Subdued creativity at Creation Wines

  

5 April 2025

 

CREATION WINES

R 320, Hemel & Aarde Valley, Hermanus

 

Von-Mari booked  a birthday weekend getaway on a farm in the Hemel & Aarde Valley, where the wind howled most of the time during our sojourn, and I reserved a table for lunch at Creation Wines, for our second visit since December 2012.

 

On that occasion, it was a visit on a whim and could only order a charcouterie board because we hadn’t booked. This time I reserved our table well in advance. Creation still doesn’t charge a deposit.

 

In 2012 a good deal of the R320 that runs through the valley was a terrible gravel road and the journey to Creation Wines seemed like a perilous venture. Today there is a good, tarred road and the drive is easy and relaxing, allowing one to look around and take pleasure in the picturesque  valley views.

 

The restaurant is perched on a hillside  and has  spectacular views over splendidly verdant vineyards on the rolling hillsides, a view that reminded Von-Mari of a similar scenic setting at Guardian Peak.  Despite the elevation, this section of the valley was far less windy than it had been lower down.

 

The interior dining area is relatively compact and there’s outside seating. All tables have views. The design  style is simple, elegant and unfussy modern bistro and there is plenty natural light.

 

One can do a pricey fixed menu food and wine pairing (carnivorous or plant based) or one can make do with the a la carte menu, which has better choices if you ask me and that’s the one we went for.  

 

We were welcomed with an olive elixir, warm cloths for freshening up and some sauvignon blanc, and then proceeded to order bubbly for the occasion, nicely full glasses at that, which moderated our sobriety very quickly. I had another glass of bubbly and Von-Mari had a glass of syrah.  It was okay to have just that happy fuzzy buzz.

It always intrigues me that the bubbly is poured far more generously than the wine ever is. That’s not why I stick to bubbly and don’t drink wine, but there is that tangible benefit.

 

We ordered the bread course (R45), the Caesar salad (R115) and 200g beef fillet (R295) for Von-Mari and the devilled eggs (R135) and pork belly (R235) for me and both ordered the chocolate pear cake (R125) as dessert.

 

The bread wasn’t spectacular though not unpleasant, with three different types and styles of bread, presented in a wholly unnecessarily extravagant bird’s nest thing, and a soft, smooth artisanal butter. Sometimes I do long for those good old days of free slices of baguette in a cheap bread basket and hard butter in a tiny glass ramekin thingy.

Von-Mari enjoyed the fresh salad for what it was but questioned whether it was a full-blown, authentic Caesar salad. It was beautifully presented, like a table decoration at a wedding reception.

Her fillet was perfectly cooked, succulent and tasty though it could’ve done with more of the vine leaf and herb paste. Von-Mari did comment, excellent as this peace of beef was, that she preferred the chateaubriand she had at The Hussar Grill the previous Saturday. The miniature portion of green beans were well cooked and the gigantic Hasselback potato was super scrumptious.

My devilled eggs, with trout, capers, caviar, fennel, avocado and chives were okay. The flavours were subdued; there was no devil in the details.

The pork belly with pulled pork, kohlrabi, oyster mushrooms, pak choi and pickle cabbage, also lacked a wow factor though all of it was well cooked and the pork was succulent. The thing is that pork belly meat doesn’t have much flavour and needs a deep, rich sauce to make it a tasty morsel and there was far too little sauce on my plate to make a substantial difference and to elevate the dish properly.  This creation wasn’t creative enough.

I think I’ve now really had it with pork belly at restaurants.

 

There was a strange drop off in service after we’d finished the starters with an absence of serving staff and an unaccountably long delay in serving our main courses, roughly about 90 minutes after our arrival and a long time after we’d indicated to our server that we were ready for the mains.  This is not the standard one expects from a high-end eatery like Creation. The servers were cheerful and upbeat and perhaps the kitchen was to blame because the brigade wasn’t queueing up the dishes for the various tables properly.

 

There was also a delay with the dessert but at least the server explained that the chocolate pear cake was baked to order and that it took about 15 to 20 minutes. Here also, I thought that the kitchen could plan the completion of dessert a bit better, such as starting the process as soon as the mains were served.

 

The wait for dessert was well worth it. The chocolate was deep, rich and sublimely chocolatey and not cloyingly sweet, with perfectly cooked pear, smooth pistachio ice cream and delectable bits and bobs carefully arranged around the main event.  In terms of bravura taste and flavour, this was the high point of the meal.

To my surprise and delight there was a second dessert plate for me, with fruit, Madelines and half macarons,  accompanied by port. I don’t expect this kind of acknowledgment of a birthday but it’s always heart-warming that a restaurant is willing to make that effort to make the lunch a little more special.

The bill came to R1533,00 before tip. In contrast, the food and wine pairing fixed menu is R1460 per person.

 

Creation  has a spectacular setting, an elegant dining space, good food and cheerful service (thought those delays should be fixed) and is clearly very popular. Ultimately, though, I felt, although the ingredients are of the highest quality and the kitchen clearly respects them, the food is just good, not extraordinary, and nothing I ate today will be listed in the memoir of fond food memories; however, it was still a splendid way to spend a birthday afternoon.