Mfino
Where: Claremont Farm, Sheffield Beach Road, Sheffield Beach (opposite Brettonwood)
Open: Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm
Call: 083 799 5254
Our little Sunday lunch club was foraging for a culinary adventure. It was the Fat Frog Lady, who incidentally makes the best milk tart in Durban, who found Mfino, a small eatery on a farm at Sheffield Beach.
Like the name suggests, it’s dedicated to the wild greens, usually spinach or kale, in the Zulu tradition. And to foraging. It’s home to chef Eugene Botha, who once owned the upmarket Umami, on the Dunkirk Estate, where Ray’s Kitchen is today. Foraging is part of his daily routine, along with surfing; joined by his four-legged best mate and “restaurant manager”, a retriever-type fellow called Moya.
So with food writer Ingrid Shevlin, the three of us make the trip north, to visit Botha’s humble little “mjondolo”.
Well, it’s not really a shack, more part of a farm shed that flows onto a veranda that looks out over trees and a field. There’s a nursery, a coffee shop and a bakery in the shed, and a little antique shop in containers at the back. It’s all very comfortable and organic.
The little eatery is dominated by a comfy couch people can relax on and a bar counter for seating. There’s surfboards for decor, and a guitar and vinyl playing on the old record player. Sounds of Nat King Cole wafted out to our table which had pride of place on the veranda as we sipped our very good ginger kombuchas. Moya comes over to introduce himself.
A couple more tables under the trees and a fire pit complete the picture. Botha also offers picnic blankets for those wanting to chill on the grass. It’s charming and very much speaks to what Botha and Moya are all about.
As a one-man show, the menu is naturally limited. And yes, Botha not only sources all the local ingredients and preps the food and cooks everything fresh, but also serves and does the washing up. On a busy day where every space was utilised, mom came in to help with the latter.
There’s isinkwa ‒ or bread ‒ basically a ciabatta-styled loaf stuffed with two different fillings, two soups (and apologies from Botha, the vichyssoise had finished), a couple of risottos, tempura prawns, a salad, and a selection of ice creams.
We started by sharing a double portion of tempura prawns (R170 for three) and a Caprese stack (R140). The prawns were large, plump and beautifully cooked in a proper light tempura batter and served with a garlic aioli. And the simple salad of fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil pesto with the addition of avo was as delicious and refreshing as it looked. Everything is served on a selection of antique crockery that adds to the charm.
For mains the Fat Frog Lady and I shared isinkwa with fillet (R180) cooked in soy sauce and served with a basil mayo. It was stuffed full of succulent sliced fillet and topped with all that lovely flavour and some freshly foraged spinach leaves. We both could barely finish our half an isinkwa.
Ingrid really loved the mushroom and Parmesan risotto (R180), which was everything a risotto should be, with a deep flavour of the mushrooms really adding oomph to the dish. I finished it for dinner that evening. The other risotto option was beef fillet.
We did leave a tiny bit of room for home-made ice cream (R75). There were three flavours on offer but as soon as Botha mentioned lemon curd, the others faded out into oblivion so, sorry, I can’t say what they were. I do know he often makes amatungulu ice cream from the foraged fruits of the wild natal plum. The three of us were more than happy to share a little bit of cold lemon curd bliss.
Thumbs up all round.
Food: 4
Service: 3 ½
Ambience: 4
The Bill: R1180 for three which included a take home bottle of kombucha
The Independent on Saturday