The Country Kitchen, Mont Rochelle — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

Its food.. . That about sums up our (vegan) picnic basket.

The staff was friendly, the views are great, the wine too, but we were very underwhelmed by the lack of taste and creativity of the food. Ok, we get it, perhaps vegan cooking is not your cup of tea. It doesn't have to be perfect. But if you offer a full vegan basket at the same price of a regular basket, open up a few vegan cookbooks and study how to make it interesting instead of creating a random collection of mediocre side dishes. Use herbs, use nuts, use beans, use smoking, woodfire, something different. Country food is fine, it doesnt have to be fine dining, but you can create great taste with simple products, also without cheese, meat, or fish.

We had some screwers with blocks of tofu and champignons, a few corn skitters with very mayonaise heavy cowlslaw, tomato salad with basil pesto, random chips that were supposed to come with dips that were missing, a few slices of dry bread with a teany tiny bit of hummus, and a quite ok tabuleh salad. The chocolate mouse was the best part. We went home early without finishing our wine or opening our water to eat at our own place. Perhaps our expectations were (too) high in this region but we have enjoyed some super creative plant based food at other places, so we thought at a place next to a high end restaurant (mika), we couldn't miss.

Upon sharing our feedback with the staff, they handled it very well, were open to listen, and offered us a bottle of wine (which wasnt the intention of our feedback but was appreciated...

We ordered 3 different starters of which 2 were poor eg tasteless deep fried camembert from Fairview which was barely warmed up let alone deep fried. Get a tasty cheese not some bland version of one of the tastiest cheeses in the world! Oh and cook it! Then chicken wings......how can you do this wrong? Well you pre cook them and warm them in a microwave until they are tough then slather them in a creamy sauce so you get soggy tough wings! They are a finger food......dont bathe them in cheesy slime!! However the Zucchini fritters did taste delicious and freshly made! The wines were bland and overpriced and the only 2 good ones were not available by the glass. Can Mr Branson not afford an Enoteca system or equivalent? Staff were lovely and friendly but clearly had no personal knowledge of the food as probably never given the chance to eat it! Overall about the standard of an average english pub. Avoid if in Franschhoek as much better can...

ALLERGY HAZARD do not go here if you have a serious allergy. We had corresponded with the Country Kitchen team weeks ahead of our honeymoon trip through email alerting staff of our anticipated visit and requested menu changes for a life-threatening nut/legume allergy. They assured us they could make the menu swaps. When we arrived, Janene from the front desk coldly contended we did not have a reservation until she found our email trail with her (without apology for her earlier assertion). We reminded them again about the allergy. The basket brought to us had cashews and peas in the dishes. Fortunately, we caught these issues before anything fatal could occur. The response, to our shock, was flat and no manager contact information was provided. We are horrified by the egregious carelessness, lack of concern, and general unprofessionalism, and simply cannot recommend this...