Tuna lollipops with wasabi mayo and pickled ginger.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Ray’s Kitchen
Where: Emberton Estate, 90 Ashley Drive, Gillitts
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 9pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm
Call: 066 511 0252
Food writer Ingrid Shevlin asked me to join her up at Ray’s Kitchen in Gillitts. It’s an offshoot of a favourite of mine in the Dunkirk Estate in Salt Rock. There dishes like veal tortellini in sage butter sit in the memory banks. I am sure I have raved about the oxtail on these pages. I was only too happy to join her.
And so I took a rain drenched drive up the hill.
The restaurant is in the original farm house on which the estate was built on, the estate itself might be boxy and look like legoland on steroids, but the farmhouse oozes old world charm. We were warmly welcomed and soon seated in the cool of its wide verandah.
spicy prawns cooked in the pizza oven.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Ray’s offers some super specials. Tuesdays is Mom’s night off where all pizzas and pastas are R110. Wednesday sees pizzas and a glass of wine for the same, while Thursday is Ladies Night. And on the weekend the kids get a free meal with every adult meal ordered. There’s a special kids’ menu.
We debated ordering a veg mezze platter which contained tempura brinjal, sesame crusted cauliflower, lemon rice stuffed vine leaves and masala hummus with curry leaf oil. It all sounded at least a little different. The meat antipasto board was more conventional with cold meats, artichokes and olives. There’s the predictable crispy squid and creamy peri-peri chicken livers, and panko crumbed snails in garlic butter.
Peppered fillet with chips and roast veg.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
The Thai style rock cod fishcake with lemongrass, sesame, chilli, avo and baby leaf salad is enormous and could easily make a lunchtime meal.
As Ingrid hadn’t tried them yet I suggested she go for one of their menu favourites, the tuna lollipops. These are topped with sesame tempura dusting, wasabi mayo and pickled ginger with a soy and lime dipping sauce (R145). She enjoyed them although I would have liked more of the sesame crusting and for the tuna to be simply seared rather than cooked all the way through.
I opted for a special of spicy prawns (R159). These were four small prawns baked in the pizza oven under a crispy shredded pastry crust. Perhaps it was not what I was imagining when you order spicy prawns, but they really needed to be meatier, juicier creatures and actually have some real spicing. They were pleasant but more buttery than spicy.
Pumpkin raviolli in a lemon and basil pesto sauce.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Mains include a beef and chicken burger. In fact there’s a monster burger on special which is a double patty and the kitchen sink with a beer thrown in for good measure. There’s mushroom, seafood, or butternut risotto, melanzane and a selection of pastas. There’s a pasta piccanta with bolognaise and chilli and fettuccine with langoustines and a seafood tagliatelle. And let’s not forget an array of pizzas that include the traditional, to chicken tikka and Mexican. (My view has always been that neither chicken nor guacamole belong on a pizza - and of course you can add pineapple to that list.)
Ingrid ordered a pumpkin ravioli (R169) off the specials menu which was really tasty and came with a lovely deep and rich basil pesto and lemon type sauce.
Creme Brulee
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
On the grill side there’s deboned peri-peri chicken, ribs, pork belly and linefish and large prawns. I went fairly conventional with their pepper fillet (R269). This was 300g of fillet cooked to perfection on top of good crispy home-cut chips and a selection of roast veg. All smothered in a rich and suitable peppery sauce. Just good cooking.
Desserts include a chocolate volcano and home made bread and butter pudding. We both felt like something light so went instead for the creme brulee (R79) which was rich and silky smooth and topped with a nicely crackable layer of burnt sugar. It was everything a creme brulee should be.
I enjoyed a good espresso.
Food: 3 ½
Service: 3 ½
Ambience: 3 ½
The Bill: R1038 for two.