The Sugar Club in the Beverly Hills Hotel

I am usually not a fan of eating in hotels, in fact when I hear the word hotel in the same sentence as breakfast, lunch or dinner, my appetite is short lived – I guess it’s my association of food standing under the buffet lights for hours on end that turns my stomach and the a la carte menus are always loaded with promise, but on arrival the food is bland and disappointing!  So when we were generously invited by the Head Chef of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Gerard van Staden, to attend the Cederberg wine & food pairing at the Sugar Club in the Beverly Hills Hotel, I was so intrigued by Gerard’s experiences, stories and travels that I found myself strangely eager and enthusiastic to go.

The foyer of the Beverly Hills Hotel definately exudes elegance and warmth, with warm deep cream walls, tiles to match and dark wood trimmings. An elegant spiral staircase greets you with a large wrought iron chandelier sparkling at the center of the room. The walls on the staircase are filled with sepia pictures in dark wood frames while the walls leading to the lounge have featured artwork from various local schools in celebration of Mother’s Day.  The lounge is filled with classically styled wingback chairs, couches and poufs, all in earthy natural shades and neutral tones, complimented with tasteful ornaments, pictures and vases filled with fresh orchids.  Both the lounge and Sugar Club are illuminated by a mixture of soft down lights and chandeliers, adding the finishing touch to the creation of a warm and inviting area to relax in and perfect for the serving of pre-dinner drinks.  This is where we sampled our first glass of the Cederberg wines from the wine tasting, which was a slightly sweet, refreshing glass of Cederberg Rose 2011 – Rose is not my drink of preference but I found this Rose palatable and what would, in my opinion, make for the perfect summer lunch drink.

After our pre-dinner drinks, we moved over to the Sugar Club where we were seated at our tables. Gerard welcomed everyone and explained the menu for the evening, which was to be a four course dinner and each course was paired with one of the Cederberg wines.

First Course – Smoked Salmon Paupette with cucumber and dill, szechuan pepper straws, frisee salad and soft herbs. This was paired with the Cederberg Sauvignon Blanc 2011.

Second Course – Lapin Terrin with pickled enocki mushrooms, granny smith puree and baby fennel salad. This was paired with the Cederberg five generations Cabernet Sauvignon 2011.

Third Course – Fish Gratin with gratin soldiers, monkfish, tiger prawns, broads and confit leeks. This was paired with the Cederberg Shiraz 2008.

Dessert – Hot Chocolate Fondant with raspberry coulie, ice cream, popcorn and caramel. This was paired with the Cederberg Brut Classique 2006.

My intrigue was far satisfied above my expectations as every element of each dish came alive in my mouth, with the sauces for each dish the hero that tied everything together, producing taste sensations that left me wanting more.  My favorite dish was the first course salmon – probably a biased choice based on my love of norwegian salmon.  The Sauvignon Blanc was a perfect match.

The Lapin Terrin was a first for me as I have never eaten rabbit before – I have a food policy which is, there are animals you eat, i.e. cows, chickens, pigs and fish, and animals you don’t eat, i.e. rabbits!  Despite this rule I decided to suck it up, so I closed my eyes, blanked out the vivid image of my sadly missed pet bunny rabbits, Chewy and Thumper (unoriginal I know, but she really did thump her back leg on the floor and Chewy would come hopping) and put my fork in my mouth!  Honestly, I couldn’t tell if it was chicken or rabbit – although, doesn’t everything which is not beef, pork or fish usually taste like chicken?  The flavor of the Lapin Terrin was apparently subtle (according to a friend at the table who is a seasoned bunny eater).  I found it to be creamy, light and well complimented with the flavor of the fennel exploding in my mouth.  The Cabernet Sauvignon unfortunately was too powerful for this subtle, creamy dish, it’s one of those wines where you could drink a glass but a bottle would be too much – obviously not for me since I can’t open a bottle without finishing it.  The dish itself was better than expected although I won’t intentionally be ordering rabbit for any of the foreseeable future meals.

The third course was as Gerard said “fish with fish with fish accompanied by a great sauce”, I couldn’t have said it better.  The two types of fish and prawn were perfectly cooked and they literally melted in my mouth with the sauce swirling around and completing the dish.  I love fish, so this was an absolute winner dish too.  Strangely, the Cederberg Shiraz complimented the dish nicely and is a great wine – that’s saying a lot since I’m not a shiraz drinker, so I was pleasantly surprised.

The three delicious courses were followed by my favorite dessert, Chocolate Fondant.  Served with ice cream and topped with a few pieces of lightly salted popcorn and a drizzle of caramel sauce this was an unbelievable flavor and texture combination – needless to say I scraped my entire plate clean.  Unfortunately the center of the fondant was over cooked, meaning there was no melted chocolate oozing onto my plate, but the flavor was there.  The Cederberg Brut Classique was too dry for my palate and I didn’t enjoy the combination of the two, this was more of a personal preference as everyone else at the table seemed to enjoy the combination.

All in all I was incredibly impressed.  The food was outstanding, the setting romantic and picturesque, the service was to the standards of a five star establishment and the manager was friendly and attentive.  I have no doubt that with Gerard at the helm of the kitchens the Beverly Hills Hotel will be giving other local Umhlanga restaurants a run for their money.  I will definately be booking a table at ‘Elements‘, the other restaurant in the Beverly Hills Hotel, soon!

So this is the part where I eat my words and end by saying, hotels can serve excellent food in their restaurants … the but is … BUT only if the right person is running it – I guess that goes for any restaurant really.

Little Havana – Umhlanga

So finally we had an opportunity to try out this new restaurant in Umhlanga.  I had heard quite a few glowing reviews from fellow foodies like myself, so the anticipation and expectations were high, plus we were celebrating our friend’s birthday- lets call him LMFAO, since “I’m sexy and I know it” is his favourite ‘take my shirt off’ song, meaning the evening was bound to be entertaining at some point!

The restaurant itself is aesthetically appealing.  The ceiling is adorned with those wooden fans that remind you of a hot evening in Cuba – minus the incessant buzzing and sweaty Cubans, of corse!  There are coloured glass, lantern type, light fixtures hanging from the ceiling between the fans, a dividing wall with mirror and copper panels, white table cloths with black leather table mats and a full accompaniment of cutlery and wine glasses.  At the center of the restaurant is a glass wine cellar to display there large wine collection.  Separating the kitchen from the bathroom passageway is a funky glass wall filled with more bottles of wine.  I was impressed by the decor – I mean for an Umhlanga restaurant it’s definately at the forefront for being modern and trendy.  All these elements combined creating a warm and inviting atmosphere with a soothing ambience, even the modern, cream colour blinds which were pulled down to protect the patrons from the wind, complimented the setting.

From the moment we were seated we were well taken care of.  The waiters were friendly, professional and efficient, so much so that I would be tempted to rate their service as probably the best in Durban so far!  More impressive was the ever present manager through-out the night, who didn’t find it above himself to pour wine and assist with serving our table – not sure if this was directly related to the fact that the GM of a prominent hotel was dining with us, but not complaining!  I was also incredibly impressed by the waiter/s who, before they placed an extremely large platter full of very raw meat (the kind of stuff vegetarian’s nightmares are made of) on the table, had the decency to ask if there were any vegetarians present – of course we had a vegetarian at our table, which was the wife of LMFAO, who might I add, complained not once, while everyone heartily ate their mainly meat meals.

Meat presentation done and dusted I began looking through Little Havana’s menu – I’d be dumbfounded if you couldn’t find something you liked!  The starter selection ranges from seafood, vegetarian to bone marrow dishes and priced from R42 to R65.  There are at least five different vegetarian dishes to choose from in the mains section, all priced at R85.  Then there is their large meat selection, something Havana is well known for, yet nothing can prepare you for the variety from which to choose from, poultry, pork, lamb, venison and then the many cuts of beef, followed by options of organic, grass fed or grain fed and then for the very hungry, there is a 700g Ribeye, translating into a whole lot of meat – it reminds me of those eating competitions in the American restaurants, if you can finish it you don’t have to pay for it!  The meat dishes range in price from R85 for a small fillet to R180 for the large Ribeye.  Again, I’d be gobsmacked if you couldn’t find something you liked.

Not wanting to overdo it (and not sure why I didn’t want to overdo it), I chose the Norwegian salmon and shrimp fish cakes for my starter followed by the butternut and sweet potato lasagne. The fish cakes were superb and my only wish was that there were more on my plate.  I enjoyed my vegetable filled lasagne, although my friend who tried it didn’t like it – then again she doesn’t like the way South Africans cook their butternut, with cinnamon and brown sugar, which I’m sure was the main reason for her dissatisfaction at my main course.  Dinner was of course accompanied by some lovely wines from their large selection of really good quality wines (remembering I’m no wine connoisseur but merely a wine lover) which were reasonably priced when paralleled with other local restaurant prices.

A meal is never complete without a decadent dessert to follow it – and this is my one rule when eating out!  So yet again trying to be good and still not sure why – six of us decided to share the chocolate fondant (big mistake) and this is where I fully appreciated the phrase ‘a small slice of heaven’ as I watched with delight as the melted chocolate center oozed out onto the plate when the first spoon cut into the fondant dessert – before I could blink, six spoons went in, six spoons came out and the plate looked like a chocolate massacre, the fondant dessert was finished and I was hard pressed to stop myself from shamelessly licking the plate clean.  The dessert was a clear winner!  The rest of the desserts looked good but I couldn’t focus on anything else but the delicious chocolate fondant I had just had.

My overall experience was wonderful and I would recommend Little Havana, but unfortunately there were a few people at our table who weren’t as pleased as I was with their meals.  Two Ribeyes were sent back due to sinew but the replacement dishes were met with satisfaction and another person had the fillet, which she wasn’t impressed with because it was too bland.  Everyone was very impressed by the high level of service which was clearly the product of very well trained staff – something not so common in more than 50% of the Durban restaurants I’ve eaten at.  The average cost of the meal, including wine and tip was R370pp, bearing in mind we were a large table of 15 and drank quite a few bottles of their better wines.

All this means is, I will be going back at least another two times to measure consistency before I have my final say.  If you have any feedback on Little Havana in Umhlanga please share!