If you’re heading through Mpumalanga this holiday season pop into Magnolia Restaurant for some fine food – or a great coffee at the attached café – en route.

Food

For those that just want to nibble something before dinner, the menu offers a couple of tapas-style starters like ricotta, garlic and herb filled olives, crumbed and deep-fried; or a prawn bruschetta with goats’ milk cheese, pesto and chive crème fraiche.

Other starters include ham hock and chicken liver pâté (served with red berry and apple chutney, herb salad and melba), a number of creative salads and two antipasti platters.

Magnolia Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Main courses are presented under the headings ‘from the grill’, ‘curries’ and ‘from the sea’, but it is the chef’s favourite section where chef/owner Jamie Watts shows his culinary prowess. There you’ll find winners such as the five-hour slow braised lamb shoulder, mustard and herb lamb rump roast, thyme creamed potatoes, confit baby onions and tarragon jus. End your meal with homemade nougat honeycomb parfait with raspberry mojito jam.

Wine

The wine list is both attractively designed and clearly laid out. It covers all the bases: sparkling wines, Cap Classiques, Champagnes, sauvignon blancs (such as Peter Falke), cabernet sauvignons (Klein Steenberg), pinotages (such as House of Mandela Thembu Collection), and blends such as the Raka Figurehead, a lovely pinotage blend with spicy fruit and herbal notes. Some unusual single varietals such as Barbera and Cabernet Franc end the list.

Service

One suspects that the service personnel like their jobs or that working conditions are amenable, if after a number of years waiters recognize diners and vice versa. But this is also an indication of the level of service and that the people are really observant and attentive. Managers are always on hand to attend to whatever might be required and are particularly helpful to foreign travelers.

Magnolia Restaurant. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Ambience

The main restaurant and delightful mezzanine level set high in the rafters of the pitched roof is reached via a small formal garden where little tables with pretty wrought iron furniture are set out. Two voluptuous couches and the most beautiful flowering orchids – specifically cultivated for the restaurant – set the tone for a rather formal looking restaurant. Tables are well spaced from one another and draped in good white linen from top to bottom.

And…

The all-day café attached to the restaurant serves some of the best coffee in the Lowveld.

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