Kate
14-May-2012
Was really looking forward to taking our mom out to The Table on Mother's Day. After checking out their set menu, we got even more excited. Unfortunately, it was rather hit and miss. The setting at De Meye is lovely, and we had an indoor table as the weather was looking chilly. Unfortunately, the doors were constantly opening/ closing so that the wait staff could serve the outdoor table. Understandably unavoidable, but still unpleasant. The starter was a homemade mussel soup and the overall taste of the soup was delicious, although the mussels were rather soggy. The home baked bread was divine though! The next course was homemade babganoush which was flavourful and delicious, but unfortunately, the chicken liver pate was a little tasteless.
The main course was slow-cooked lamb, which our waitress said was shoulder of lamb. It was definitely not shoulder, but rather stewing lamb with funny bits of bone here and there. The meat wasn't tough, but it didn't meet with our expectations. You would have expected a thicker, darker, richer sauce from the way the menu had been described. Served with grilled baby marrows and beetroot (which was cold - a bit odd) and saved by a lovely creamy polenta. At this point, we were feeling rather underwhelmed by the whole experience. The dessert arrived - Oeufs a la Niege which was soft meringue with the gentlest shade if toasty brown, sprinkled with dessicated coconut and floating in Creme Anglaise. Wow! It was certainly the high note. This place holds so much promise with their lovely setting and promise of local, fresh produce. Unfortunately, there are gaps which take away from the whole experience and leave a little dissatisfied.
Peter
6-May-2012
Unpretentious lovely country setting and honest food. Just make sure to check the menu ahead of visit to avoid complications with set menu. We will be back soon.
Jamie Myhre
22-Apr-2012
This one is really hard to write simply because everyone as Table at De Meye is so darned nice. There’s an air of goodwill there that speaks volumes of the atmosphere the owners have worked hard to create. There is a charm that one can deny. It’s a lovely spot.
And it’s not Table at De Meye’s fault that Eat Out awarded them “Best Country Restaurant” this year. But it may have been premature. Clearly I may have visited on an off day – everyone has them – but there were fundamental problems with the cooking that simply can’t be overlooked.
Part of the problem is the weekly set menu – something I personally adore – but something that also set landmines in front of anyone but the most talented cooks. It allows you express yourself as a cook, but demands your menu choice therefore ensures the best product imagineable. And that’s where the meal I had fell short. The worst issue I had was with the main course of roast whole sirloin, which came medium/medium well that some might like but ultimately turns roast sirloin into this tasteless rubbery mass. Sure, many might have preferred it this way, but surely Camilla knows that you don’t serve sirloin anything less than rare to medium rare. In trying to adapt the dish to make everyone happy, she went for the center. And the center is medium and that’s simply wrong.
The hand-cut chips were great, as was the homemade ketchup. The béarnaise was nicely scented with fresh tarragon. But the salad was a mess, the micro-lettuces completely overwhelmed by the too-bold vinaigrette while, quite honestly, a simply olive and lemon would have sufficed. The chunks of tasteless, tomatoes and chunks of feta (do we really have to have feta in every “house” salad in South Africa?) only made things worse.
The starter braised calamari with chorizo was divine, as was the bread and farm butter that accompanied. As for dessert, I loved the citrus ice cream that accompanied the lemon tart. But again, the tart itself exposed some weaknesses. The bottom of the pastry was pallid and too thick, while I’m sorry to say that the filling itself had an unpleasant aftertaste of condensed milk, which completely undermined the citrus-y “snap” one hopes for in a lemon tart. It was not a masterful piece of pastry-making by any stretch. It simply wasn’t.
I think Table at De Meye is truly lovely restaurant just getting its feet under itself. I don’t think that it has hit its stride and Eat Out may need to question whether it’s done the place a disservice but putting them in the spotlight and at the mercy of those, like me, whose expectations are heightened.
And one final note (and this is a problem I see at a plethora of restaurants here), an owner should not dash through a room, not introducing herself, and ask quickly “Was everything okay?” If it was genuine query, then it be done personally; not in small room where everyone hears you as you dash between table to table asking the same question. Do you think I or anyone else wants to put a damper on everyone else’s day by saying, “Well, y’know, I did have some problems.”
So bottom line, I think Table at De Meye deserves a chance, but on my visit, I’m sorry, it really missed the mark in a big way.
CR C
14-Apr-2012
One of the finest lunch venues I have come across through travels to some 80 countries. Cannot be faulted and well deserving of its 2011 award.
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