Small yet beautifully formed small plates at Spek & Bone, Stellenbosch

 13 July 2023

 

SPEK & BONE

84 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch

 

On my previous excursion to Stellenbosch, I ate a mediocre burger at De Vrije Burger while I reminisced about the excellent meals the wife and I’ve had at Spek & Bone, Bertus Basson’s small plate eatery halfway down Dorp Street, in an almost hidden space behind Oom Samie’s Winkel.

 

Hence today’s  lunch at Spek & Bone.

 

The entrance to the restaurant is quite discreet, with an almost inconspicuous plaque next to a small door with a modest canopy (marquee in US terms), through which one enters a narrow passage that opens up to the garden seating on the right-hand side and the main entrance to the building. Spek & Bone has one of the best sites in Stellenbosch, in a busy, commercialised neighbourhood but stuck away in its almost secret corner for maximum privacy and quite calm.

 

I ambled into the yard at 11h50. The restaurant only opens at 12h00 for lunch but I went inside anyway. It was a very warm and pleasant day in Stellenbosch but the leafy garden, wonderful in summer, was still too cold for me and I’d never been inside before.  I was alone in there, bar the staff, for a long time but that may be ascribed to my early arrival. 

 

The interior is very low-key bistro-style, with large images of the eponymous Spek and Bone against one wall, wine shelves against another, and what appeared to be the bar area at the rear, with the kitchen at the side. On the counter behind my small table there was a box displaying several LP records, or vinyl as they’re called now, at rather hefty prices. I did the obligatory flip through the stack, as I used to do in record shops when I was an impecunious teenager in Stellenbosch but felt no compelling need to buy any. I don’t own a record player anymore and gave away my record collection in late 2009 when we moved from apartment to house.

 

Loadshedding kicked in just after 12h00. The room was dimly lit by candles on the tables, the background music kept playing and the kitchen staff were hunched over the gas cookers. The sad thing, I suppose, is that we’ve adapted to enforced power outages and have learnt how to keep calm and carry on.

 

The menu was considerably different to what we’d seen on our last visit, but that was well before Covid and regular changes to the menu are almost mandatory in top-bracket restaurants. There is a clear focus on Asian influenced food.

 

Mindful of our predilection to over order tapas, I’d been cautious and started with two plates: the abalobi roasted fish (sea bass), shredded cabbage, tonkatsu broth and XO (R135)

, and the gnocchi with mushrooms, Dalewood Huguenot cheese and chives (R150).

The perfectly cooked, delicate sea bass in a deeply flavourful broth with a hint of chilli on the back of the palate, is a good starter portion.

 

The melt-in-the-mouth gnocchi comes with bold flavours, from the woody mushrooms, that also provide a textural contrast, and the heavenly, aromatic, salty Huguenot cheese. The waiter referred to the dish as a “crowd pleaser” and he wasn’t wrong. My tastebuds swirled like a dervish. I could’ve had another plateful.  

 

But wait, there was more! 

 

My first preference for a third plate had been the Korean fried chicken dish, which couldn’t be prepared due to the loadshedding. Apparently, nobody has invented a gas driven deep frier yet.

 

Instead, and on the waiter’s recommendation, I tried the lamb wontons in a sharp, vinegary dressing with chives (R120). The meat was subtly flavourful, the wontons just thin yet firm and the acidity of the dressing was the perfect counterfoil to the fatty lamb. Not as bravura as the gnocchi but a restrained triumph too.

I was surprised to receive an amuse bouche between the second and third courses. One item was a grated Gruyere ball and the other was an apple gazpacho. I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to dip the cheese in the gazpacho, so I ate them individually. Perhaps I should’ve combined the textures and flavours, as the gazpacho was bland and not very pleasant on its own.

I had no dessert because neither of the two options appealed to me.

 

The three plates plus a 340ml bottle of craft lager came to R445,00 before tip.

 

On reflection, I should perhaps have eaten the Chefs(sic) Menu of seven half-portion plates for R475,00. On the other hand, a half portion of the gnocchi would’ve been deeply unsatisfactory.

 

We’ve always eaten well at Bertus Basson’s establishments (the ones that don’t specialise in burgers, anyhow) and Spek & Bone is a winner. If you can finish all the food, it’s in order to over order.