It is Restaurant Week now and, in fact, it is Restaurant Month, as it runs for the whole of October. We went into the website on the first day and saw that some of our favourite restaurants were on the list. Prices this year are very reasonable indeed. You can have lunch or dinner and you can see the menus on line. Sadly, as we will be away on holiday for two weeks of this month, we had time to chose only one and so it had to be Fyn Restaurant in Parliament Street in the City centre, run by Peter Tempelhoff. We went last year and absolutely loved it. Nothing about the service or the ambience has changed
The entrance, which is quite subtly signaged
There is a parking garage opposite and, if you can get in, do; parking in the Centre of town is not easy
It is up to the restaurant’s concierge to organise it, as the garage is for rent paying clients only
After a good Covid check at reception desk on the ground floor, where you do a QR Code check in,
you proceed to the lift and go up to the 5th floor
Fyn Restaurant was built onto the roof of one of the old buildings in the street
It is rather sensational architecturally
A rope guard of honour greets you and then the welcoming staff. They do observe strict Covid regulations
You can sit at the bar or at a table; they are nicely spaced apart ...
... and you can see some of the well organised open kitchen
The food at Fyn is a combination of locally sourced food and is a mix of Oriental and Western cuisine
We had a really excellent meal, as you will read below and it is incredible value in Restaurant Week
The Restaurant Week lunch menu is almost identical to the Spring menu and is very good value
Do make sure to tell them that you are having the Restaurant Week menu
You can scan the menu to your phone or request a paper version if your phone will not oblige
You can also enjoy a wine pairing with your menu
You can order the wines by the glass (see below) or by the bottle
and, although compact, it is a very comprehensive and good choice of wines
Jennifer Huge, the Manager, remembered us and we were each given a lovely surprise -
a glass of Cap Classique from Boschendal
The views looking towards the mountain are lovely
A busy bar
The first three dishes: On the left is a tiny bite of chicken parfait on a crisp, topped with a sweet pickled onion in a Tare gel; we could have eaten a plateful. On the right is a milky daikon radish and cabbage maki roll, fresh and delicious, topped with a ponzu gel. Below is the crisp tempura dune spinach which is indigenous to SA, served with a Tentsuya dipping sauce, dashi laced with soy sauce and mirin, with fresh-grated daikon and ginger. We love tempura and this was a good one. We each ordered a glass of white wine. Lynne had the 2019 Cape Point "Noordhoek" Sauvignon Blanc which is in the classic French style, crisp, dry, and long; full of elderflower and so true to the style that they produce. The Rijk's Chenin Blanc 2017 for John; rich, full and mature; it is lightly wooded, elegant and seductive
Jennifer also brought us a taste of something very different, the Daschbosch Skin Contact from Uniwines in the Breedekloof. It is an unusual white wine, a blend of 70/30% Chenin blanc/Muscat d'Alexandrie. We expected something with Muscat and slight sweetness? Not at all, it is herbal on the nose and tinglingly bone dry on the palate and, only on the very end, does it reveal a whiff of rose petal Muscat as you breathe out. An exciting food wine indeed from the Rawsonville area
Next course was the Milk Bun. Because of John's mushroom allergy he was served herb butter with his
The very light and warm bun comes solo on a warm pottery stand
It was then removed to the plate and the stand it came on was reversed, to reveal a crisp caramelised layer
You crack the caramel as if it were a crème brulée
... to reveal the superbly rich mushroom parfait in the style of a foie paté, which was eye wateringly delicious
APPLAUSE! Memorable and brilliant. And something new and innovative for us
Lynne was in raptures at its deliciousness and had to scrape the bowl
There was a choice for the next two courses, so we decided to order one of each and taste both. This is the melt in the mouth Iberico Pork Belly, tender and almost jellied in texture, as it was cooked sous vide, and very flavourful. Served on compressed, caramelised apple with mirin, a wasabi mustard oil and a white onion sauce and topped with a pork crackling. It all sings together
We were treated to three more tastes of some exceptional wine with the mains. First a Grenache from Piekenierskloof. Rich and velvety, with plums and raspberries and a little grey wood on the nose. On the palate, fresh cranberry fruit, then mulberries, lightly wooded and lightly pressed. Almost Pinot like in its delicacy
The second dish was served with a Kochi yuzu & aged Shoyu. It was a sashimi of the freshest, pale pink, best cut tuna on shaved daikon, perfect onigiri sushi rice, wasabi and ginger. There was another dish of tuna tataki on a parsley mayonnaise, and seaweed and carrot with pickles. A tour de force of excellence. This went so well with the Rijk's Chenin Blanc
Overhead are these strings of large wooden beads interspersed with the hanging lights which help to fill the void
We were also each given a taste of the Bartinney 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon with its layers of rich, red fruit on the nose: cassis berries and leaves, some spices: black pepper, cumin and nutmeg. On the palate, soft and gentle chalky tannins, then crisp black currant fruit, with cranberry and red cherry on the end
Well made by Ronel Wiid
Using his long lens through the window, John could capture the cable car entering the station at the top of Table Mountain
And another treat, the Morgenster 2010; a Bordeaux blend. It has the southern sun and an extraordinary depth of fruit on the nose, very complex. At first, it hints of Italy, then the Cabernet Franc shines. On the palate, there is richness and, if swirled in the mouth, it starts to unroll like a red carpet. Dark berry fruit, silky with lots of glycerols; beyond good. One of the best red wines we have tasted for a very long time, it reminded us of Chris Keet's legendary Cordoba Crescendo from the years around the turn of this Century
Now the main courses. This is the very tender Free Range Kalahari beef, served pink and full of flavour, with karaage (fried) sweetbreads; globe artichoke quarters, an unctuous onion sauce and ponzu braised and caramelised onions
The other main was Sustainable fish which, that day, was Silvers. Usually an unprepossessing and much ignored local fish, full of bones and not very expensive, but this had been turned into a poem. Beautifully filleted and cooked on the skin, it was accompanied by an aromatic yuzu seafood bisque with layers of flavour. It was nestled on a buckwheat risotto which was a good counterpoint to the dish, allowing one to use the risotto to sweep up all the sauce, It was accompanied by a shelled langoustine and an asparagus spear, with sorrel and kombu seaweed slivers
The plate of the Kalahari beef was wiped clean; it was so good that nothing was going back to the kitchen
The service was wonderful and, when we had a minor problem, it was sorted out very quickly
The menu will change in a week's time, so make sure you get your booking in soon
We had a short rest at this point. Then, there was suddenly a lovely smell of roasting popcorn that filled the restaurant and we were asked if we were ready for dessert. You bet. A rich and decadent Madagascan chocolate and Ethiopian coffee cremeux with popcorn beneath, sprinkled with grated chocolate and covered with shards of crisp meringue tuille appeared, accompanied by a scoop of salted ice cream
and then some theatre as the waiter poured into the middle of the ice cream....
some fermented pear. It’s a very good mix of flavours, textures and richness
Lynne, who does not often do desserts said that, if more were as good as this, she would order dessert more often
and to accompany dessert, a small taster (in a beautiful thistle shaped glass) of Lammershoek De Swarte Strooi wine
made from Dark Syrah grapes left on the vine for three weeks. Lammershoek is in the Perdeberg wine district
It was fascinating to watch this chef painstakingly painting on layer after layer of something pink in her bon bon moulds
and then they were filled
Producing what looked like cherries or, possibly, small apples
A clever use of a large abacus as a room divider, which echoes the ceiling art
John went upstairs to get a view down over the kitchen
Upstairs, they have more abacus beads
The barman mixing a cocktail
- a pineapple Mojito - not for us!
and a final amuse to send us on our way; accompanying the bill, beautifully packed in origami,
two bon bons
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