If there were an award for the team with the very best team spirit, Jordan Restaurant might well have scooped it at this year’s Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards. They came wearing matching grey kilts, they did a jig on stage and ultimately, George Jardine and Kyle Burn’s team walked off with a spot in the Top 10.

Watch the team receive the announcement at the 2015 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards.

Planning a trip? Eat Out features editor Jeanne Calitz explains what you can expect from the Scotsman and his team.

Food

Celebrated chef George Jardine’s fantastic, highly seasonal menus draw acolytes from far and wide. His food is at the same time lacking in pretention and bursting with flavour, high on technique and low on flash-in-the pan trends. Starters may include hot-smoked kabeljou served on a dramatic black risotto nero, the salty flavours balanced by the fresh addition of crushed peas and nasturtium pesto.

Colourful cuisine at Jordan Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Mains bring satisfying, sophisticated dishes like a serving of rich smoked Kroon duck breast with sautéed duck liver and cauliflower jus. The salted hake with smoked mussels and roasted gnocchi also goes down a storm, but the clear winner of the day is a wonderful dish of buttered fettucini with Jerusalem artichoke veloutè, caramelised onion, fried artichoke and goat’s cheese. It’s one of those revelatory dishes that catches you completely unawares with the subtle impact of its flavours – the kind of vegetarian meal that will win converts for the cause.

A lamb dish with vegetables at Jordan Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

For dessert, you may fall for the chocolate mousse with white chocolate ice cream, but then you’d be missing out on the superlative experience that is the honey-and-poppyseed soufflé. And you wouldn’t want to miss the seductive experience of those warm, comforting flavours rising from this perfectly cooked confection.

A final dessert option includes the much-raved about trip to the cheese room, where you can have your pick from a substantial array cheese that includes four goat’s milk cheeses, two blues, two gruyères, a Ficksberger, Boerenkaas and cheddars – all local, all perfectly aged, and wonderfully matched by a spread of accompaniments which include poached pears and preserved melon.

A soufflé for dessert at Jordan Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Drinks

The day’s menu will include expertly recommended wine pairings and also the option of full wine pairing. Of course the lovely Jordan wines (all available by the glass) feature prominently, but not exclusively. Quality wines from the likes of Bouchard Finlayson and Newton Johnson also appear, and the mark-up is reasonable.

Service

Warm and friendly. Staff are attuned to diners’ needs without being intrusive.

The chefs at Jordan Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Ambience

Even though the food is of superior fine-dining quality, the atmosphere is not at all stuffy, but warm and convivial, especially on winter’s nights when the fire is roaring away. On clear days, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows offer spectacular views over the verdant valley.

And…

The farm now offers stylish accommodation with breakfast included, which only heightens the temptation to make a reservation for dinner.