Rossouws Restaurants

I am in Johannesburg this week, eating for the expansion of the guide. My first stop, with steak fresh in mind, was one of the city’s famous steak houses, the Grillhouse in Rosebank. It’s a foursquare kind of place, another of those that tries to relive the “glory” days of prohibition in look. This one is penumbral and clubby, and again I am struck by the heightened level of service in this city. In waistcoats and aprons, the staff are super-professional, matched to kitchen speeds that are actually a little too fast for my liking, but clearly suit business meetings and the general pace of the city.

The menu is plain and old-fashioned, few choices and mainly meat, but even these are limited. Which is reassuring. My rare rump was good, the chips were excellent. The Grillhouse sauce was clumsy, the Caesar salad to start was a travesty (chard leaves?), and the NY style cheesecake was average. So, a good showing on the main course, but the rest is average to poor. And in light of my recent steak at Belthazar, this steak has to take a place on the podium as good, no more. But I wish more places would base their service on this rock.

Yesterday I spent a very pleasant morning tasting South African pinotages from the 1970s - more on that later. The venue was Belthazar in the V&A Waterfront, and the tasting was followed by lunch from their menu. As many will know, this is a steak and seafood emporium, in all senses of the word. You can get your meal, plus steak knives or books, or a cut to go. The tone is upmarket, the service is slick, and the prices will never strike you as avuncular. After some very fine langoustines, we were treated (yes, freebie alert) to some of their new cuts of Karan beef: a Chicago cut prime rib (which they can do individually, though ours was the whole quarter, sliced); and fillet on the bone. The fillet on the bone is excellent, but still fillet, all about softness before flavour. The Chicago cut is one to try the next time you hear the call of the carnivore in your head.

Dax recently wrote about a tough time at Green Dolphin in the Waterfront, but does mention that Manenberg’s is closed (another poor eating experience spiced up with jazz). What amazes me is how long it stayed open, or to be precise, how long people still ordered the food off that menu.

I wrote about this icon of SA wines for my wine column, and later that weekend (at Mariana’s) drank a bottle of 2000 Meerlust Rubicon which was a delight, and had survived the rather haphazard nature of my wine storage system rather well. It was still padded with pure Cab fruit, but had enough of the austerity that I like in this “serious” style of wine.

The Hungry Man ate dessert today. As an inverse relationship to his nick-name, the call of dessert is not a clarion in his life. But for reasons that he preferred to leave personal, today he ate a tiramisu. The quality of this dessert did not change his life, but the experience of him not sharing said tiramisu changed my recent impression of 95 Keerom.

In a word, this restaurant is better than I recall it being. Not that Keerom was ever poor (it has been a top tenner in the guide for a number of years) but it has sometimes struck me as being capable - solid but not exciting. Now, after having been around for a good few years, the consistency of the place lifts it for me. It still looks sexy. The finishings are good, the design is great. The split space (down = night; up = day) works. The service is crisp and professional, and most importantly, Giorgio, the hyper-Italian proprietor, still comes round to tell you the specials, and he still cooks. Word is he is opening a new meat-specialist spot later in the year, opposite 95.

Keerom’s menu is pure and simple, pared down. The ingredients are fresh and well prepared. We ate a sublime ravioli stuffed with ubiquitous butternut and burnt sage - the obvious turned into a dish that makes you realise why it exists in the first place. Good steak tartare next. Then very tasty seared tuna with real polenta; plus rolled pork loin (spinach and feta, odd for Italian, I know) with mash. One dessert (above). Good wine list and a great grappa. All at a price that makes sense when you consider the setting and the consistency.

You may have noticed that The Hungry Man has moved sites. He is none the worse for wear for the move, in fact we hope his exploits will see more exposure. Tonight he eats at Cassia, Pete Goffe-Wood’s new place in Durbanville. He’s promised feedback. We wait in anticipation.

A contributor today observed that they went for Sunday lunch at Aubergine in Cape Town and were surprised that the restaurant was not fuller. For them, the quality for the price is superb. Aubergine is not a cheap restaurant at over R250 a head for two courses, some wine and coffee - but it consistently delivers high quality food and the service is most usually excellent. As ever, the question should be: “Was it good value?” Not “how expensive was it?”. Like our top end wine, our best restaurants over-deliver in terms of quality on the plate, something that the international visitors appreciate more than us locals. Service is often a different story, however…

You won’t get closer to real, unprocessed food in a restaurant than at this county eatery. It’s not a discovery, the wife and husband team here have been growing their fiercely loyal fan-base for a few years, but it’s the kind of place you wish you ate at more often every time you visit. Ours was yesterday for a long Sunday lunch. Lunch is all they do, and while the length is up to you, it’s a challenge to keep them short. From her own garden, Mariana builds seasonal flavours with a strong South African twist; and husband Peter adds his humourous twist to the menu (like Sunday’s Uncanneloni). My starters were a gruyere tart and a tuna persillade (parsley and garlic with the tuna, and then set in aspic), then I moved on to the dried fruit stuffed guinea fowl which was massive in flavour. If you desire home-made chicken pie, this is the place, and if you yearn for crème brûlée made with farm eggs, you have this spot. Highly recommended.

12 Du Toit Str, Stanford. 028 341 0272. Thurs-Sun lunch. NB No credit cards!

Consistently proving that an inverse relationship exists between the beauty of the setting and the quality of the food, lunch yesterday at Blues was thoroughly enjoyable for every reason except what was on the plate. But perhaps this inverse relationship is a good thing? Could we deal with wonderful views of bikinis, sky and sea in conjunction with gustatory fascination? Perhaps it’s all about offsets - but then again I don’t think Blues make the food they do on purpose.