Myoga

8 January 2020

MYOGA

Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, Cape Town

When one eats with one’s eyes first, and the immediate visual impression of the dish in front of you is “turd on a sheet of toilet paper on a plate,”  you are not flooded with ecstatic happiness and you don’t start salivating.  Far from it. If you don’t actually gag, you certainly seriously question the conceptualisation of a dessert you ordered because you expected something completely different.

When the wife vocally expressed her shock at the horror on her plate, there was a general murmur of agreement around the table. It wasn’t just her skewed impression; everyone else shared the same sentiment about the, uh, unfortunate presentation.

The dessert is described as “black forest” cherry variations, set vanilla cream and dark chocolate namelake (a Japanese style cream), and the wife had a kind of deconstructed Black Forest gateau in mind. She was mildly upset at what she got, not only for the initial visual shock but because the dessert didn’t work as a complete dish. The set vanilla cream was rubbery and there was a cloyingly sweet cherry compote nestling amidst the namelaka. The dessert was sweet on sweet and had no textural variation.

Let’s call it an ill-conceived, inadequately prepared and appallingly presented dessert and let’s never talk of it again.

We were a party of six, celebrating an upcoming 50^th birthday of one of us and we were here specifically because of fond memories of dining at Myoga in the past. The last time the wife and I ate here had been with the goddaughters in July 2018 and there have been some changes in the meantime, principally that the tasting menu is now R895 a head where it once used to be something like R350 per person for an effective 10 course meal.

That Myoga tasting menu was a legendary thing, and we returned for it several times, because it was not only extremely well priced but one had a good variety of choices and the food was superb. We still have fond  memories of individual dishes from that tasting menu.

Now, the cost of the Myoga tasting menu is more in line with what one gets elsewhere in town and, budget conscious as one is during January, none of us chose that option and stuck to the a la carte menu, where two courses are R295 and three courses R395.

Initially, I was going to stick to starter and main, while the wife was doing main and dessert but at the end of the meal she twisted my rubber arm and persuaded me to have dessert too.

The wife of the birthday celebrant made the booking and discussed his dietary requirements with whoever is in charging of catering, because he is highly allergic to even the minutest trace of dairy elements in food. The chef made it an imperative to ensure that the guy’s main course and dessert contained no dairy and this was very much deeply appreciated.

If memory serves, his main course was a well-appreciated prawn dish and the waiter double checked, after a query, that it was 110% dairy free.

My starter was the slow cooked pork belly and glazed pork cheek dish, with carrot, ginger, smoked pineapple and yoghurt, which had lots of flavour and intriguing textures with meltingly soft cheek and a slightly fibrous belly, though, fortunately, it was just a minute away from being overcooked. The deep flavour saved the day. I used to automatically order pork belly, then stopped for a while because standards were dropping and  recently I’ve returned to the belly fray with some excellent results but this dish is not on the leader board. Nice enough, that’s all.

My yellow tail main course, with mussel mousse, sesame and cashew nut XO, beetroot ketchup and roasted yellow beet, made up for the underwhelming pork belly, and in spades.  I’m not given to hyperbole, unless it’s for comic or ironic effect, but this dish was sensationally, incomparably, superbly excellent. No jokes.

The menu refers to Abalobi fish, a new species to me, but my ignorance was abated when our service ambassador explained that it meant no more than sustainable seafood.

I’d thought my sea bass at Iron Steak and Bar the other night was incomparable but I’m going to have to rethink that one because tonight’s good sized portion of yellow tail was even more better. It was perfectly cooked, succulent and flaky with the perfect accompaniments for textural contrast and flavour. I really wished time would stop for this dish so that each mouthful could last a lifetime, so to speak. I think I did start slowing down on my chewing. This, by far, is the best cooked fish I’ve had in this country, just pipping the aforementioned sea bass.

The wife’s main course was the beef tender cut braised short rib pie, broccoli blue cheese and 5 pepper jus. Her comment was that it was “okay” and not worth mentioning in dispatches. One of those dishes you enjoy when eating it yet is eminently forgettable.

Two of our friends had the pumpkin gnocchi with sage, pumpkin seeds, pickled mushroom and dune spinach, which was delicious but the quantity seemed more like a starter portion than a proper, filling main course. When the waiter came to clear our plates after mains, our friend shared her view of the dish with him and he simply shrugged his shoulders  and, as if we were unclear about his status, said: “I just work here”.

As mentioned, the wife persuaded me to order dessert, the roasted apple parfait, apple pie insert, Breton shortbread and Granny Smith sorbet. It was delightful, ticking the boxes of sweet, tart, smooth, unctuous, and crisp. A lovely ending to my meal.

Our lactose intolerant friend was served a lovely, off menu, dairy free dessert of coconut cream, raspberry compote, raspberry sorbet and freeze dried raspberries presented in dry ice “smoke” for a bit of theatricality.

His wife had the salted mango financier with chai ice cream, pink pepper and pecan crumble and seemed quite happy with it.

After the last empty plates were removed, there was the usual sudden, inexplicable fall off in service, with no-one returning to ask whether we wanted anything else to drink, alcoholic or coffee, and one member of the party had to make the effort of catching a waiter’s eye to call her over to ask for the bill after waiting for more than half an hour after our desserts were finished with no sight of our waiter.

The bill, before tip, including food and drinks, came to around R2500,00. Fortunately, the birthday person paid, and we provided only the tip.

On reflection, this was our most disappointing visit to Myoga, but I guess it’s relative because, for me, the food was still excellent and the lengths to which the kitchen went to accommodate a single patron’s allergies is highly commendable. Given that the original tasting menu deal was so irresistible, and that it’s no longer an option, Myoga has become just another upmarket restaurant in Cape Town, probably well worthwhile dining at but no longer an automatic choice. For years Myoga had been our first choice celebration restaurant to bring groups to because the tasting menu was so budget friendly. Alas, no longer.

The wife had a far dimmer view of proceedings than I had but it seemed to me that the food was generally of high standard (portion issues aside) and as beautifully plated as you’d find elsewhere in town.  And, damn, that yellowtail lingers on the virtual palate!