The bright interior of Bodega, Dornier’s
restaurant. A new experience for us, as we have always been there in summer when we sat on the terrace with the wonderful mountain view.
We were given a Monis medium sweet
sherry as an aperitif to warm us up on arrival, as it was a very dank, cold,
wet day. This is the view of the awful weather through one of the restaurant
doors to the presently empty terrace.
Wednesday’s special menu for August.. We
had come especially to share two Royal platters. We love these specials which
make luxury ingredients more affordable. We are pensioners after all.
And the stupendous dish arrives. The
crayfish and the langoustine were amazing. Well-cooked in a lovely buttery
garlic sauce. The king prawns were less exciting and the polpetti calamari were
tender and also in a good sauce. The mussels usually on the plate were not available, so we were given extra calamari. We think the very moist and juicy fish fillets
were gurnard as they were neither gamey and dry, nor firm like kingklip. The
small herb salad was well dressed and the rice and egg pilaf was the perfect
accompaniment, as it soaked up the juices on the plate.
We drank a bottle of their best white, the Dornier Donatus - a blend of Chenin blanc and Semillon to start and then our
budget insisted we switch to the Dornier Cocoa Hill Chenin. Both were perfect
foils to the rich seafood.
This is their normal winter menu and good
value at R180 for two courses. We saw some of the food on other tables and it
certainly looked worth returning for!
Do go and taste this special, we think
it is worthwhile offer and bought it. The wine is not ready to drink yet, but
it will be in a couple of years. It has lots of fruit, good tannins and great
acid structure to support it in the future
We met the Chef, Daniel Kotze, who was
sous chef under Chef Neil Norman, who has just moved to a restaurant in Camps
Bay. Daniel is waiting for his new tunics
A very pretty window above the door to
the kitchen
Wines to taste in the tasting room
with some souvenirs, most made locally from recycled things
The roof of the Dornier Winery in front of Bodega
restaurant is inspired by the shape of an aeroplane wing, a reference to the Dornier family’s
aviation history
The waterfalls on the mountain were
huge due to all the rain we have had recently and all the local dams are
overtopping
A glade of tall pines on the
mountainside hides small buildings
And another, with a telecommunication
tower
© John and Lynne Ford, Adamastor &
Bacchus 2013
