The chef of the restaurant was one of the first professionally
trained chefs, all the way from Belgium, in South Africa and produced amazing food in the heydays.
He then disappeared from the food scene for a couple of years – in
which the Cape winelands grew to be THE destination for decadent dining.
Situated in an art gallery in Dorp street in Stellenbosch, it look
intriguing and contemporary. The menu and combinations are set-out to match
this vibe.
Some odd combinations which one would easily have gagged about a
couple of years back, are now as common as bread and butter, and you struggle
to think of a time when you would not want salted chocolate, chocolate and
chilly, strawberry’s with balsamic and black pepper, or even fillet with a
chocolate sauce.
Ethienne Bonthuys is riding on
this wave, but taking it to extremes – and unfortunately he’s crashing into a
boulder with most of his weird combinations.
I had a stuffed giant mushroom (and
I was a happy camper seeing this on the menu as this is one of my favourite
things). In all honesty I was not aware that it was possible to do a bad job at
stuffing a mushroom. Some spinach, pine-nuts and goat-cheese should be one of
the most elementary things, apparently not.
(You’ll notice that I do not even have pictures – which is a very rare occasion for me not to take pictures of the lovely food everyone is eating.)
The service, or rather lack thereof is rather shocking, and super slow. On the evening we dined there, only one waiter was to be seen for the entire restaurant, albeit only 2 tables had patrons. Which confuses me even more – if this restaurant and food is all that and a bag of chips, why only 2 tables booked on a weekend evening? And how is it possible that the waiter struggles so with serving these two tables?
There are so many gorgeous
restaurants in this area that leave you desiring to go back for more – do not waste
your time at Casparus.
Until we eat again…
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