Asian inspired pork dumplings.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
The Chefs’ Table
Where: Protea Mall 1 Chartwell Drive, uMhlanga
Open: Monday to Saturday lunch and dinner
Call: 031 001 0200
Our little lunch club met this week for food writer Ingrid Shevlin’s birthday, and while it wasn’t a major one, the food writer was adamant - she wanted somewhere where she could enjoy interesting food, unusual flavours, where some creativity would get the gastric juices going. So no grilled calamari or spicy chicken livers. No chicken peri-peri and when it came to vegetable options, definitely not butternut and spinach (her worst). Nothing that’s ho hum she insisted.
And so with the Fat Frog lady we all ended up at the Chefs’ Table on Monday and placed ourselves in the arms of exec chef Mark Armbruster.
Baby crayfish with saffron risotto in a rich seafood sauce.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Prawn ravioli with grilled prawn in a rich prawn bisque sauce.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Their small menu has been expanded since my last visit with a steak, grill and seafood options, but the interesting combinations remain. We were spoilt for choice and took some time to decide. In the meantime we enjoyed delicious little warm milk bread rolls with whipped butter and baba ganoush.
There’s a nibbles section which included prawn toasts, chicken liver pate and oysters - either natural or with lime ponzu, red onion and pickled ginger foam. Starters include the likes of crispy squid with green curry, yoghurt, fruit chutney and curry leaf or wood oven king prawns (yes they’ve installed a pizza oven) with saffron risotto, Iberian chorizo and lumpfish caviar or pumpkin gnocchi with labneh, pumpkin seed, basil, Parmesan crisp.
In fact the ladies were enthralled by the starters that they ended up having two of them, instead of a main course.
Korean barbecue squid with cucumber ribbons and lime curd.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Beef tartare with smoked yolk and garlic bread.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
The Fat Frog lady loved her prawn ravioli with roasted prawn, crispy squid, confit lemon, lumpfish caviar and shellfish extraction (195). The seafood bisque it was swimming in had beautiful depths of flavours, the giant ravioli too was good, although the pasta may have been slightly on the chewy side of al dente. Ingrid raved about her artichoke salad with black truffle, grana padano and porcini dust (149). It was certainly loaded with artichokes.
I too enjoyed the coal roasted octopus with Korean BBQ, compressed cucumber, lime curd, kimchi and peanuts (R189). The Korean barbecue had a real bite while the octopus tasted like it had been grilled over charcoal. It went well with the cool cucumber ribbons and lime curd. Chef apologised that their latest batch of kimchi was still pickling. I told him I was only too happy that it was. Not wanting to insult our Korean readers, it’s just that their national dish has never been a favourite. I would have tasted it though.
Chef also brought us out a tangy dry aged beef tartare with onion variations, smoked yolk and garlic bread (R149). A lovely dish.
Those chips... with garlic aioli.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Mains might include coal roasted turkey with whipped potato, cranberry compote, crispy kale, and bourbon jus or a Midlands beef tasting of smoked short-rib, fillet, confit dumpling, carrot and cardamom jus. I was tempted. There’s an interesting take on fish and chips, and karoo lamb featuring shoulder and loin. Pork rack, blesbok loin and yellowfin tuna are options. There’s even a masala cauliflower with strained yoghurt, mint, sultanas, pickled red cabbage and sev.
Ingrid loved her “main” of baby crayfish, saffron risotto, chorizo and lumpfish caviar (R245). It was rich, deeply flavoured and extravagant, everything the birthday girl deserved.
The Fat Frog lady enjoyed her Asian style pork dumplings (R165) which sadly had cooled a little by the time the got to the table.
Picanha stead with bone marrow jus.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
Despite finishing most of the steak tartare, I still opted for a steak. The picanha (R240) was excellent with a lovely layer of crisp fat while cooked a perfect medium rare. It came with a good bone marrow jus and probably the best chips I’d had in a long time. Ingrid attacked them too, but then she’s allowed to. These were thinly sliced seasoned layers of potato cooked with butter and then chilled and compressed and cut into chips and deep fried. Well the mission in the kitchen was worth every bite. Super crisp exterior, silky interior. And the garlic aioli they came with was top notch.
The Fat Frog lady had to leave us before dessert - it was a work day afterall. I enjoyed what was probably best described as a chocolate and hazelnut parfait (R130) which was more like an ice-cream sandwich layered with hazelnut ice-cream, hazelnut mousse and chocolate mousse under a dome of gold dusted dark chocolate. Ingrid enjoyed a taste of the tropics with a dish which was an ode to many different treatments of mango along with a passion fruit custard (R120).
A chocolate and hazelnut dessert.
Image: Ingrid Shevlin
We finished up with lovely little lemon meringue petit fours.
Food: 4
Service: 4
Ambience: 4
The Bill: R1685 for three
Tropical flavours with different treatments of mango
Image: Ingrid Shevlin