Roots

Food:

Allistaire Lawrence’s food is for savouring. Take your time over a gastronomic delight chosen for you. It’s French with subtle Asian and African influences: sometimes quirky, but always sublime. Breakfast and lunch are a languid four courses; six for dinner. Menus change daily so you won’t know what you’ll be eating until you get there. It could be ravioli of snails, tuna tartare, or some form of succulent pork belly. Just know that a lot of thought has gone into putting the food together, which has resulted in a slew of impressive awards.

Wine:

A fabulous wine list with optional paired wine (highly recommended at R95) to compliment each dish.

Service:

Five-star all the way.

Ambience:

Awesome minimalist African, with a sun deck overlooking a nearby dam.

And...:

Alfresco dining on the deck, with views of the lake and game reserve near the world-famous Cradle of Humankind, is a real treat. (JW, October 2011)

Taryn Ward
4-Jan-2012

Most dissapointed! 5 of us went there for the "gourmet" breakfast brunch on boxing day and I was horribly dissapointed. The portions were horribly uneven, the meat was so tough I could barely cut through it with my knife and our watior kept the courses coming like a racing driver! Added to that he forgot to mention the free glass of champagne we were all entitled to with the meal - was he hoping to have this later to calm his nerves, becasue he almost spilt the tray with 5 champagne glasses all over the one lady at our table? All round, drinks took forever and then when we told the waitor to slow down he basically dissapeared. Cannot believe this place was rated as one of your top 10 restaurants in 2011!

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Gracie Gee
22-Oct-2011

Delightful restaurant with great service. We had a 6 course meal paired with wine from the Ataraxia estate. Wine was excellent for each course. The food was great - each dish thoughtfully prepared. Some mixing of flavours didn't quite go (the melon jelly for example), but overall, a very tasty evening. Our only "gripe" was that besides booking way in advance, and telling the person who took our booking that it was our anniversary, we were still seated close to the toilets. Despite that, the ambience, food and service were good and we would definitely visit again.

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Ryan Mathew
12-Aug-2011

Having dined at 7 of the current Top 10 restaurants', I was very keen to give Gaunteng's only Top 20 nominee a go. The setting is splendid and this translates into an intimate dining area enclosed in glass. I opted for the wine pairing with the 6 course set menu, this was actually very good value for money. We started off with what is now common place in most restaurants de rigueur- an amuse bouche. This was a spoonful of Tuna Tartare - nice but nothing to write home about. 1st course was the cauliflower soup. It was called an Espume on the menu and for me the taste didn't deliver on its more exotic nomenclature. 2nd course was the fish course, grilled Salmon on a bed of risotto, wasabi pea puree and deep fried noodles. Fabulous dish, the risotto was light and creamy, with the fish just the right side of blushing. The puree and noodles added little to the dish. Next up was the pork belly with potatoes' dauphinoise - stellar dish. Actually for me the dish of the evening. The pork was roasted to perfection with the fat rendered just right to not taste overly fatty. The apple sauce and potatoes' were a great accompaniment. The following course, on paper sounded sublime but in execution fell short. It was their play on osso bucco, nice idea but the taste and textures weren't great. Somewhere in the middle we had a sorbet style palate cleanser that did a good job of setting a clean canvas for the next course. Desert came in the form of cappuccino ice cream, with berry couli. For me the weakest part of the evening - it felt like elements just put on the plate with little thought for cohesion. The final course was the robiola cheese course, better than desert but not very memorable. In terms of the wine pairings, the one that stood out for me was the Glen Carlou, pinot noir that accompanied the pork belly. I have rated my overall experience as 4 for no other reason that 3.5 isn't an option. It was a better than pleasant dining experience but were I to measure this against my favourite's to date, Overture, Terroir and 9th Avenue Bistro, the experience fell short. Will I return- definitely! Only hope this time I will have a more agreeable evening.

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