Award-winning fine dining establishment Greenhouse re-opens with both a new à la carte offering and its renowned tasting menu

Award-winning fine dining establishment Greenhouse re-opens with both a new à la carte offering and its renowned tasting menu

With Constantia’s premium hotel, The Cellars-Hohenort, once again welcoming local travelers as of 01 September 2020, Greenhouse restaurant, located within this incredible heritage property, has re-opened its doors for dinner. A shining light on the Cape Town fine dining scene, the multiple award-winning Greenhouse is an outstanding contributor to the Mother City’s reputation as a gourmet capital.

Says Head Chef Farrel Hirsch: “My team and I are naturally thrilled that our patrons will once again be able to experience fine dining at the restaurant. After all, creating memorable, world-class meals for our guests is what we live to do. We’ve used this time to be very busy in the kitchen. We’ve envisioned and developed new dishes and reframed our menu options, so that patrons can choose either our linger-longer tasting menu comprising several courses, or pick select dishes à la carte. We’ve also reconfigured the restaurant so that we can safely welcome you. And now we’re ready for evening guests to enjoy what we’ve conceptualized. There are a few of our hero dishes that we just couldn’t let go of, that remain as longstanding menu favourites, but there are some surprising new flavour combinations that we hope will tantalise palates. It’s an African-inspired fusion feast!”

Many of the new dishes have wryly humorous names that belie the seriousness of the chef’s intent. These include the likes of The Game – a springbok rump served with beetroot, kimchi, green beans, and goat’s cheese; Surfer Chow – ciabatta hake, braised fennel, samphire, yuzu gel, purple potatoes and white wine sauce; and a Magic Mushroom – cinnamon smoked, walnut XO, peanut pesto, shiitake dashi, coriander and sweet potato.

These are dishes to delight, progressive in concept and execution. Hirsch has cemented his reputation as a talented new culinary star after taking the helm at the restaurant almost two years ago. Since he started at the flagship restaurant of The Liz McGrath Collection (to which The Cellars-Hohenort belongs), he has done nothing but impress. He was honoured with three plates at the much-vaunted JHP Gourmet Guide™ Awards towards the end of 2019, an American Express® Platinum Fine Dining Restaurant Award (the highest accolade) in 2019, and he won the third annual Clash of the Chefs cook-off, also in 2019.

Greenhouse was awarded a 2020 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award and will be included in the upcoming 2020 Eat Out Collector’s Edition. It scooped the Best Restaurant of Cape Town award at Restaurant Week in September 2019, came 15th at the 2019 Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Awards and was listed in 9th place on the prestigious Conde Nast Traveller’s Top 10 Restaurants in Cape Town hotlist.

Greenhouse’s offering is seasonally led, with only the finest local ingredients and suppliers sourced for the kitchen. The menu will shift as a response to seasonal change as the fruits and produce of Summer start to become available. But for now, guests can enjoy the best of the Spring season.

The Discovery tasting menu is available for 18h00 bookings, with the early start to allow diners enough time to discover and appreciate all it has to offer. A minimum of two hours is needed for this eight-course tasting experience. The wine pairing, which is optional, has been carefully considered by resident sommelier Michelle Michaels.

With September being Heritage Month, and incorporating Heritage Day aka National Braai Day, the Discovery menu includes a respectful nod to local culture in the form of Greenhouse’s take on Tshisanyama – this is an achingly tender house-aged sirloin served with sweetbreads, kombucha pickled carrots, cashew puree, potato fondant, beef crackling and red wine jus.

There’s also a confit pork belly and steamed blue prawn, with star anise and onion puree, caper noisette, cauliflower and black garlic salsa. For dessert, prepare for the taste sensation that is a banana sponge with banana brûlée, fermented chocolate cremoux, ice cream and hazelnut crumble.

All eight courses of the full Discovery Menu are available to peruse digitally, and can be viewed here: https://www.greenhouserestaurant.co.za/menu/. At the restaurant, experienced waitrons will carefully guide you through each course, or if you prefer, you can refer to the digital version. Single-use paper menus will be printed on request.

The à la carte menu provides flexibility of choice – not only with regard to the dishes that can be selected but also whether or not a guest prefers a shorter or more lengthy dining experience. Guests can choose between a two- or three-course meal, with or without wine pairing. The appropriately dubbed Adventure Menu – named for its adventurous dishes and its choose-your-own-adventure factor – is available for bookings from 18h00 to 20h00.

Booking is essential at this time, and reservations can be made online at https://www.greenhouserestaurant.co.za/reservations/ to avoid disappointment. Alternatively, please email: reservations@greenhouserestaurant.co.za or call +27 21 795 6226.

 

Leave a Reply