Cavalli Estate — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

So yesterday we went to Cavalli for our anniversary and I must say it was absolutely spectacular.

From the venue itself to the scenery, the service and of course the food it was completely worth it.

And before "those people" complain about how they would have to stop at the McDonalds on the way home, this food was so much that I had two pieces of toast only at 22:00 last night.

The size of the plate especially of the mains makes it look much less than it is. We opted to forego the rosemary potato sides and have dessert instead. Even so, I was overfull.

Breads : Bread itself was much of a muchness but the accompanying Mustard and Blueberry butter make it amazing. They also give you pineapple salt which is great to try with and without for two completely different tastes.

Such a basic thing that I will definitely make for snacks in the future.

Starter : Barn-raised duck breast, mango purée, sweet corn salsa, nam prik, coconut reduction.

The shocker here was that the corn and other things were cold while the duck breast was warm which catches you by surprise but makes for a very interesting fusion of taste.

I loved the corn salsa combined with the reduction. Duck breast was equally tasty but best had alone and not mixed with the rest.

Mains : Pasture raised flat-iron steak and short rib, shiitake mushrooms, yellow mustard, estate carrots, star anise jus.

My first bite was actually very mixed as the piece of short rib with the fat just didn't blend with the almost vinegar like jus. So I had the rest of it with the mushrooms of which there weren't many and it was very pleasant.

I'm far from vegetarian but the carrots were **ing amazing.

The main steak section worked perfectly with the jus and while it looked like so little it was incredibly filling. Perfectly

Dessert : Pink peppercorn nectarine, rooibos & yoghurt mousse, lemon curd, almond biscuit, white peach sorbet.

I like strong robust flavours when dining out and generally also very experimental when it's a reputable restaurant. So this was some kind of peppercorn mouse thing but it was ultimately very flat in flavour and not at all what I expected. The peaches were great and so was the sorbet, but definitely my least favourite part of the meal.

My wife had the lemongrass & coconut torte, chickpea fudge crust, pine Apple compote, cucumber granita, which I expected to be quite subtle and lite but turned out much stronger in flavours than mine.

Should have gone for the cheesecake. :)

Didn't pay attention to the wine as my wife selected it but it was one of their own Rosés. Was pretty good but not the type of wine that had me finishing the bottle almost by accident and took a bit of effort down the line.

Overall it was a spectacular experience in every way and highly...

It’s a nice modern building with a beautiful view in an amazing location, but then there’s the food… I started with a couple of oysters, which we’re basically gooey and coming apart when i tried to shuck it because it was so mushy. the taste was ok- out of 10 it would be a six. for the second starter i had yellowtail type sashimi/ ceviche, which couldn’t even fill an ant the portion was so small. it looked aesthetically nice but tasted like pure oil. if anything it was a taste of a mix of butter and olive oil and it wouldn’t bea stretch to say mouldy cheese. for a main i ordered sustainable fish. it had 2 flavours that tasted like lemon and the atlantic ocean - there was no inbetween, just very very strong on both sides of ocean and lemon. the flavours were switching from ocean to lemon in my mouth by the second, i couldn’t even take a 3rd bite of it. i wanted to redeem my review so i decided to order something that isnt to bad, so i ordered a steak from the kiddies menu, and of course it wasn’t good. it had an ok taste, but it was very dry and tough. if i closed my eyes i’d think i was eating leather with a bit of salt. by the end of my main i didn’t even want dessert, which was probably for the better. something that did redeem the restaurant which i didn’t even think about was the service. it was brilliant. i had a lovely man waitering me called Gerald. a very kind hearted and pure man who was an amazing waiter. i barely saw him write down anything when me and my group ordered, and everything came out exactly as we ordered (unfortunately it wasn’t good) gerald is a great waiter and i’m sure has potential to have a job that would better suit him, like a manager or something along those lines, especially considering he knows the restaurant business overall it was about a 2, as the food brought it down by a big amount. if i could give a seperate rating for service and venue, it would be a 5/5. lastly i would like to say thank you to gerald. you are most appreciated and i hope you have an...

We had a fantastic dining experience at the Cavalli Estate restaurant.

We ordered the 5 course set menu, which included an additional snack plate and bread plate. From the first bite of the fired mushroom with furikake we knew we were in for a special evening.

If I were to write about each dish I would have to write a small article, so here are the highlights of the meal: The langoustine with butternut and fishbone velouté - each bite delivered a layered experience where I would taste one ingredient after the other and then have the tastes mould together to create a mouthful of perfection. The potato gnocchi, gruberg cheese, lardo, pickled onion - my partner cannot stop speaking about this (“potential final meal”). My only point of critique would be that, as the pickled onion adds a perfect acidic balance to the heavier dish, I would have preferred two or three ring slices instead of just one. Finally the umami hollandaise sauce with the angus beef and horseradish - I was nervous about the a hollandaise sauce with beef fillet, but the chef managed to create a beautiful, comforting, yet exciting bite.

We also did the wine pairing along with the dinner. Even though we don’t have the expertise to appreciate the complexity of each wine, we were very impressed by the way in which each wine complemented each dish, and in some cases even transformed the dish. It also gave us a great opportunity to experience some of Cavalli’s great range.

As for the rest of the experience: seated right next to the fireplace, we felt cared for the entire evening. The manager, servers, and sommelier were welcoming, kind and very informative. One of my favourite parts of the experience was getting to peer into the kitchen and watch the chef, sous-chef and kitchen staff work their expert magic.

Would highly recommend this experience to anyone looking for a...