Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part Deux: Dejeuner Au Jardin

La suite from previous post

Saturday was a most glorious day and after a quick breakfast, we headed out to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, situated on 528 hectares of land (the cultivated garden is only 36 hectares) and dedicated to growing indigenous South African plants.

We walked though the centennial camphor trees planted by the previous owner of the property the gardens sit on, Cecil Rhodes, that most voracious of real estate "investors". We eventually made our way to the top of the garden to admire the view and were greeted by some guinea fowl. That's not what we had for lunch though.

After our stroll through the gardens, we decided to drive to the Vineyard hotel, 5 mns away, to have lunch at one of their restaurants called Au Jardin, of course overlooking their magnificent garden.
Au Jardin
+2721 657 4500
http://www.vineyard.co.za/

We decided to order some classics to start. S and I believe that to do familiar dishes well is a sign of a good restaurant. When our Caesar salad with poached egg and anchovies served with cheese croutons arrived along with the avocado and shrimp cocktail, we knew we were in for a real treat.

I normally hate shrimp cocktail. The larva-sized shrimp smothered in mayonnaise with the sweetness provided by ketchup is usually hard to swallow. So I had to be assured that this would be special, the shrimp would be detectable. And special it was! There was just a thin veneer of mayo on the shrimp and you could really taste how fresh it was. It's avocado season here so that was a wonderful addition, not to mention the blini it came with. The salad also showed signs of restraint as it was not drenched in Caesar dressing. It was full of flavour, fresh, all around yummy.For main course, we had the absolute best Mozambican prawn in a curry and calamari with tomatoes, black olives and capers on focaccia. The curry was incredibly delicious without being heavy and overwhelming. S said the calamari tasted as if the chef invented tomato sauce. I knew what he meant as soon as I took a bite and felt the tanginess hit the back of my jaw.

For dessert, I ordered an orange souffle but ended up sharing Sim's pineapple and ginger pudding which was absolutely divine. It was gooey but every so often you'd bite into a tiny bit of fresh pineapple.We absolutely loved Au Jardin and can not wait to go back as soon as we get a chance.