The Restaurant at Waterkloof is the latest nominee to be announced for this year’s Boschendal Style Award, the winner of which will be named at the Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards in November this year.

The restaurant
Nestled in the gap between the Helderberg and Hottentots-Holland mountains, the restaurant gazes out over the vines towards glittering False Bay.

The food
Chef Gregory Czarnecki serves up inventive, contemporary French dishes, with an emphasis on green and seasonal produce grown on the biodynamic Waterkloof farm. The menu changes often, but you’ll find French-influenced dishes such as slow-braised rabbit, kohlrabi (German cabbage), foie gras and pain d’épices; lime-cured Fizantakraal trout, wasabi sorbet and roasted beetroot; and 12-hour cooked pork, scallop, and salted peanut butter on offer. For dessert, you may well be served caramelised banana, truffled ‘Nutella’ and Horlicks ice cream, or Tellicherry black pepper panna cotta, with cape gooseberries, smoked pear sorbet and muesli soil.

The X-factor
Mitch Hayhow from Castle Rock Design is the architect behind the striking building, which was designed and built from scratch. Reinforced concrete, glass and steel frames make for a stark and masculine exterior, with a striking glass cage cantilevered off the front.

Interior architect Franck Bohm collaborated with owner Paul Boutinot and chef Gregory to create the interior. While the spectacular view through the glass promontory is hard to ignore, a suspended fireplace, custom-built furniture and feature wine-tasting counter – made from a single piece of Blue Gum – make for a warmer atmosphere.

Does The Restaurant at Waterkloof have what it takes to win this year’s Boschendal Style Award?