Fast facts

Name of restaurant: Spek en Bone

Address: 84 Dorp street, Stellenbosch

Food type: Modern fine dining

Average price of a main course: R300

Opening times: Lunch: Tuesday to Saturday 12noon – 2pm; Dinner: Tuesday to Thursday 6pm – 9pm, Fridays and Saturdays 5.30pm – 8pm

Parking: Undercover parking at Houghton Hotel.

Best for… dinner with friends, social gathering

Food

The menu offers snacks, tapas (with Korean fried chicken giving a nod to the Spekkie’s Fried Chicken of lockdown days) and dessert. Or choose the Chef’s Menu to enjoy the chef’s greatest hits without having to make any hard decisions (and at R360 per head, it’s exceptionally good value).

However you choose to order, don’t miss out on the milk bread from the snack menu, which comes with beef fat and whipped lemon butter. You’ll feel as if you died and went to a pillowy bread heaven.

Look out for the pork and spring onion dumplings with miso sauce on the Chef’s Menu, as well as the raw tuna with egg noodles showered in parmesan. The Asian influence continues into the rest of the menu, featuring dishes such as roast fish served with courgettes, peanuts and nam phrik. The roasted cauliflower is also sure to be a favourite, topped with crispy potato sticks and a grating of macadamia.

The showstopper is the potato gnocchi – impossibly light and blanketed in a subtle Huguenot cheese sauce with mushrooms. This is the dish you’ll come back for. The flame-cooked rump with celeriac (roasted and as crisps) rounds out the set, ensuring you aren’t left wanting for anything.

If you have room, a hit of nostalgia is on offer on the dessert menu – along with an orange chiffon cake and dark chocolate cremeux, Ouma’s Sweets promises a dark chocolate peanut cluster, fudge and Turkish delight.

Drinks

A wine ‘wall’ does double duty as the wine list, so you can inspect the wines on offer before making your selection. This is a well-curated wall where arguably nothing would be a bad choice.

Service

Fantastic service from Michael, who’s very knowledgeable about the wines on offer and speaks with confidence about them. The explanation of dishes and the timing of food service were excellent.

Ambience

Overall the venue is better suited to summer dining than winter – the courtyard is wonderful to eat in on summer nights, while inside doesn’t feel very cosy for wintry dining.