Don’t take the waiter at his word

THE KITCHEN AT MAISON

MAISON is a relatively new winery on the road into Franschhoek, and it’s a pretty one, with a modern and minimalist look. One enters through a light-filled and whitethemed tasting room, a few bespoke pieces of furniture creating a serene, uncluttered feel.

The restaurant space is through the tasting area to the back, and this similarly Spartan room opens onto a patio and an expansive lawn beyond featuring large, old trees.

The lawn flows in turn into vineyards and then superb mountain views. It’s all quite lovely.

Seating is at contemporary wooden furniture, Nordic in inspiration, and the service is neatly turned out (though rather formulaic, with too many ritual interruptions). The brown paper menu is clipped to a wooden board and it is very concise. A blackboard is carried over with an extra starter and main of the day.

At lunch, the starters included a vegetable salad with nuts and goat cheese (R75); crisp pink saltand-pepper squid (R70) and a prawn tempura with trimmings for R85.

Mains started with a tagliatelle of forest mushrooms with “pangrattato” (crisped breadcrumbs) and a soy truffle jus (R120); duck breast with sweet potato, red cabbage, carrots and albufera jus — a classic European sauce that, along with other touches, such as the pangrattato, point to the higher aspirations of the kitchen. Ox tongue also made a rare appearance at R125. As illustrated by this “lesser” cut, the prices are out of the café range.

I tried the Karoo lamb rack with lamb torchon, chickpea, cauliflower, broccoli, lemon atchar and cumin jus (R135) on the strength of the waiter’s preference for this over the duck. The plate was well cooked, but that, oddly, did not make it a success. The piece of lamb rack chosen was poor, with too much fat; to get the meat tender the fat was still, perforce, too dominant and fresh. The lamb was also underseasoned, again surprising since the dish had flavours of cumin and atchar (the last a little acrid). The torchon (a cylinder of meat, here crumbed) of lamb was better and the vegetables good.

For dessert, a classic malva pudding (R55) caught my eye. It was served with coconut “rocks”, banana ice cream, mint and verjuice. The “rocks” were crushed pieces of coconut in the style of a meringue and delicious, as was the ice cream, the verjuice adding perfect lift and acidity. Unfortunately, the malva was so wet it tasted undercooked. The waiter assured me their espresso was superior — it wasn’t. FOR: Beautiful space and setting; modern cuisine. AGAINST: Costly food that was inconsistent on the day.