Cité a while
April 07, 2007 Edition 1
Victor Strugo
Back to earth after last week's Alpine fantasy. If you found a Swiss mountain-top restaurant locally irrelevant, note that I heard South African accents at two other tables.
Restaurateur Jaco Welgemoed is a dab hand at reading the mood of the times, with successes like The Singing Fig, Circle and (if you remember that far back) Bougainvilea to his credit.
His latest venture, Cité proffers "urban comfort food", distinguishing itself from the informal fine dining pretensions of other stylish newcomers by instead proffering familiar home-style dishes with original twists.
The décor echoes this - refreshingly modern monochrome walls and cheerful candy stripes rising from the firm foundation of old-fashioned parquet floors.
The restaurant gets music levels right, but the absence of soft furnishings means that if you happen to be seated (as we were) between two tables of screeching airheads, you will strain to hear your table companions and feel desensitised.
In charge of the cooking is partner Brian Jacobson, who also happens to be an architect and the spitting image of Who rocker Pete Townshend.
Our trio started with roasted tomato and cumin soup, the pear and blue cheese salad and a butternut and goat's cheese tart. The soup's flavours were intense, a spark of hot spice underlying the sweet-aromatic main combination. A nice option was the tot of vodka, cutely presented in a shooter cup carved from a cucumber.
Most salads are too simple to rave about but instead of merely crumbling blue cheese over crisp mixed leaves, Cité rolled it into balls mixed with brandy-sparked cream cheese and coated with almond flakes.
Our vegetarian guest's tart was the least successful entrée. Raw pastry underneath and sandwiched between layers of cheese and spinach was a hard slice that seemed to have gone straight from a raw butternut into the oven, not pre-cooked to soften. Garnish was tomato concasse and the tart packed a late kick of white pepper.
The veggie main was better. A potato cake with mild, well-balanced chickpea curry. But two flavours and two shades of yellow were two-dimensional. A third ingredient (say red peppadews or a stuffed green pepper) might have quickened the pulse.
Meatwise, my perfectly rare shiitake-encrusted beef fillet was lean and tender, topped with light porcini créme. The mash accompaniment was a mixture of potato and roasted carrot, a palpable hit that caused my plate to be plundered from left and right.
Impala loin was tops, served with creamy mashed potato and the red wine and port reduction with gooseberries and Chinese 5-spice was velvety, tangy, sweet and aromatic. So good that we wanted more.
Helpings were sensibly sized - hearty mains preceded by appetite-stimulating starters and chased by manageable desserts. My lemon tart was small, but abundant curds and creamy texture made it satisfying. There are interesting sorbets - excellent flavour and perfume though its granita-like texture could have been a bit firmer. The apple crisp (née crumble) was a loving throwback to granny's kitchen, complete with warm custard.
The winelist is brief, with well-chosen estate names starting from R125. We were unable to resist a French chardonnay from Louis Latour Chardonnay - superb and well worth R160. Budget diners will stay with house wine (R28 per glass) and a choice of flamboyant cocktails.
Service needs a bit of fine-tuning. Three amiable waitresses visiting one table is a recipe for confusion, but they did get the important things (like allergies) right.
Sadly, monied diners have become so uncouth that it's necessary to clean the rest-rooms at least every half hour. Not only at Cité. All restaurants, please note.
© 1999 - 2010 Tonight & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.