Exciting new restaurants in the Cape Winelands

There’ve been some rave reviews for these four Cape Winelands restaurants, so we thought we’d whet your appetites with some of the highlights.

 

Beleef, Franschhoek

 

“The Cape’s unofficial French capital has no shortage of Francophile fare. But where do you go when you want to taste Cape Town (not France)? When you want to treat out-of-towners to the food of the people who created the Cape of Good Hope? Well, you’d take them to Beleef Restaurant on Franschhoek’s main road…

 

“Strictly seasonal with a farm-to-fork approach, the menu changes regularly. Our favourite was the Smoorsnoek starter with mousse, purée and a crisp – an umami medley of salt and sweet, and the perfect appetite stirrer.”

 

Eike, Stellenbosch

 

This restaurant offers a fixed tasting menu…”The idea is to update seasonally according to what’s fresh – but always in step with the underlying concept behind Eike, ‘to celebrate our food heritage’ and to evoke the ‘nostalgia’ of ideas and flavours that may no longer be in vogue – inspired by childhood memories,” says Chef Bertus Basson.

 

“‘Opsitkers’ (waiting up candle) harks back to historic farm times, when the farmer would light a candle when a suitor arrived to visit his daughter – the arrangement being that the suitor would need to leave when it burned out, so a well-liked suitor would get a longer candle… here it is a beef-fat candle that you dip your bread course into.”

 

 

Protegé, Le Quartier Français

 

“From renowned chef-proprietor Scot Kirton (of La Colombe, La Petite Colombe and Foxcroft) comes Protégé, an exciting culinary destination that’s taken pride of place at Le Quartier Français, in what was previously The Garden Room.

 

“Aptly named, the restaurant aims to provide young talented chefs the opportunity to hone their skills, with young chef Stephen Raaff heading the kitchen. Scot wanted to create a place that locals could call home, while enjoying top-quality, seasonally driven comfort food.”

 

 

 

Gåte Restaurant, Quoin Rock

 

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a dining experience peppered with so many ‘ooohs’, ‘aaahs’ and ‘wows’. This is not to say I haven’t eaten a lot of good food recently, I absolutely have, but I haven’t had a dining experience that has pushed me quite out of my culinary comfort zone like a recent meal at Gåte Restaurant at Quoin Rock Estate.

 

“The name Gåte (pronounced gah-tay) is the Norwegian word for ‘riddle’ and it’s the ideal concept from which the menu has been built. You are going to be surprised, you are going to be amazed and you are going to be challenged.

 

“Placed at the centre of the table is a golden hexagonal metal ornament with phrases such as The Black Pearl and The Birth of Liver inscribed on the sides. You’ll soon learn that this is the menu and those phrases are cryptic clues as to what you’ll be eating…”