The Stack

17 August 2019

THE STACK

Weltevreden Street, Gardens, Cape Town

Spur of the moment decision to go out for dinner (not to the Spur, though) phone, one table available, sorted for 19h00.

The wife and I, and two friends, last ate here on 11 November 2017. It’s not so much a reflection on the restaurant that we haven’t been back for dinner but because, with a few repeated exceptions, we try to seek out new places rather than keep returning to the same ones. 

According to the wife, The Stack has a new chef and that brought it to mind again.

I think I raved about the building in my review of November 2017 and its lost none of the grand awesomeness. The courtyard and broad front stoep would still be perfect for warm, wind free evenings. Tonight, when we arrived, the outside area was well populated with members of a birthday party that took up a long table in the dining room shortly after we were seated.

The dining room still has the pale, Hans Hartung inspired, decorated walls, bare wooden floors and the ambience of discreet luxury with linen tablecloths and gleaming glassware. I immediately feel a deep sense of well-being when I walk into a room like this, a different world to your average steak house.

The booking was made pretty late in the day and the only available table was next to the fire place with a roaring fire that was a tad at odds with the mild evening. I wore a short sleeved shirt under my sweater and once the sweater was removed, the heat at my back was pleasant.

The room was fully occupied, with the large party behind us, yet the noise level, the odd noisy outburst from the birthday revellers notwithstanding, was tolerable. My main gripe was that the lighting in the room was so dim one struggled to read the menu, and the low level of illumination was a challenge to my food photography. I prefer not to use the flash. (The brightly lit photographs illustrating this humble narrative were taken by the wife who has no qualms about flashing.)

The wife drank a bottle of Elgin Ridge sauvignon blanc (R200) (once again, because buying a bottle made more financial sense than drinking the wine by the glass) and finished off the evening with a bunt orange Old Fashioned (R80), because she tasted one of the two I drank. It seemed like the kind of classy joint where I couldn’t comfortably drink a beer with dinner.

The Stack’s winter special is a two-course dinner at R235,00 a head or three courses for R275,00, and one can choose any of the items on the standard menu. We opted for the three-course. 

Much to our joint surprise, we chose the same courses: gnocchi starter (R95), pork main (R195) and tarte tatin (R75.) Normally, our tastes and predilections are very divergent.

If one does the math, we paid R180,00 less a head than the combined list price of the three courses.

The bread was a simple offering of a couple of slices of ciabatta with some butter. Very tasty.

The gnocchi (gorgonzola, walnuts, tomato, spinach) warped our fragile little minds from the first sublime mouthful, with the meltingly-soft dumplings, the textural contrast of crunchy nuts, flavourful, fresh tomato and spinach and an utterly sinful gorgonzola sauce.

That sauce was so excellent, we could have licked our plates until they were so clean you could eat off them.

Next up, pork three ways, cutely described as "Three Little Pigs." The three piggy elements were grilled pork loin, confit sticky pork belly and pistachio pork sausage. The other stuff on the plate were salted caramel apple puree and cider jus, with al dente slices of Brussels sprout and tiny half carrots. I liked the texture of the veggies though the carrots were so small, I thought they should’ve been thrown back.

The wife ordered a side of pomme frites. (R30) They were good. I ate half.

It was just dumb luck that I started with the pork loin (frankly, I couldn’t distinguish between the three meat elements on the plate due to the dim lighting) and ended with the belly, which is probably the only way to do it, to keep building towards a joyous climax. The loin was full of flavour, but a tad overcooked for my taste (I’m Mr Rare when it comes to most meat) and the sausage was one of the best home-made pork sausages I’ve had, with a texture that’s firm enough without being stodgy, a subtle graininess and deep flavour.

The belly was the absolute heroic champion of the plate, easily the best belly I’ve had since the sticky belly at Saigon. It was tender, succulent, juicy and had oodles of flavour. Just ridiculously, outrageously good. This (in the circumstances, heartbreakingly small) cube of belly perfectly illustrated why I became infatuated with pork belly in the first place. One mouthful and a warm, fuzzy feeling of unbridled joy fills the soul, and makes the palate a happy bunny indeed.

I love an apple desert and I love tarte tatin. Tonight’s dish was, to us, not an unqualified success. The apple and the pastry were good and a lovely combination, but the dark caramel was at the burnt end of the spectrum, leaving an unfortunate bitter aftertaste on the palate that the smooth, light custard could not mitigate that aftertaste. The tarte tatin wasn’t bad but it could’ve been better. A relative disappointment after the two excellent savoury courses.

In a manner of speaking, our meal started off with a bang and then slowly deflated (lovely mixed metaphors, eh?) over the three courses.

The bill came to R1060,00. We had a good night out at a spontaneous choice of venue and ate well. The Elgin Ridge sauvignon blanc wasn’t particularly wonderful, if I may comment after one sip of it, but the Old Fashioneds were quite splendid. We weren’t sober when we left.  Fortunately, home is but a short distance from The Stack

New chef or not, The Stack is worth visiting for both the ambience, especially if you like drinks before your meal, and the nosh is tasty.