Manna Epicure – a dining experience

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Manna Epicure is an eatery on Cape Town’s trendy and busy Kloof street and I was lucky enough to be able to dine there just this week. Manna is best described as chic French flair meets rustic South African, and this is seen not only in the interior, which does have a French style café’ eatery feel to it, but everything is natural and there is no pretentiousness despite it’s elegance, which is what I really loved. It was welcoming and warm, and I could probably sit there for hours just soaking up the atmosphere, sipping on a glass or two of something, and no not necessarily wine, I know what you were all thinking, but they do make their own amazing ice-tea & bake their own gorgeous bread, which would be enough for me…but on this occasion I was a little more spoilt than that, which I’ll get into shortly.

First just a bit more background information on menu and what they offer. So as I said, French flair with a rustic South African approach, but get this, the added benefits of an Argentinian twist. So for example the meat cuts are marinaded in chimichurri, and the one at Manna is light and versatile which is why it works so well for the meat. In case anyone was wondering what exactly chimichurri is, it’s is a green sauce used for grilled meat, originally from Argentina, and it has a base of chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil and oregano and white or red wine vinegar, further flavourings such as paprika etc are sometimes added and then the red version would have the addition of tomato and red bell pepper…so know more wondering what it is when you see it on a menu, just order it, the lightness and freshness of it, in my opinion, is great compared to that of a heavy sauce. Now whilst talking marinade for the meat it’s at this point where I must tell you about the meat itself. Manna exclusively uses Chalmar beef, so it’s a special and hard to find beef but it is rated higher in quality than some of the other types of beef available. It is also ethically farmed and Halaal. Their beef is also aged an additional four weeks to the original two, and that means one very important thing, flavour, flavour and more flavour.

What is also noted at Manna is that the main dish is always the focus, and there are no distracting side garnishes. So if you order ribs, that is what you’ll get on the board…and I love that, it means that focus and attention is given to that one main element, but if you do like your sides, never fear, these can be ordered separately, and they’re delicious. Perfect onion rings, and I’m a sucker for onion rings, but then also fries, courgettes with feta and basil, sweet baby carrots, the list goes on…

For me quality of ingredients and the ethics behind sourcing those ingredients and then not over-complicating the food so that the ingredients speak for themselves is really important, and Manna does this so well, but where there is more detail they get that so right too, like the starters we had.

The first was a whole baked camembert in white wine with thyme, served with slices of one their breads…so you literally unwrap the cheese as you usually would and the light infusion of herb with the acidity of the wine cuts the richness so well…it was really really good, and smeared onto that bread, heaven I tell you…and the second starter was liver wrapped in bacon on caramalised onion with chorizo, pesto and olive oil. Again, one cannot fault this dish, the bacon and chorizo provide moisture to the perfectly cooked liver and then the bruschetta dipped into the natural oils from those meats coupled with the pesto and the sweetness from the onions really is like a taste explosion. For me one of the best starters I’ve had in a long time.

For mains we opted for the 12 hour slow cooked beef ribs and a portion of the sticky pork ribs.Two gorgeous wooden boards arrived piled with ribs, meat falling off the bone, I cannot believe how hungry I am getting just remembering eating it! Cooked to perfection, that’s all I can say. If you are a rib fan do yourself a favour and go just for that if for nothing else, the menu also offers lamb ribs dusted in biltong powder, another yum right there. We did also have some of the sides, and all were excellent, nothing much else to say on that.

All that was left was dessert. Now as you can imagine after what we’d just eaten we opted to share dessert which was a chocolate and hazelnut parfait…there was ice-cream, marshmallow, shards of chocolate with white espresso mousse flavours…everything you want a dessert to be, but if I’d had more space there was a gorgeous red velvet cheesecake which I’ll definitely be back to try.

My recommendation is that if you’re short on time to do a full dinner, pop in in the afternoon and do indulge in some of their baked goodies and don’t forget to order that ice-tea!

You can stay in touch with them via twitter @mannaepicure or via their website mannaepicure.com

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