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...