We were welcomed into this elegant restaurant, all texture-rich crumbling old face brick, with a refreshing little espresso cup of butternut soup.  The sometimes sickly sweet butternut was perfectly pulled back by what tasted like coriander, and possibly a couple of other things unidentifiable to me.

This lean theme continued with the star of the show: a light and clean little koppie of raw Chalmar Beef and chopped celery.  This steak tartare-like mound would stand me in good stead for the richness that was to follow in the next course.  Topping the dish was a dainty, blue speckled eggshell, holding a raw egg.  Stripes of truffle sauce adding a creamy tingling at the back of the throat: just enough not to detract from what must be the healthiest way to eat red meat: raw.
Chalmar beef is all the rage in restaurants but more on that later.

What followed were sumptuous and crispy sweetbreads.  There were enough of these animal neck glands to make me relieved I had not gone for a starter cooked in cream and butter.

My girlfriend started with a butternut and feta tart with caramelized onion, which was pretty and pleasant, if not that exciting (how racy can a butternut tart get?).  She followed with pork chops.  The crackling was perfect.  Luckily for me she doesn’t eat the fat off a pig despite her Southern roots.  And when I say Southern I mean Virginia, not K’worth.

The brother enjoyed roasted nut and port-soaked pear salad but showed his provincial (no not Provencal) proclivity by ordering lamb chops.  He said they could have been bloodier but the pick of his evening was the creamy dauphinoise potatoes that accompanied the baby sheep.  The potatoes, tasting of Jerusalem artichoke soup, were good enough to stand up as a course on their own.

A cardamom-laced crème brulee was acceptable and the espresso hot. Surprising how many restaurants can’t get a hot cup right.

Service was efficient and more-or-less invisible, the way it should be in a pricey fine dining joint.  But there is one gripe: Chalmar Beef.  What is it?  “A farm,” according to the waitron.  Now Chalmar is a farm in the sense that Rainbow chickens are from a farm (okay, not quite a factory farm, at least the cows are outdoors).  Chalmar is one of the country’s big feedlot operators.  Granted, Chalmar say the cattle are of superior quality; electric cattle prodders aren’t used and the animals are walked as opposed to trucked to the nearby abattoir (reducing stress, keeping them tender).  Now Savoy Cabbage isn’t the only restaurant to peddle this disingenuous line.  But please, a feedlot is a feedlot, lets be straightforward.  The spin was unnecessary, after all the beef was excellent.

Will I go back to Savoy Cabbage for pleasure?  Definitely.

Tom Robbins
July 23, 2009

Savoy Cabbage
+27 (0)21 424 2626
www.savoycabbage.co.za
email: info@savoycabbage.co.za
101 Hout St
Central Business District
Cape Town

Tags: butternut soup, cardamom, Chalmar Beef, coriander, creme brulee, dauphinoise potatoes, factory farm, feedlot, fine dining restaurant, pork crackling, port-soaked pear salad, raw egg, Savoy Cabbage, steak tartare, sweetbreads, truffle

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