No Bones About It — it’s well worth a visit

So you look for deeper portents than the mere facts that a place is new and the lemmings are all headed there and urging all the other lemmings to do so too. Like, who’s running the show; what’s on the menu and, more to the point, what kind of a menu is it.

Once we’d got to the end of a very decent meal and a lovely evening, the answer became clear: the force behind it is a man called Rudi Minnaar, whose past credits include the long-lived and highly sought-after Beluga and, before that, Bertha’s in Simon’s Town and, even before that, Mortons on the Wharf, one of the earliest and most successful restaurants in the early years of the then fledgling Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

You wouldn’t be wise to put money on any new restaurant at the Cape making it past even its first year, but that pedigree does suggest Bones is in with a fighting chance. Let’s just hope the diners at the Cape see its worth beyond the mere fact that it’s new and a buzz place to be. (Now that I wouldn’t bet money on.)

Parmesan BonBon

Bones. That is a great name for a meaty restaurant. So much so that it’s amazing that the name wasn’t taken yonks ago. Any proper foodie knows that meat with the bone in is always going to have more flavour than meat without. When my daughter first WhatsApped me the menu — having suggested that we try the place during a weekend visit to Cape Town — I was bitten immediately. Like the Societi Bistro menu — of which its compact simplicity reminded me — it’s all on one page. Eight starters. Four salads. Ten general mains plus five “Grill or the Pan” items (i.e. steaks or a burger). Then a speciality section: Pot Bones. Then “kwaai sides”, six desserts. Done, unless you count the hooch list.

The venue, tucked well within the Palms centre in Woodstock, very near the central city, is very reminiscent of the interior of Beluga, sleek, unpretentious, a touch semi-industrial. Very attentive staff, and they had no idea our party included a reviewer.

The starters: Beef carpaccio (almost too obvious); all other choices though were less than obvious. Parmesan BonBon with mushroom ragout vied, for me, with the duck livers with tomato, garlic and toast. But the mushrooms and “BonBon” won — deep-flavoured mushroom slivers in a creamy sauce, with three Parmesan croquettes, a great balance and most appetising start.

Rooibos Souffle

The salads: warm spinach and bacon; “Classic Caesar”; butternut, Gorgonzola and balsamic; and rocket, apple, walnut and lemon (R45 to R70).

I had pre-ordered the skaap ribbetjie pot bones when we’d booked, and it’s advisable to do that as only a few portions are made. They offer sheep rib, beef or chicken (cooked on the bone, obviously, and served in a Le Creuset pan), and they’re for two to share, at a price your waiter will tell you.

Mains I’d overlooked, then, were: “Veggie Patch” (moving on); double-cut pork with apricot and celeriac; pork belly with butternut and beans; confit chicken with spinach and masala cream; Cioppino (San Franciscan fisherman’s stew); wild mushroom risotto (mirroring the Societi Bistro menu — they cannot remove it for fear of a lynching); glazed BBQ salmon; “King Prawn Bowl”, and prawn pasta with chilli cream. Well, there’s plenty there I’d want to try, so return visits would be planned.

Here’s a nice innovation: from 4pm to 7pm they have a charcoal grill “pick a stick”, R40 for skewers of chicken pork, fish, cheese, veg, or prawn. The actual grill menu offers sirloin fillet or a BBQ burger (R115 for the burger, R160-R180 for the former two); a 750g T-bone for R350 (that’s for two to share); and a 500g rib-eye for R275. They’re all served with “twice fries”, while the giant T-bone also comes with a sauce and a side. (Sides and sauces are listed separately.) Sides are beans and garlic; four-cheese spinach (which one in our party couldn’t have enough of); twice fries; apple and rocket salad, and Mac&Cheese (um...?). (R35)

Sauces: red wine jus; Béarnaise, mushroom; Bordelaise; pepper. (R35)

End with lemon tart (also on the Societi menu — were they peeking? Even the menu layout is similar in design); churros (which I had; lovely, crunchy but a tad too sweet); chocolate torte; waffle with burnt marshmallow ice cream; a Gorgonzola soufflé with chive cream that looked wondrous (I photographed someone else’s, hope they didn’t mind); and my son-in-law Neal’s rooibos brûlée, served with orange crumbs. Neal is well-versed in the art (and eating) of the brûlée, and he declared it the very best he’d eaten, anywhere. Period. And stated emphatically. And I can vouch for his palate.

If indeed owner Rudi Minnaar borrowed the odd idea from the Societi Bistro menu, well, that’s a respectful nod to Societi owner Peter Weetman, who Minnaar helped set up in business way back in the day (see my GastroTurf column). Full circle then. DM