On the other hand, Gingko

So after the disappointing Maximillien experience, we were hesitant to use another Groupon restaurant voucher. But hey, we paid for it already. So on Friday we squeezed in a lunch date at Gingko, and it might have been one of the best decisions of my life. I have a new favourite restaurant!

Gingko serves mostly organic food, no preservatives or artificial anything, which appeals massively to my food ethos. I think Hanno bought the voucher in the first place to score points with his crunchy wife. It worked! The entire experience was 100% in contrast to the night at Maximillien, with the exception that the service for both was really really good.

Here’s my comparison:

Ambience:

Maximillien feels luxurious and plush. It gives the impression that you have to have money to eat there (and when you look at the menu that’s mostly confirmed).

At Gingko, you feel like you’re sitting at the kitchen table of a good friend. The chairs are plastic, I'm not sure if the floor is tiled or cement but it's not carpeted – and yet you feel 100% at home immediately.

Location:

Maximillien is in the centre of Sandton, wedged between Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square, so sitting in executive space. Parking in the building cost us R10.

Gingko is in Parktown, about 2 turns off Westcliff drive. You drive through a residential area to get to the business part of Parktown, and then into the (free!) parking of the deli itself.

Food:

Well, you know what I think of the food at Maximillien. The Gingko meal, on the other hand, was one of the food highlights of my life. Really. The lunch menu is well priced (most meals between R50 and R75, I think) with the option to do a buffet which pays per weight, R140 per kg.  I don’t think they have a liquor license, at least I didn’t see a wine list, but the drinks include organic lemonade or gingerbeer, smoothies, freshly squeezed juice and a whole selection of interesting teas. And of course organic, free trade coffee.

Price:

These two restaurants clearly don’t play in the same league. At Maximillien you currently pay R600 per couple for the disappointing meal that we had on Thursday (which, to be fair, includes a bottle of wine so it’s not BAD value for money). Our voucher, on the other hand, entitled us to R225 worth of food for the two of us and we didn’t use up all of that. My (rather generous) plate of food from the buffet came to R68, Hanno’s was R59. Chocolate pot desserts for R24 each on the special. We shared a carafe of organic gingerbeer which cost R24 (I think) for 500ml. The most expensive item on the menu is a grilled salmon which goes for R97. When was the last time you were in a good restaurant that doesn’t charge above R100 for anything?

So, on to what I actually ate:

I chose the following off the buffet:

Butternut, pear, gorgonzola and walnut quiche

Panak paneer curry (cottage cheese in spinach curry) with basmati rice

A brown mushroom and polenta bake

Couscous and roasted vegetable salad

Baby zucchini and tahini dressing salad

It was simply fantastic. The couscous salad was probably the least impressive, not because I could find anything wrong with it but it tastes like the one I make at home, so it wasn’t as surprising in flavour as the other foods. Everything was simply beautiful. The respect for good ingredients just shines through the entire meal. The tahini dressing on the zucchini, and the flavour in the mushrooms – wow.

So in this instance, the Groupon voucher did exactly what it was meant to do. Attracted two new customers who would otherwise probably never have heard of the place, and strongly incentivised us to come back, and come back soon (and often). I was on cloud 9 for about 5 hours after eating their food. Yes, it was THAT good. They might even turn me into a vegetarian if this continues.

Oh, I should mention: The buffet was vegetarian but they have meat and fish dishes on the standard lunch menu. The lamb kebabs looked fantastic, and I strongly considered the chicken prego or the prawn stirfry as options before I strolled past the buffet and all thoughts of eating anything else evaporated.

I didn't actually plan to be reviewing restaurants in the blog, this just happened. But watch this space - I want to tell you about the German chocolate cake I baked over the weekend...

The Maximillien

So we had our date night at the Maximillien last night! As always it was awesome to spend some one on one time with the awesome man I married - isn't it weird how sitting at a table in a restaurant affords you time to chat about things that otherwise just get lost in the wash?

But if you'll allow me to play food critic for a moment, I have to comment on the actual restaurant. The atmosphere is amazing, service absolutely excellent. Before we even ordered starters Hanno was planning our next visit already. But we've both changed our minds about going back - at least, we'll go back for a cocktail, maybe, but not a meal.

I ordered the rocket and orange salad as a starter. It was great, except for the obvious lack of rocket (a herb that I adore). Instead the salad was based on some rather tasteless frilly lettuce. The roasted pine nuts were fantastic, the cheese creamy and everything came together really nicely. But the description said it's a salad of rocket and baby spinach leaves, and what I got was a salad of frilly lettuce and spinach that couldn't possibly be described as baby - teenager, more likely. Hanno's carpaccio was OK but the meat itself lacked flavour.

My main was the chicken in parma ham cooked in a sherry sauce and served on tagliatelle. Again, no sign of the parma ham, which was the main attraction in my choice to order the chicken in the first place. I couldn't taste any sherry either, so what I got was a cooked chicken breast (beautifully cooked, moist and tender) in a nondescript savoury sauce over slightly overcooked pasta. And it was supposed to be served with stir-fry vegetables and roasted butternut, but instead I got plain cooked vegetables (cauliflower, carrots and green beans) and cooked butternut. The plain boiled veggies made the whole main feel like a plate of cooked food instead of a restaurant creation, kwim?

Hanno had the fillet medallions in pepper sauce and it was really beautiful - cooked rare, flavourful meat and delicately seasoned. The pepper sauce was less overpowering than some restaurants make it, and the mashed potatoes were a work of art. Of course, he also got the boiled veggies to go with it.

Then for dessert we had a choice between berry cheesecake and crepes suzette, and we both ordered the crepes suzette. Which was OK, I suppose, but definitely not fresh. Mine were cold on the inside, so clearly these were made a few hours (days?) before dinner service and simply heated up and covered in sauce.

I think in summary there's no chance I go back for the food - if we had paid the full R600 for the meal instead of getting it half price on a Wicount offer (that's the voucher than Hanno bought, btw) we would have been really upset. Hanno suspects they give lower quality food if they know you're coming on a voucher, which we told them stupidly when we booked. But if the point of the Wicount offer is to attract new customers and then have them come back again and again to relive the experience, the Maximillien has failed miserably this time.

That's a surprise

People are actually reading this! And by people I mean people who are not me, or related to me, or married to me (hi Hanno). Who would have thought?

(Of course I know it's not people married to me who are reading this, because when I told Hanno the blog has followers, he said "oh, have you posted more than once?")

In lieu of date night...

I'm making a quiche. Supposedly vegetarian but that doesn't apply anymore once you add some chargrilled ham to it, I suppose.

Here's the recipe:

Chop up some mixed veg (I usually use spinach, butternut, mushrooms, peppers and leeks. Tonight I don't have spinach so I substituted some extra mushrooms). Put it in a pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a splash of soy sauce. Steam for about 12-15 minutes until the butternut goes soft. Stir now and then. Oh, and add about 10 basil leaves before you put it on the stove, it makes quite a difference.

Then mix 4 eggs with about 150 mls of coconut milk (I used normal milk tonight, it's less WW points). Once the veggies are going soft, put them in an oven-proof dish. Pour over the eggy mixture. If you want to spoil the vegetarian status of the quiche, now is the time to poke some pieces of ham in between the veggies. Then crumble some feta over the top, and parmesan if you want, and bake at 160 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the eggs are set. Yum!

So baby's in bed, the older one is bathed and pj'ed, playing next to me on the floor. Hanno is reading a book on the Kindle in front of the fire. Dinner will be done in about 15 minutes. Who needs date night to have a great evening?

Postponing date night

Tonight was supposed to be date night. Hanno bought a voucher (Groupon or something similar) for a lovely meal for 2, set menu 3 course dinner, at a fancy schmancy restaurant in Sandton. And then he got sick. :(

I mean, I applaud the sentiment, he doesn’t feel it’s right to stay home from work and then go out in the evening. But oh, the menu. Orange and rocket salad or beef carpaccio to start, followed by a choice between grilled calamari, chicken with parma ham and tagliatelli, beef fillet medallions or a vegetarian lasagna, and then crepes suzette or cake for dessert.

Sounds awesome, no?

If he’s better tomorrow we’ll do it then, so all isn’t lost. And this gives me an extra day to eat healthy so I don’t have to feel guilty about the dessert tomorrow!

For my Joburg friends, by the way, this is the autumn set menu from Maximillien in Nelson Mandela square. It goes for R600 per couple. Watch this space for feedback.

And so it begins.

I suppose every blog begins with a "hi, this is my first post". So hi. This is my first post. All nice and conformist - I guess that bit won't last.

If you're curious about me, here's some basic info: I'm Linda. I'm South African born and bred, and currently living in Johannesburg - and loving every second. My wonderful husband and I moved here about 2.5 years ago from Cape Town, and we've fallen in love with the city to a degree that I never thought possible. We have two beautiful girls, the light of my life, and I expect you'll hear quite a bit about the roller-coaster adventure that is parenting a one- and four-year-old in the posts to follow. I'm a bit of a geek, and my current obsession is baking and cake decorating, to my family's delight and my waistline's final demise. During the day I can be found at work in front of a computer (I'm an actuary), and given that it's midwinter here you'll find me most evenings in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine.

I have no idea where this is going, or where my focus is going to end up. For the moment, I plan to share with you my adventures in baking, parenting, home renovating (starting in 4 weeks, eek!), faith and life in general. Let's see where we end up, OK?