Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Dudley’s signature dishes are simple, delicious
RESTAURANTS in the Madame Zingara family, like Café Paradiso in Kloof Street and Café Mozart in Church Street mall in the city centre, have run daily lunch buffets for quite some time. From this month the Company’s Garden Restaurant has joined them, but with a slight twist.
Mondays to Fridays from noon, the spread will be prepared in collaboration with Karen Dudley of The Kitchen and The Dining Room in Woodstock, cementing a long friendship with Zingara founder Richard Griffin. Her fabulous dishes are complemented by fresh produce plucked that very hour from the veggie patch outside the restaurant. On the day we visited, Zingara head chef Heinrich Koen sent someone out to harvest a huge bowl of herbs and leaves for a salad, which was presented with a flourish.
The menu changes daily, but will always include meats, salads, vegetarian options, and some warm dishes so there is plenty of variety. The wonderful thing about Dudley’s food, which you’ll know if you’re already familiar with her restaurants or her cookbooks, is that it is beautifully simple and delicious. It’s the kind of food that inspires you to get into the kitchen and try it for yourself because, really, how hard can it be to eat well every day? Life’s way too short for anything else.
There are set prices but we were there by invitation to sample as much as possible and there was only so long I could hold out while everyone was taking photographs before I snaked in a hand and nabbed a honey mustard pork sausage. These glistening golden brown caramelised bangers were piled up temptingly, irresistibly, and belonged in my mouth. Other meats that day included roast gammon, and pink-in-the-middle lamb served with gravy and pomegranate jewels, as well as chicken breasts.
To accompany the meats were roast butternut with tahini and red onions, a gypsy salad (very similar to the Italian panzanella with crunchy vegetables), bulgur wheat patties with hummus, a beautiful red cabbage and green apple slaw studded with nuts and cranberries, silky warm mushrooms, and koshieri (a rice pilaf).
And a few other things I can’t quite recall now.
I do remember that it’s a good idea to save space for dessert; the counter to either side of the buffet is laden with bell jars protecting an assortment of cakes and pastries. I maintain the red velvet cake is healthy as it is served with fresh sliced fruit. The lemon meringue tart was quite magnificent. They even have a few gluten-free sweeties.
The buffet costs R70 for four salads or one meat serving and three salads, R80 for two meats and three salads, and R90 for as much as you want on your plate. The restaurant can be accessed through the Company’s Garden, or from Queen Victoria Street.
● Call 021 423 2919 to book. The buffet is available from noon on weekdays, while dishes last, and the offer will run until the peak summer season begins. A full lunch and breakfast a la carte is also available. Seating is indoors or out, and there is a fun area in which children (and the young at heart) can frolic and play.