GÅTE

Sunday, January 6th, 2019

Reviewed by Graham Hamilton

The Gate at Quoin Rock my new number one restaurant in South Africa so far...... We went to the Gate after seeing an article in Eat Out, and that it had a chef who had worked for Heston Blumenthall, we didn't realise he was actually British until we met him after the meal. We are by no means biased but his food was absolutley amazing hence our number one positioning, we still however have a week to go on our gastronomic delight, can he be overtaken? only time will tell. The evening began by being greeted at the door by a hostess who provided us with towels to refresh and then a cocktail of magarita and thyme served in a glass tea pot with liquid nitrogen so it steamed as it was poured. We were then taken through to the dining room, a fantastic glass fronted edifice with fabulous views over vineyards and mountains with a large terrace also surrounded in glass. The table was bare except for a large brass coloured 20 sided metal object (icosahedron) with writing on most sides saying things like "not an ashtray" and "wild peacock" we were intrigued. Our waitress was a delight and gave us clues to be able to move the icosahedron around to the next dish to come out - sometimes we got it right and sometimes not. The dishes are too many to comment on but suffice to say they all truly delighted. Most memorable will be the "not an ashtray" which was bread and a black garlic espuma, the "ramen" dish which included a syringe which you put into a delicious broth and it made a glass noodle, also with that dish you cooked your own wagu beef on hot stone. "The birth of liver" which was a duck egg which contained a duck liver pate served with banana bread, the delightful "cured oyster" with champagne foam, "from Russia with love" a Beluga caviar dish served with a mother of pearl spoon atop a gorgeous macaroon i could go on and on but i don't want to spoil the surprise and theatrical delights of this new restaurant. If this isn't top 5 next year i would be very surprised