Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part III: In the Greenhouse

On Sunday, we drove 30 mns out of the city to the "country"to sample rural life in Constantia and spent one night at the Cellars Hohenort, a lovely hotel set in the middle of the winelands. It's small, beautiful, tranquil, perfect for a romantic weekend. The hotel was nicely restored and boasts many modern amenities but as usual, Sim and I focused on the restaurants and took walks in the magnificent gardens to help with digestion. We found the hotel through a web search and I have to admit, I was intrigued by why they would choose to highlight German Satellite Television as one of their services. I personally would have insisted on the French gardens but you may chalk that up to my bias in favor of our former masters. Hey, the French did bring some pretty great bread and cake to Senegal! And they let us eat it.

The Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants but we only got to sample the Greenhouse for dinner and we did share a truly memorable meal. It all started with great bread and butter (again, great restaurants tend to do humble items really well) and launched into the creamiest mushroom soup (without cream) for me and pan-fried foie gras with berry jam for Monsieur. I have to confess that I do not like foie gras. I am not sure why, it's not because I am pro-geese or anti-French, the concoction just doesn't speak to me.

We later had duck in ginger and honey and Oxtail roulade with what I call "magic" potatoes. Both the duck and the oxtail were incredibly tender and flavorful but I was most intrigued by the potatoes. The inside tasted like really smooth and buttery mashed potatoes but the outside was crispy as if fried. If you know how to make them like that, let me know.

As you would expect by now, we did order dessert: bay leaf-infused creme brulee with a pistachio wafer and some traditional malva pudding with white chocolate ice cream. As soon as I got home, I tried to replicate the malva and will tell you about that in the next post.

Overall, we had a great time at the Cellars Hohenort and can not wait to visit again and try the Cape Malay Restaurant.