Serendipity: A love song

 1 May 2025

 

SERENDIPITY

Freesia Road, Wilderness

 

When the father-in-law ends off proceedings by serenading a birthday celebrating foursome at the next table, I guess you can say it’s been a good evening.

 

Von-Mari and I thought Serendipity would be just the ticket for her mother’s 75^th birthday dinner (though her birthday is on 2 May). We’ve had superb meals at Serendipity on three previous occasions and her parents have never been. The gamble paid off.  

 

Curiously, we’ve never eaten at Serendipity when it’s not been raining and tonight was no exception. The narrow, uneven, semi-flooded roads in this part of Wilderness are perilous in the dark. It was like driving to Frankenfurter’s mansion. 

 

The  payoff is that the building is warm and cosy, a fire was burning in the hearth in the dining room and the nosh is nice.

 

One of the comforting small rituals of life is having drinks in the lounge while chef patron Liezel explains the menu. It’s a highlight to have the chef doing the informative, passionate and entertaining talking instead of listening to a server reciting a script they’ve learnt by heart. The other benefit is that it’s done upfront, giving one plenty time (well, it applies to the others) to ponder one’s meal without the pressure of hovering servers who want to get the show on the road.

 

Once one is relaxed, after quaffing some liquor and digesting the menu info, there is the short journey to the elegantly set table in the main dining room. We chose not to sit next to the roaring fire.

 

There are two options: the 5 courses table d’hôte menu (R860 a person) or an 8 course extended, tasting menu (R1150 a person) that includes two starters and two main courses and seems a tad excessive.

 

The 5 course choices consist of starter, soup, palate cleanser, main course and dessert. One is also favoured with a bread course, amuse bouche and petit fours at the end. 

 

We opted for the 5 course menu. The other three shared a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine and I stuck to two gins and tonic.

 

The bread course consisted of Melba toast, slices of sourdough bread and mini “vetkoek” with homemade butter, dukkah and something else. The butter was so good, mother-in-law and I ate it as is, once the bread was done.

The amuse bouche was served in what looked like a small, upside down flower pot in a deep lid, with a tiny flatbread on top and, when one removed the pot, a pecan nut fed pork patee and jam in the sauce part. The flat bread was lightly crisp outside and chewy inside, the perfect vehicle for the wonderful patee.

 

Two ordered the “fish & chips” and two ordered the pigeon and porcini. Neither dish was a warm plateful end the fish, yellowtail, was closer to a ceviche with shoestring crisps.

 

The latter was fresh, zesty and almost refreshingly light with fennel kimchi for piquant flavour, and coriander mayonnaise to simulate tartare sauce.  Not even a hint of beer batter or mushy peas.

The pigeon, accompanied by the slight crunch of sorghum and barley pilaf, the bliss of pecan nut fed pork and some artichoke, was woodsy, earthy and of darker aroma. 

Both dishes were superb starters.  I can’t say which was better as the flavour and textural profiles were se different.

 

The roasted carrot, anise and citrus soup with “mosbolletjie” rusk was probably the least imposing dish of the evening. For me, it was pleasant, a tad sweet from the citrus and no more than a gap filler between starter and main course.

The buchu  and lemon palate cleanser was only slightly tart and tingly and did its job.

 

Once again, there was a divide with the main courses; Von-Mari and her mother chose the Springbok filet and the men chose the line fish, which was yellowtail.

 

During her introduction to the menu, Liezel said that she prefers cooking both the venison and the fish medium to rare.  Mother-in-law wanted medium Springbok and father-in-law asked for his fish to be properly cooked. My request was that my portion of fish should be as rare as it could safely be.

 

The verdict was that the Springbok, with mieliepap, num-num ketchup and a mustard jus, was an example of  superior meat cookery, with a succulent, juicy, melt-in-the-mouth tenderness and a deeply rich and sublime jus. All of us had a taste and the other three crowned it Dish of the Evening.

I fought to gain accolades for the superb quality of my yellowtail but you just can’t convince confirmed carnivores.

 

The yellowtail was served with multiple elements of tomato, none of which were sour or tart but still complemented the meaty fish perfectly. I absolutely adored the smooth, almost a creamy yet firm, succulent pink fish, infused with only the lightest of grill flavour. One barely needed to chew the fish.

My main course is up there with the best Michelin starred fish dishes I’ve eaten.

 

I’d never eaten fish cooked to rare before tonight (other than seared tuna) in a life filled with over cooked fish. This dish was a lightbulb moment.

The others weren’t so keen on this concept.

 

All of us chose the poached pear dessert and it was another triumph with perfectly poached, firm yet pliant pear, a sweet biscuit, savoury crumb and a panacotta, which lacked a bit of wobble, but was delicate and with the subtlest of blue cheese flavours, all of which combined with contrasts in texture and flavours to end the meal on an undisputed high light.

The bill, with drinks and water, came to R4135,00 before tip.  As a final touch of class, the bill was accompanied by e selection of petite chocolates.

 

As mentioned, father-in-law’s finale was to treat our neighbours in the dining room to a rousing operatic excerpt, probably in German because the birthday celebrant was German (I didn’t make out what he was singing, as I was almost out the door) and, apparently, she was bemused and entertained in equal parts.

 

I cannot lie: Serendipity is our favourite fine dining restaurant in this part of the world (arguably, there’s little, if any, competition) and in South Africa in general. We’ve always had the best of culinary and hospitality experiences here and always spread the word amongst anyone who cares to listen. In a way, it’s the closest to eating at someone’s home that you can have at a restaurant because of Liezel’s (and Rudolf’s when he’s around) personal, warm, friendly and enthusiastic interaction with their patrons.  You don’t quite arrive as a stranger and leave as a cousin but you do leave supremely well-fed, well-treated and content.