Situated on the beautiful Babylonstoren estate, Babel receives a second nomination for the annual Boschendal Style Award. A peek at the beautiful space, glorious estate and fabulous fresh produce and it’s easy to see why.
 
The restaurant:
Owner Karen Roos collaborated with Maranda Engelbrecht to transform the humble cowshed into a light, beautiful space which reflects the emphasis on farm-to-fork cuisine.
 
The food:
Driven by the fabulous fresh produce from the estate’s garden, Babel’s food is refreshingly simple, flavoursome and stylish. Start with either a ‘green’, ‘red’ or ‘yellow’ salad, fresh from the beautiful garden, move onto one of the daily specials, scrawled onto the tiles alongside the bull’s head, or pick one of the popular staples such as slow-cooked lamb shank, marinated in Harissa and buttermilk and served with Lebanese oregano and wild mountain rosemary.

Still got space for dessert? Choose between bitter (a baked chocolate fondant with olive salt and espresso sabayon), sour (baked lemon custard with citrus marmalade), savoury (salted caramel with warm drunken winter fruit and Parma ham crisp) and sweet (baked malva pud with garden rose geranium and chai caramel sauce). Or, if this seems unnecessarily difficult, order one of each and share.

The x-factor:
“You’ve got to love a place where a fresh cauliflower has pride of place as a tabledecoration,” says our reviewer, Fiona McDonald. Clever design has helped to bring the beauty of the Babylonstoren estate inside:  whitewashed central pillars remain from the old cow shed, while steel and glass let plenty of natural light in. A large tile panel of a Poenskop Angus bull meanwhile, makes a tongue in cheek reference to the building’s original purpose.

Has Babel got what it takes to win the Boschendal Style Award at the Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards?