The Support Stellenbosch Restaurant Rewards Campaign was a fantastic initiative that encouraged us to try new restaurants. Our visit to Spek And Bone marked the first of three meals that we had during the drive to get people to eat out.
How It Worked
There was a huge campaign to highlight how jobs save lives during our lockdown. When restaurants could open, the knock on effect meant that many people were not eating out. But Stellenbosch Tourism came up with a great incentive to encourage those that could afford to eat out to head to this historic town. Teaming up with SnapScan the offer worked as follows. You would get a voucher to the value of 50% of your bill, up to R400. This voucher had to be used within 2 weeks at any participating restaurant. And you would earn another 50% voucher for the value you paid (excluding the voucher), up to R400. The campaign ran until the funds covering the vouchers ran out.
Why Spek And Bone
Initially we had wanted to go to Overture, which is run by Bertus Basson. As they were not open on the Wednesday night we were going out, we chose his other restaurant, Spek And Bone. For those of you who do not speak Afrikaans, spek is the word for bacon. It is also the name of his pig, who he promises will never be turned into bacon! Bone is his Boxer.
A meal with a difference
The small plate menu is served in two courses, with three dishes making up the first course, and four the second. The full menu is R295 per person, and snacks and desserts are extra. This could be a reasonably priced meal out if you only have the 7 plates of food, which is enough, and no wine, which is very expensive. However, we chose to have the homemade milk rolls to start (R55), which were very soft and delicious. They were served with whipped butter and a side of tomato and chilli dip. As the 4 of us usually have tomato bruschetta as a snack on the barge, this made us feel like we were on holiday. Added to this we had a bowl of marinated olives (R55) to really give us that feeling of being in Europe.
First set
The first three courses were raw abalobi yellowtail, mediterranean spiced gemsbok and fior di latte. We were served 2 large plates of each dish so we could share. The fior di latte which I love eating in Italy was not my favourite. I enjoyed the yellowtail but my favourite was the venison which was served with phyllo pastry, slow roasted aubergine, cumin yoghurt, coriander and mint.
Second set
The next four courses were served the same way and consisted of potato gnocchi, roast hake, Chalmar beef sirloin and forgotten carrots. The beef was tender but was outshone by the gnocchi which was covered in mushrooms, Huguenot cheese and mushroom emulsion and chives. I love roast baby hake and this one was no exception. Served with daikon, parsley sauce, gremolata and capers it is a dish I would order again on a stand alone menu. I tried my own version of forgotten carrots at home – carrots left to slow roast in the oven – and they went down a treat.
Drinks
As I mentioned above, the wines are expensive. Dave chose a bottle of Craven Cinsault 2018 (R375) which was very pleasant, and Eric had a glass of Basson & Son Bone White (R95). We also had two bottles of water for the table and Eric and Dave had coffee after the meal. It was only when I wrote the blog post that I realized the coffees had not been charged for.
Dessert and more
The sound of chocolate cremeux, red wine poached pear, spiced pear sorbet and honeycomb (R70) was too much to resist. We ordered two portions which was more than enough for the 4 of us. The very rich chocolate was offset by soft pears and a fantastic sorbet. The chef, Michael, came out to talk to us, and served the bread, explaining just how he baked it. Service from Nico was fantastic, with just the right amount of attention given to the table. Our bill, including the tip, came to R2180.00. As we each paid half, we both got a R400 voucher to use when paying for our next meal out.
Contact them on: +27 82 569 8958
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime November 11:
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That dessert….my heart is thumping! Hope you are well =)
That is exactly what my heart did, and we are very well thank you xx
That does look delicious..
It was so good that we are going again next month 🙂
An excellent initiative for the restaurants, Tandy. I am pressing Terence to book for CPT for December/Jan. I love CPT. We haven’t been eating out nearly as much and its mainly because of the whole mask and hand sanitiser story. It just makes the whole event feel like a big effort for me and my mom and Greg will not go out at all.
I hope you get to come here in December. We wear masks until we are seated, and then not again until we leave, so it feels more normal 🙂