Images credit: Mark Peddle
One of the great delights Cape Town offers visitors – both local and international – is the variety of restaurants and dining options. But within these dining options there are a few that really stand out: meals that transform a weekday evening into a night to remember. Aubergine is one such restaurant, our dinner there was one such night.
For starters, the atmosphere at Aubergine, tucked away on a side street in the City Bowl, is just fabulous. Superb staff and a welcoming atmosphere the moment you step in the door, you’ll immediately feel both at home and out for a special occasion – a rare combination.
And then there’s the food. Oh, the food! Chef Harald Bresselschmidt is a magician, with his extraordinary imagination for delicious ingredients paired with his ability to transform those ideas into consistently exceptional dishes. Fresh flavours, seasonal ingredients and innovative techniques combine to form a rotating menu that always has something new on it, and the promise of a meal you’ll remember for months.
Let me tempt your tastebuds by telling you what we ate… For starters, we had long-fin tuna tartare and carpaccio, and guinea fowl and foie gras paupiette. Exceptional. For mains we had oxtail braised on the bone and served in a gratinated cannelloni with sun dried tomatoes and a spinach timbale (which, for those out of the know, is a light mousse-like creation) and grilled Chalmar beef fillet with Provençal vegetables and lemon thyme sauce – superb. Desserts were orange-vanilla risotto with citrus fruit salad, chocolate macaroons and grapefruit sorbet and an assiette of chocolate delights. And coffee was served with beautiful truffles. There’s an option to have wine-pairing with every course, or a very skilled sommelier is on hand to recommend the perfect wine for the dish.
The food was simply extraordinary. The evening was wonderfully memorable. And Aubergine is without a doubt my new favourite restaurant.
