Salt & Copper, Hartenbos

 22 September 2020 

 

SALT & COPPER

Seashells, R102, Hartenbos

 

For me the Southern Cape has long been a culinary wasteland of, at best, indifferent but mostly bad food at often extortionate, touristic prices but on our previous holiday in these parts in September 2019 we were happily fortunate to eat at only excellent eateries and it seemed to us a welcome change had come to this stretch of the coast.

 

Today, the in-laws and I (the wife was working hard) ate lunch at another relatively new and commendable addition to the food scene in the Mossel Bay area.

 

Salt & Copper opened its doors for business at the tail end of  the summer of 2019 just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and South Africa went into hard lockdown, which struck it a body blow but wasn’t a death knell. It has re-opened and is quite popular if the Tuesday lunch crowd is anything to go by.

 

They distil their own gin on the premises but one can taste other gins, South African whisky or local wine in the tasting room of the premises, you can have breakfast, tea/coffee and cake or full on meals, depending on your mood. On Saturday evenings the guests are entertained by a live band. At this point they close at 21h00 but soon might be open until 22h00 to allow the staff time to clean up and get home before the onset of the midnight curfew.

 

Of course, these trading hours might change if the National State of Disaster and curfew rules are ever  called off.

 

Salt & Copper is housed in a huge barn of a building  with bare roof trusses (no ceiling), polished concrete floor and an elegant, clean, open, modern style. The bar and barista station are at one end of the space, with the tasting room behind that, and outside, at the other end, there is more seating if you want more of view towards the N2, close but not audible, or of your kinds pleading outside.

 

The menu is not extensive, with relatively few dishes for breakfast, starters, mains, salads or desserts but most options are covered and there is one dish that can be converted into a vegan dish by replacing the poultry element with tofu. There’s  a kids’ menu, a zero bar selection of non-alcoholic beverages, but there is also a good wine list and other liquor options.

 

We’re not much into day drinking and stuck to coffee.

 

The mother in law chose the  smoked chicken salad (R75), which was very tasty and generously plentiful.  

 

The father in law opted for the “Seashells” hake (R100), with two good sized portions of battered, deep fried fish and  paper thin fries, and tartare sauce. His comment was that it wasn’t the worst fish dish he’d ever had and qualified the statement by saying that it was okay though not transcendent. Well, you can’t ask for more with battered hake, can you?

 

I dote on pork belly and chose Salt & Copper’s take on the dish (!45). Three substantial cubes of pork (each topped with a tiny morsel of  stewed peach), three heaps of garlic mash and a small bowl of al dente green beans, with some saucy type stuff underneath it all.

 

The pork was tender and juicy and the crackling perfectly crisp and brittle but there was a lack of flavour that should have been enhanced by a rich sauce that would have elevated  the dish to perfection. Without  that  sauce it was just good.

 

The mash seemed to be on the verge of stodgy, as it cooled down, and not quite creamy the way I prefer it, but in the end it was enjoyable too provided that one combined it with the meat.

 

All in all, we had a satisfactory lunch even if it wasn’t exactly brilliant. But that’s all I ask for: that some care and attention is paid to the preparation of the food for which I pay hard earned cash. Just give me a decent meal.

 

I would recommend Salt & Copper to visitors in the area as a welcoming, lovely place to have a relaxed lunch or breakfast, or maybe to kill some time and get pleasantly day drunk with a tasting or two