Extravagant, yet familiar

The dining area for the popular Licorish Bistro is marked off with red velvet-covered partitions and if you’re a first-timer, you should look out for the large, white, beaded chandeliers that provide the muted light for the establishment. The menu offers a good number of options of a limited range of food types. So if you’re in the mood for a steak, there’s a beef fillet with Kalahari truffles, smoked potato mash and red wine sauce at the “safe” end of the scale, and pine cone-smoked kudu fillet with (deep breath) maple and cinnamon sweet potato purée, black cherry compote and springbok shank strudel with carrot hummus and a port and sherry just for the more adventurous.

If you’re lucky, executive chef Jacques Fourie will be feeling both experimental and generous and there will be specials such as a trio of venison steaks (ostrich and springbok are other options) prepared on a single platter, each well-proportioned and presented with flair. Add to that your choice of bespoke cocktails – there’s a separate menu of interesting options – and you have a meal that’s both wonderfully extravagant, yet comfortingly familiar.

In the latter class are South African classics like bobotie (in spring rolls in this instance) and chicken frikkadels, both choices as starters. This mix of traditional tastes and creativity extends to the other end of the meal as well, with baked custards (with caramel and coffee jelly) being highly recommended as a way to indulge your sweet tooth. Fourie adds to his workload by offering added extras like the venison trio – three separate jobs for a single meal – but he and his team are supremely adept at juggling all their duties, and the food is perfectly prepared and presented with imagination.

This is not only true of the pla-ting, but also in the arrival of the food, which sees a second waiter bring and set up a butler’s tray on which to add the finishing touches to a dish so that it arrives in front of you in pristine condition.

Licorish Bistro is not cheap: any main course with meat in it will set you back at least R120 (though the special mentioned above was R150, thereby living up to its tag). But the food and service are excellent, and you’ll leave feeling like you’ve had a special treat.