Restaurant Mosaic is worth crossing the border for

If you take the R512 from Johannesburg to Restaurant Mosaic in Elandsfontein, you will leave Gauteng only to enter it again.

There’s a section of the road that runs through North West before re-entering Gauteng just a few kilometres before the famous restaurant‘s gates.

For the past few years, chef Chantel Dartnall has been delivering transcendent menus every equinox. The equinox, just like my drive to Restaurant Mosaic, plays with the idea of two. Two provinces, two distinct times of the year, two menus.

If you dabble with the esoteric, numerology often links the number two to people who make peace and are connected to earth, which the latest spring/summer menu shows with Natura Naturans: The Earth Laughs in Flowers.

The menu draws inspiration from the earth and it does indeed soothe the soul, thanks to Dartnall’s way of taking ingredients and sculpting them into something that shows exactly how lucky we are to receive the bounty of Mother Nature.

Bento Box – with a wasabi marshmallow, carrot lolly, smoked snoek and ‘patat’. Picture: Supplied

But it’s the way Dartnall is able to reimagine ingredients that really shows why she, and the restaurant, has become so lauded.

The Market Dégustation menu features a lovely dish called On the Vine. It’s a playful plate featuring a few cherry tomatoes, but as you start biting, cutting and exploring, the plate reveals recreations of tomatoes from gels, one stuffed with cheese, another a sweet burst of flavour and then the unexpected, a real tomato, so fresh and with aged balsamic vinegar and basil.

If you have dined at Restaurant Mosaic before this shouldn’t be a surprise. There’s always a second, more intense level to each dish that comes out of Dartnall’s kitchen, just like there is to the dining experience when you add the wine pairings.

Restaurant Mosaic claims the largest cellar in Africa, with wines from across the globe. In the cellar, one of the large rocks is often blessed by breaking bottles of wine on it for the “angel’s share”.

From nonvintage champagne to Western Cape classics, there’s no dish that doesn’t compliment the wine and vice versa. Dartnall and sommelier Moses Magwaza are two forces working in tandem, again showing the power of two.

Chef Chantel Dartnall. Picture: Supplied

Another big change is the fact that the latest menu no longer features the bread trolley and instead, each course is served with a unique bread that complements the dish.

A favourite from the menu, and also a personal one, is Under the Veil. It’s a composition of langoustine, white peach and hibiscus, a paean to Dartnall’s beloved grandmother.

“She always smelt faintly of lavender and 4711 Eau de Cologne and was able to take humble moments, such as pitching a make-believe tent in her bedroom, and transport me.”

There is a choice of four Natura Naturans menus: the Grande Dégustation, the Market Dégustation as well as the pescatarian and vegetarian options. All are worth crossing the border for.

Info

•  Bookings need to be made in advance, and can be done through the restaurant’s website.
• The nonalcoholic pairing predominately presents a number of refreshing teas and tonics to accompany each dish.
• For more information visit Restaurant Mosaic.

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