

Chèvre: 6/10 The chevre was creamy and smooth, and the fruits were good. But I've had better cheeses...

Fruits: 8.5/10 This whole dish was very good and fresh but rather confusing. Cut fruits were interspersed with jellies and sorbets. For some reason, the entire Mount Nelson group of restaurants is obsessed with papaya seeds. They're good in small doses, but can be an assault on the senses when accidentally eaten with a mild fruit or a berry. This dish reminds me of the panna cotta at Bresca, but less well put together and sophisticated.

Overall, it was another great dining experience at Planet Restaurant. The wines were good, but not great. The whole experience took over 3 hours due to all the background about the wine, raffle, etc etc. I think the biggest weakness was actually pairing this meal with a wine like sauvignon blanc, which had trouble standing up to some of the bold flavors. I would much rather have this with 2 or 3 types of wine, or no wine at all.

Planet Restaurant (Cape Town)

We actually ate at Planet Restaurant twice, mostly because we felt lazy, and it was happily situated inside the Mount Nelson Hotel.

Both instances were excellent. I will describe them separately.

The first time we ate there, we were well aware that we had a reservation for the wine and dine event the next night, but the a la carte menu looked sufficiently different from the prix fixe, so we went for it.

The hallway leading to the restaurant had lots of baubles resembling planets. The astronomy theme continued with the chandelier.

Canape trio: 8/10 black pudding samosa, carrot with pumpkin seeds, duck with brown pudding sauce. The black pudding samosa was one of the most enjoyable bites of black pudding I've ever had. I eat almost anything, but black pudding is usually on the edge... somewhere between banana and paper, but this was quite good.

The pureed carrot, on the other hand, did not go very well with the roasted pumpkin seeds. Perhaps I had one too many carrot soups with pumpkin seeds in the bush.

Duck was great. It was a little gamey, but it was very delicious. Everything was a little more gamey in Africa probably because the animals didn't live in a cage with a spigot full of bolus-like feed.

At this point, my bf was still reeling from watching lions feed (it was quite disgusting, but I will not share the gory details on a food blog), so he wanted a main dish with seafood. I had no choice but to go with the red meat. The sommelier was rather stumped because we wanted to share one bottle of wine. He finally decided on Rijk's pinotage. Pinotage is a South African creation. Because of its hybrid nature, it's still full bodied, but not as overpowering as a purebred pinot noir.

My complimentary cauliflower and parsnip soup: 7/10 It was as good as any soup I've had... not in the bush. It's really hard to beat the soup in the bush. I don't know why... maybe soup is just comforting when you're out in the wild, and sitting at a polished table with a white cloth detracts from the soup.

Avocado salad with grilled mozzarella: 8/10 The grilled mozzarella was a nice touch... and is that katafi around it?! But the cheese here just wasn't up to par - the mozzarella was a little too firm. I really liked the peppercorns at the bottom of the salad. They gave a nice kick and contrasted from the mild creamy tastes of avocados and cheese.

Springbok: 10/10. In case you're wondering what springbok is, it looks something like this:

You see, in the wild, they claimed to cook a lot of things.... including pork and chicken, which I never saw near the Masai, so I could only assume that I was eating warthog and guinea fowl. However, no one claimed to serve zebra or donkey, so I'm pretty sure that I never had springbok. And that's why I went for the red meat dish.

Well it turned out to be absolutely amazing. It was incredibly lean and tender. It was basically a more flavorful filet mignon. The honey glaze was light, and made more complex by the beetroot jus. The yellow rounds are "croquettes" that tasted more like cross sections of spring rolls. The whole dish with the pureed, cut up, and juiced tubers tasted very wintery, which nicely complemented a protein that's never seen frost.

Seafood pappardelle: 6.5/10 It was freshly made, seafood was fresh, but it was nothing special. And it was my bf's fault ordering things that he could have had at home!! Well actually it was the fault of the zebra.... but anyway...

Chocolate banana with peanut praline: 8/10 My preferred form of banana - mixed in with chocolate. Enough said.

After this meal, we were looking forward to the wine and dine event!

Miller's Thumb (Cape Town)

 A trip is not a trip without visiting something of a dive. Well Miller's Thumb isn't exactly a dive. It comes highly recommended, and is rather well known. But it's run by an extremely friendly couple instead of being something of a corporation. The sweet lady let us in 5 minutes before closing for lunch!

The humble green and orange building stands out against the white and gray all around it.

Menus come in cute envelopes. "Mr & Mrs R U Hungry"... why yes I am!

Yellowtail Malay style, grilled then baked. 10/10. This is an extremely generous helping of yellowtail for around 10 USD. It was so tender that the fork had to double as a spoon. The thick tangy sauce seeped into the flakes, and there was only just enough to finish the fish.

Egg noodles on the side. They weren't that great, but who cares. It was more there as a neutral palate cleanser so that you can enjoy your next bite of fish as if it were your first.

Grilled calamari Moroccan style. 10/10. Once again, a very generous portion for around 10 USD. I have never had such fresh and tender calamari in my life. The breading was light - they put on just enough to carry the flavor of the herbs. It was then grilled so that you smell and taste the char. It also hardens the breading a little so that you get a slightly crunchy texture to contract the tender seafood.

Couscous. Simple, rather boring, not the most amazing couscous ever, but once again, I didn't care. It was just so I can cleanse my mouth between bites of calamari.

The entrees at Miller's Thumb were simple yet elegant. There was nothing missing, and no superfluous ingredients.

We tried to go back later on, but they were closed on (I believe) Sunday! I wasn't exactly living by calendar days at the time, so I cannot remember. But the next time I'm in Cape Town, this would be the only restaurant that I will revisit for sure. There are still many other dishes that I want to try!

La Colombe (Cape Town)

La Colombe is situated in a beautiful valley below Table Mountain in the Constantia Uitsig vineyard. It ranked 12th in the world on the Pellegrino 50 best restaurants list in 2010, which made it the best restaurant in Africa (at the time).

I suspect that it was a case of affirmative action.

First of all, the taxi ride there was shady. The meter ran up much more than the guidance online, I didn't speak 2 of the 3 languages, and because the numbers were going up in South African Rand and to the hundredth decimal, I was about to have a heart attack.

And then, after dropping us off, the taxi driver insisted on waiting for us and not charging us the waiting fee. Really awkward and inconvenient for him...

Roasted tomato and red pepper mousse with sourdough and seed bread: 6/10. It was a whatever moment. But so far I was not suspicious.

Then I saw this! a chalkboard presentation! Interesting concept but unwieldy.

Steak tartare with avocado on top with rice cracker: 8/10 a very interesting combination! I liked it very much because the avocado seemed healthier than creme fraiche. The cracker was delicious but was completely incapable of scooping up the dip. I also don't understand why it's made of rice... it didn't exactly go well with the raw steak.

Fried onion and horse radish dip: 3/10 It tasted like friend tempura dough that stuck in the teeth and whipped mayo. There was no indication that onions were involved in this dish.

Time for our presentation! A lot of the a la carte dishes sounded very good, but I have never had anyone describe to me all the garnishes and the construction of the dish. Although interesting for the first 3-4 items, it really dragged on, and honestly I didn't care if I had a dollop of beet or carrot on the side. Perhaps the chef visited EMP and went off the deep end?

We couldn't be bothered, and picked the smaller tasting menu and added a scallops and pork belly dish in the middle. The other menu was earth, wind, water, fire, and love.... and I didn't want to eat Captain Planet.

Quail and celeriac veloute: 8.5/10 The veloute was amazing! The quail and truffle mouse richened the flavors of the soup further, and I was absolutely enjoying this... until I had the find the bone on the quail leg in the soup. The confit leg was awkward to eat and had lost most of its flavor, which makes no sense if they actually made it confit. The quail breast, on the other hand, was tender and delicious. The chunks were still too big for the soup, but I was hungry so I didn't care.

Salmon carpaccio and tartare: 6/10: The waitress kept on telling us that our tataki was coming. The other menu, probably under earth, had a springbok tataki, and I found the waitress imprecise and misleading. In any case, this was well prepared. The alternating creamy and savory sauces scattered in dots was a nice touch. there was too much salmon, and it was relatively low grade for the 12th best restaurant in the world.

Scallops and pork belly: 5/10 Here is where the dinner entered a death spiral. The sommelier brought us a new wine to match this dish even though we were quite behind on our wine pairing at this point. Only at the end of the meal did we realize that it was not complimentary... but about half the cost of a 6 course wine pairing!

The pork belly with glaze was quite good, but the scallops were undercooked and under-seasoned. And then there were the peas! The peas were undercooked to the point of tasting like grass, and completely clashed with the rest of the dish. They were all hidden like little taste bud mines, and I had to find them all to get them away from the edibles.

Hake: 3/10 45 minutes after that last course, this overcooked and dry hake showed up. I gave up after 3 bites and went to wander around the ladies room. I was not surprised to find more undercooked peas. We can make better hake in our oven in 5 minutes.

Lychee palate cleanser: 9/10 The waitress noticed our practically untouched hake, and started getting nervous and chatty. That's when we realized that there was no palate cleanser before the red meat course, so we ordered this for ourselves. It was delicious. It was basically shaved ice with little lychee jellies on the bottom.

At this point, the waitress was still telling us every little detail about every dish, and since I read the menu, I was getting quite tired of it all. "Bring on the next course!" I said.

Steak: 8/10 Despite being completely upset at this point (the dinner was now pushing on 2.5 hours and we only had 4 courses), I have to admit that the steak was quite good. Very well seasoned and tender. Also, I was able to dig in before the waitress came over and described everything, so I was able to discover the garnishes for myself, which was delightful. They turned some scalloped potatoes into a nice pretty square block. It was all very creative... but they put the stupid peas in the dish again! At least this time they were visible.

Parsnip cake: 7/10 it was reasonably good, but not very creative. It looked interesting, but when I cut into it, it was just a cake.

Petit fours: 4/10 I had 3 of them and gave up. The chocolate truffle was sickeningly sour on the inside. Meringues were too hard, and the turkish delight was actually just a massive jelly with very little flavor or delight.

The whole dinner took over 3.5 hours! I've had dinners with twice as many courses that did not take so long. A lot of it was the lag between courses and the long-winded descriptions. The food was okay overall, but did not live up to the standards of being one of the best restaurants in the world.

I. Was. Not. Impressed.

Mount Nelson (Cape Town)

Mount Nelson is a hotel, but it's also an excellent place for food. The hotel is a favorite of English visitors because of its high tea. It also has an excellent restaurant, but more on that later.

When Cape Town weather isn't being it's insane fickle self, you can sit on the terrace.

The menu of teas would probably be very exciting for a tea connoisseur (which I'm not). They were organized by country. I just went ahead and started with the Rooibos because it was local, and I got tired of having Kenyan tea 3 times a day for weeks.

I went straight for the food. It's buffet style, and there were sandwiches, chocolates, macaroons... really anything I've ever had with tea except for scones, which were noticeably missing. I didn't really miss them much, it's just that they were missing. They also didn't have the most amazing clotted cream ever (which is in London), but I hardly thought about it until days later.

We had 3 whole plates of food!! It was delicious! The rooibos was pretty good too. A waiter goes around putting the tea in and then removing it in case you're incompetent. It turns out that I did need their help. On a different day I was busy updating my life on Facebook and let my green tea go to waste.

If you're patient, you might get a visitor! This cat seems to like the terrace area. there are two other ones that  wander around the rest of the hotel.

In case you don't know what tea you want to try next/want to buy some tea, there's a "sniffing station" which is what my waitress told me. Her manager told her to use a different verb, but I can't remember what that verb is.

Since we were staying at the Mount Nelson, we also had an opportunity to try their regular food.

We were too lazy to go out one day, so we ordered in.

Surprisingly good mushroom risotto and pizza. The soup was tasteless.

We had our dinner with a local wine. It has the longest name I have ever seen.... I think they actually just joined several words so that they can have such a long name. No corkage in a hotel room! yay

Just as an aside, don't go to South Africa and not try their BILTONG!! It's a delicious local beef jerky. Well it might be a different animal, but you don't have to worry about that.

A local helped us pick by squishing the meat and picking the ones that were perfectly tender and marbled. Then we just told them how much we wanted in Rand, and the lady behind the counter sliced it up and put it in a brown bag for us. I wish I could tell you what town we were in, but I have no idea.

I'm still salivating thinking about it... I don't think I would have made it past customs with a pound of this stuff, but if the flight weren't so long I would have tried.