Harvest lunch at De Grendel

Before going to the Durbanville Festival of the Grape we enjoyed the Harvest lunch at De Grendel.

The menu where all the dishes were based on grapes

Their handsome under plates bearing the Graaff family crest

Our table with a lovely view of the vineyard and Table Mountain

The terrace where, sadly, there are still smokers. Some of their fumes wafted into the restaurant

The vineyard, the lake and the wonderful Table Mountain and city vista.  It was a beautiful hot summer day

Cool inside the main restaurant - we were early, so most guests had not arrived

Our starter of a Waldorf salad dressed with creamy gorgonzola cheese was delicious and was copied at home later in the week.  Strangely, underneath the salad was some dessert:  a piece of sweet cake, sweet grape jelly and some custard.  We did not repeat that.  We drank a small glass of surprisingly complex and good Pinot grigio with this course

Lynne's main course was absolutely perfect.  Lamb done three ways: a smoky barbecued loin, a terrine made from layers of lamb neck, all fat rendered out ; and a spicy lamb Merguez sausage made by the chef.  Topped with a sticky grape confit, and a mild harrira this rested on top of just blanched asparagus, thin green beans and cous cous and had a very good jus.  

Lynne had a glass of the excellent De Grendel Merlot : soft , juicy, full of ripe fruit and it went perfectly

John enjoyed his red wine Arborio rice risotto topped with  a good piece of spiced and grilled Cape Salmon with asparagus and grapes and a béarnaise sauce with tarragon.  John drank a glass of De Grendel Pinot noir

Whoever made dessert is someone who really understands desserts. The very minimalist menu description read only “ Grape, peanut, banana, chocolate chip cookie” and would have put us off had we seen this on the web. But what arrived was a thick parfait of real banana topped with a fresh and clean grape sorbet, then roasted peanuts mixed with crunchy bits of chocolate chip cookie were sprinkled  over and at the bottom of the glass there was a treasure of a lovely piece of dark chocolate right at the base.

With our dessert we drank a small glass of the delicious and well balanced De Grendel Sauvignon Blanc Noble Late harvest.

The a la carte menu

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013