Gable Manor Guesthouse

We stayed at Gable Manor Guesthouse in Franschhoek.  We splurged and got the honeymoon suite since it wasn't much more than a regular room.  There was a living room, a bedroom, a giant bathroom, and 2 giant closets.  I'm fairly certain this was bigger than our condo.

Do you see the size of this bath tub?

There was a little balcony that we shared with the room next door.

I really liked the area around the pool.

We skipped breakfast one day but the day we went it was fantastic. 

The Tasting Room

The Tasting Room in located in downtown Franschhoek and in walking distance of most of the hotels in the city.  The Tasting Room is another top 100 restaurant in the world and this one did not disappoint.  I daresay this might be the best meal we've ever had.

First, they bring a glass of champagne.

Next, we got a variety of amuse bouches including pork rinds.

I believe these were apple something.

Little tomato cones and aubergine lollipops.

A bread plate of flatbread and a delicious cornbread with a tasty butter.

And finally, this is a mini glass full of garden tasting foam and mushrooms gelee.  I found this to be really interesting and it tasted so fresh.

There are 2 menu options, one is an "African Surprise" 9 course tasting menu or a prix fixe meal with 5 courses.  Nick chose the African surprise menu with wine pairings.  I chose the prix fixe as I'm not brave enough to try anything labelled as a surprise.  I also skipped the wine pairings as they made me entirely too full the night before at Rust en Vrede.

African Surprise - Course 1

Lightly smoked luderitz oyster, chorizo, cucumber and granadilla

Paired with Monis pale dry sherry

Jen - course 1

corn soup

African Surprise - course 2

Lemon poached west coast crayfish tail, prawn wafer, marshmallow

Paired with Graham Beck brut

African Surprise - Course 3

Cured foie gras, prosciutto, cranberry and whisky dressing (that foie gras on the left has a bacon jam in it too!)

Paired with Cederberg bukettraube 2010

African Surprise - Course 4

Celeriac and buchu risotto

Paired with GlenWood semillon 2009

Jen - course 3

warthog!

African Surprise - Course 5

Sous vide paradyskloof quail breast, truffled quail egg, asparagus

Paired with Vergelegen vin de florence 2009

African Surprise - Course 6

Braised, free range klein karoo lamb breast, chakalaka marmalade, basil, salted grapes, roast garlic

Paired with Anthonij Rupert merlot 2006

Jen - course 4

Cheese course with a blue cheese

African Surprise - Course 7

Swissland goat's brie, rhubarb, southern black figs

Paired with Moreson pinotage 2008

African Surprise - Course 8

Pear and baobab parfait, lemon verbena, verjuice, pistachio

Paired with Silverthorn genie brut rose

Jen - course 5

dessert

African Surprise - Course 9 is missing

Orange and buttermilk cannelloni, jersey milk sherbet, fennel

Paired with Rickety Bridge natural sweet chenin blanc 2009

Mignardise

Obviously I kind of suck at food blogging since I'm missing pictures and forgot to make note of what I ate.  However, this was one of the best meals of our lives. Absolutely do not miss this place.  My favorite dishes were the warthog, the cheese course (both dishes), and the risotto.

I will say that service seemed to be a teeny bit lacking at both top 100 restaurants we went to in South Africa.  Maybe it was because we had the most excellent service when we ate at L20 in Chicago, but I thought they could improve.  There were times when both my wine and water glass were empty and the waiter was no where to be found to get me something to drink. I know that's a really picky comment but for such a highly ranked restaurant I expected it to be perfect.

Rust en Vrede

Our first night in the Winelands we had made a reservation at Rust en Vrede, one of the top 100 restaurants in the world.  As you can see, we ate well in the Winelands.  Rust en Vrede is a 45 minute drive from downtown Franschhoek where we were staying.  Poor Nick had to drive me and therefore couldn't drink very much.

We both opted for the 6 course tasting menu.  I had the wine pairings as well.  I don't have any pictures of the interior but I really liked the style of the restaurant.  Great service but very casual.  We were situated near the open kitchen so we got to see the chefs at work.

Our amuse bouche was these cute little pots of pate.  One of the best parts of the meal, I have been dreaming about them ever since.

First course was pan fried scallop, Oscietra caviar, brown butter, yoghurt semifreddo, and a coriandor coulis.  The scallops were very well done and paired so well with the yoghurt.

Second course was monkfish poached in curry oil, pickled yoghurt, cucumber salad, and an almond curd.  I'm not a fish fan so it was only so-so for me.

Thid course was springbok with fromage blanc and honeycomb.  The springbok was good but nothing like the mouth orgy we had at Foodbarn the day before.

This is right about when I hit my wall.  I was still full from lunch.  The wine pairings were huge glasses so I felt like I had been chugging wine.  Ooops.  I always seem to get really full for the meat course but then rally for desserts.  The fourth course was fillet of beef, green bean and verbena puree with a warm potato salad, almond oil, and Egyptian lime confit.  This was a lovely piece of beef even though it was a struggle to eat. 

The fifth course was a cheese course.  I like that most restaurants in South Africa had both a cheese course and a dessert course.  I like cheese so much better.  This was a tete de Moine, pressed dried vine tomato, rocket and pine kernel dressing, and a kumato chutney.  I called it caulicheese since it looked like cauliflower to me.  So much more imaginative than just a simple cheese plate.

This was an extra little dessert.  I believe there was passionfruit in there.  It was better than our last course.

The final course was "toffee cherries", 25 second sponge, almond ice cream, and a Mousse of Valrhona Caramelia Chocolate.  I wasn't particularly impressed.  Whatever those red things were on the plate had a taste that I didn't care for at all.

Final verdict:  Neither of us thought the food "Top 100 in the World" worthy.  My favorites were the little pots and the cauilicheese.  Service was great although a tad slow, probably because it was taking me so long to finish my large glasses of wine.  Split the wine pairings unless you have endless room in your stomach and you want to be drunk by the end of dinner.

Bread and Wine

We had a wonderful lunch at Bread and Wine at the Moreson wine estate.

Look at that delicious bread. They offer a bread making class on the premises.

I started with oysters.  The oysters in South Africa are huge.

Nick had a mozzarella and tomato salad that was really interesting.  The basil leaves had been crystallized in sugar.

My lunch was a giant plate of charcuterie, which they are known for.  Everything is made by hand on site.

Nick had the smoked pork belly with avocado, red pepper, and corn relish.  This dish was out of this world.

Dessert was a vanilla panna cotta with basil cream and balsamic strawberries.  I'm not a dessert person.  I kind of stole this from Nick and wouldn't give it back though, it was that good.