Wednesday's lunch was at the beautiful new ONE & ONLY resort on the waterfront where not only Gordon Ramsay has come on board, but Nobu is across the way. You all know how I feel about Mr Ramsay and his cooking, but here he has created a menu that will only impress. The setting is a three-story open room with three-story glass wine cellar on one wall, an open patisserie kitchen and main kitchen on the back wall and a view of Table Mountain, the canals of the resort and it's tiny private island accommodations across the way.
An amuse (huge again) of SMOKED SALMON, Dill and some Mascarpone for binding and texture was superb on the crisp grilled bread slices. The sommelier proffered two wines, one paired with each course and was instantly declared brilliant by me. SEQUILLO "White Blend" was a Rhone-like wine but here with mostly Chenin Blanc added to Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Rousanne was a 2007 wine made by Eben & Niko Sadie from the very warm Swartland region to the north along the coast. Huge legs and flavor came from the glass and filled my mouth as I discovered yet another treat that I kow I can't buy at home! I had this with a SOFT SHELL CRAB, SPICY MAYO & Walnuts. This appetizer portion had TWO good size lightly battered and fried crabs which hail from Japan and compare nicely with ours from home. The sauce was indeed spicy and there were sliver of jalapenos everywhere, but never did it overpower. At home a starter would rarely have more than one crab and I was beginning to think that every plate here is huge.
My second starter (I was beginning to get the hang of it here) was the Roasted HONEY & BALSAMIC QUAIL with Walnuts and a Pear & Saffron Chutney. This plate had three halves (at home a starter would never have more than one whole bird) of tasty fresh and meaty quail from the nearby wine region, where we head today. The ingredients made for great tastes and flavors and the wine paired was a RUDERA ROBUSTO (someone said this sounds like a cigar name) CHENIN Blanc 2007 from Stellenbosch. The wine is normal chenin blended with a bit of the same grape left for late harvest and affected by botrytis. The ever so slight sweetness of this small amount of "dessert" type wine was a brilliant foil to the balsamic in the dish.
Some other quite amazing dishes at the table were the multiple CAESAR Salads with fresh CRAYFISH (everyone was going light), a superb YELLOWTAIL fish, and our host's yummy fillet (but how can he eat it well done?).
One of us had a tiny scoop of CINNAMON Ice Cream which got more than raves while the rest of us munched the tasty Macaroons of Chocolate, Lemon and Pistachio with passion fruit jellies on the yummy petit fours tray!
While the chef in charge has created a wonderful menu, I have to give credit to those in MAZE who execute the dishes to perfection. A small note that the prices are VERY REASONABLE as well, although the value of the US$ drops daily!
