Lunch at Haute Cabrière, Franschhoek

 23 September 2021

 

HAUTE CABRIÈRE

Off the Franschhoek Pass, just outside Franschhoek

 

The last time the wife and I ate at Haute Cabrière, it was a dinner with my aged mother and the evening didn’t go well, for various reasons I will not dwell on here, and we’d  promised ourselves to return one day, sans ma mère,  to exorcise that demon, and here we were, ready, willing and able to tuck into a delicious lunch overlooking the lush, verdant valley, one of the most beautiful settings in the world.

 

The restaurant has undergone a radical change since our previous visit (and they don’t offer dinner anymore) and is now housed in a large rectangular building on what used to be the terrace outside the old venue that felt as if it were nestling in a wine cellar carved out from the bedrock of the mountain. The original vibe was old world sophistication and charm; now  the feel is contemporary, minimalist elegance with breath-taking views over the valley from huge floor to ceiling windows along the length of the building.  The tables are blonde wood and the chairs a mix of smartly upholstered and hard plastic approximations of garden furniture. I guess, if you’re smitten by the view, it won’t matter much if your bum doesn’t rest on a comfy seat.

 

The  menu, which is accessed online (there’s no traditional printed menu and the assumption must be we all own smart phones), is quite simple, with eight tapas dishes at R210,00 a person for 3 plates, four main courses (steak, lamb risotto, line fish and mushroom cannelloni) and three desserts.  

 

We were guided by our waiter who recommended that we share three tapas plates and then order main courses.

 

Firstly, though, we  shared a bottle of Pierre Jourdan Belle Rose MCC. It’s a lovely, crisp bubbly and I must admit we were a tad soused by the time we’d finished lunch. We were still celebrating yesterday’s 17^thanniversary of the start of our relationship and it was pleasant to share the love with a warm fuzzy feeling in the belly.

 

The bread course was two slices of ciabatta, two slices of sourdough bread, butter and chilli tomato jam. The jam was deceptively only sweet until the mild chilli heat developed on the back of the pallet a few seconds after you’d swallowed. Intriguing.

 

Our three small plates were the confit duck cassoulet with garlic sauce; deep-fried curry dusted squid with garlic aioli; and patatas bravas, black tomato, garlic and home-made aioli. 

 

The duck was succulent and tasty though a tad subtle on the flavour profile, the squid tubes and tentacles were well cooked and toothsome but the patatas bravas stacks, with crisp exterior and creamy interior, were the best thing here. Absolutely scrumptious and the kind of dish that made one regret not ordering one plate each.

 

The wife ordered the braised lamb risotto with a lemon, caper and thyme sauce (R210) and was brought to tears of joy when she took the first mouthful. The rice was soft yet with a bit of bounce and the lamb with which the risotto was infused had a rich depth of  flavour. A culinary joy to behold.

 

My two default dishes on menus are pork belly and line fish,  but often the latter turns out to be Kingklip, which I like but have eaten far too often to be enticed, so I perked right up at the news that today’s line fish was marlin (R210,00). 

 

The grilled marlin was a very generous portion, perfectly cooked and still succulent yet redolent of the aroma and flavour of the grill. The accompaniments were silkysoft-as-you-like confit leeks, gnocchi, peppers and lemon herb butter. The off-crisp tubes of creamy potato gnocchi were quite sublime and truly melted in the mouth. The butter sauce adeptly complemented the marlin and elevated the dish.

 

We were pretty well gorged after the main courses yet not quite out of the game. Dessert called. The wife ordered the chocolate, vanilla and toffee trifle 

and I asked for the apple and guava crumble with cinnamon ice cream. 

The  trifle, truth be told, was probably better than the crumble with a slightly bitter chocolate and lovely crumb on the cake element but the crumble wasn’t anywhere close to being shabby and if the crumble seemed overly sweet the apple was still tart enough to mitigate the sweetness. The cinnamon in the ice cream was too subtle for me to detect.

 

The bill came to R980,00 before tip. We’d been well fed, drank splendid tipple, gaped at the picturesque views and had the benefit of exemplary service. Of course, this isn’t your budget lunch but for me value for money lies as much in the quality of the food compared to price as in mere price alone. We’ve been burnt too many times by cheaper eateries where low price often equated to low quality. Haute Cabrière has been around for aeons and in a town with a competitive culinary scene, it can still hold its own and then some.