One of our Media colleagues found a Wednesday
special at Harrington’s Wine and Vine Cocktail lounge in central Cape Town,
just down the road from Dias Tavern, one of our favourite and recently visited
destinations, so we decided to go and check it out
The bar area, where they mix cocktails. The
Wednesday special offers a choice of one of three main courses and a mini petit
four dessert platter for R160 per person. You get a glass of wine on arrival
and another with your meal. We decided to also opt for the starter which costs
another R35 pp. So our bill was R390 for two, paid upfront through Dineplan. Not bad, especially with wine
included. The menu changes daily, so it’s a bit of a lottery. They have a different
winery showcasing its wines each week and it is that wine which you are served with
dinner. This week featured Ken Forrester
and there was happy and smiling
Bianca Brand from Ken Forrester behind her wines counter. You could taste any
of the wines
Choices? We both plumped for
the Old Vine Reserve Chenin Blanc to go with our starters
The venue is large and they can
cope with parties
The menu of the day
The current list of wine farms whose
wines are part of the promotion
We decided to have both soups
and swap half way through. This was the vegetable and cannellini bean soup with
garlic and jalapenos, topped with nacho chips. John loved this, Lynne found it
a bit salty, but loved the combination of the beans and sweetcorn. The chips do
go soggy, so eat them quickly. The topping was sliced avocado and some fresh
coriander
The Home-style Chakalaka Soup
with two mini boerewors meatballs; one each when we shared! NOT from a tin, we really liked
the fresh spicy flavours. It’s topped with fresh grated carrot; definitely one
to go for if you feel off colour. We thought that the portions were generous. Apparently,
off the normal menu they are much bigger.. so said our lovely, helpful waitress
Siobhan Kedian
We did the same with the two
main courses. This is the tender and slow braised pork belly on a bed of smoky
herb mash. It has interesting flavours with hints of cinnamon, citrus and soy,
the smoke reminds us of Liquid Smoke, the pork is moist and tender but a little
fatty. Topped with tooth-challenging crackling and spring onions. Lynne had a
glass of the Ken Forrester Renegade red blend with her meat dishes and it went
very well. John had the smoky Ken Forrester Merlot and it was a great match
with this dish
The lamb shank was slow roasted
and came on a bed of creamy polenta (mielie pap!) which reminded us of the
texture of maltabella - we are both boarding school kids, so it’s not our
favourite starch. It came with Brussels sprouts & capers with lemon. They
said 'with chilli', but we didn’t detect any, which was fine. The meat was tender
and fell apart, but was a little dry and stringy
The petite dessert. One very
rich cubic inch of chocolate Brownie and a tiny meringue each, topped with what
tasted like Orley whip?
And when we left, each of us
was presented with a box of chocolates, part of the current promotion
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
