Meraki by Charlie Lakin
Where: 7 Builders Way Hillcrest
Open: Thursday to Saturday lunch noon to 2pm, dinner 6pm to 8pm.
Call: 067 346 5995
Reports have been filtering down the hill. Chef Charlie Lakin’s new pop-up restaurant is causing a little bit of a stir in the Upper Highway area. Many are raving about his unusual and innovative five-course tasting menus.
So I had dinner with Ingrid Shevlin and her brother Pierre, who was visiting from Johannesburg.
It’s a simple space interestingly decorated with funky coloured walls and zany napkins and Persian carpets on the floor. And there’s a view of chef at work in the kitchen. It’s nice and homely for fine dining, which is a big plus.
The restaurant is not licensed, so you’re welcome to bring your own. The bubbly was flowing at the next table. But we are not big wine drinkers and were more than happy to start with a very good lemongrass cocktail.
We were soon snacking on an amuse. Little chicken vol-au-vents topped with green banana chutney and deep-fried banana flowers, and little red pepper croquettes that really pop with flavour.
There’s a meat and vegetarian menu, which you need to book in advance. Ingrid would have the vegetarian menu but insisted they swop out the duck when the duck course came. They were only too happy to do that. Pierre and I would go for the meat. With one exception…
The first course took me back a bit. Retired dairy cow sirloin tartare. I suppose one should know what one is eating, but this definitely had a little bit too much of a moo factor attached to it. I don’t know whether one felt better or worse that the poor creature was retired. I almost expected her name and milking history to be listed next. It was less the dairy cow than the fact that tartare is raw that had Pierre swopping for the veg menu on this one.
The tartare was delicious, topped with pickled Jerusalem artichokes, artichoke capers, coddled egg yolk, watercress, beef fat and a seed crumble. The seed crumble was novel, giving crunch to what is usually a meltingly smooth dish, but chef said he wanted to pick up the cracker that you often eat tartare with. It worked.
They relished a dish of golden nugget squash with pineapple and marigold pickle, popped sorghum and curry oil. I am never one taken by squashes (I mean who gets excited by patty pans?) but even this got my thumbs-up. The sweetness of the squash and the intensity of the curry oil made for a lovely combination.
Next up was a rabbit and nettle frikkadel on spiced brinjal, cherry tomatoes, with popped sorghum, lime pickle and herb yoghurt. Another lovely and intensely savoury dish, with a powerful baba ganoush going well with the roast tomatoes and frikkadel. I’m not sure it needed the sorghum, but popped corns and stuff are all the rage. Ingrid enjoyed her jackfruit dim sum with heirloom radish and sesame seeds set in a miso and seaweed broth.
We were on the same page when it came to the duck. A pulled confit Muscovy duck leg, with duck breast pastrami, duck skin scratchings (crackling, if you will), beetroot pickle, cauliflower purée, naartjie and pine. Delicious. That duck breast really had been properly cured just like a pastrami would, while the confit leg was super succulent and the crackling super crisp. Maybe a few more segments of those lightly pan-roasted naartjies would have made the confit pop even more.
We were halfway to stuffed when the main courses arrived. Pork loin, but not any pork loin, but from a Duroc-cross pig, with pig’s head croquette, and a pavé of heirloom radishes, leeks, kale and a cider vinegar jus. A pavé – or paving stone in French – is usually thinly sliced potatoes coated with cream and butter and baked slowly and then weighted down until it’s flat and cut into squares. But the radish version was inspired, and the pork cheek lovely.
Ingrid was less enamoured by Jerusalem artichoke “risotto”, but I think it was more that neither of us had seen the quote marks around risotto so were expecting something different. It was topped with green onions and exotic mushrooms and had a red wine sauce. I felt it didn’t need the sauce.
Full to the brim – yes, for a tasting menu the portions are generous – we were going to skip the optional cheese course, but chef sent out a small square insisting we taste it and it was the highlight of the evening. This was a baked Cheddar custard on a Cheddar sable (a very short buttery biscuit similar to shortbread) topped with mulled pears and pear skin crisps. I was in heaven.
There’s always a pre-dessert here – it’s not on the menu and the waitering staff are never sure what it is until they serve it – but essentially it’s a palate cleanser. This was a plum sorbet with poached plum slices on meringue shards. It was beautifully tart and I could have easily ended the meal here, but dessert was still to come. A toasted oat and honey parfait with rhubarb sherbet and poached rhubarb. Now oats and me are not friends, but I enjoyed the rhubarb.
The restaurant has recently opened for lunch featuring a small à la carte menu that takes in some of the food offerings for the week.
Food: 4 1/2
Service: 4
Ambience: 4
The bill: R550 for the tasting menu. The total bill with some waters and cordials came to R700 a head including tip.