The social media hype around Bones Kitchen & Bar is peaking. In the past six weeks it has been reviewed by scores of Cape Town diners on three sites: TripAdvisor, EatOut and notably, the closed Facebook group Cape Town Restaurants – The Good, the Bad and the Nastyyyy.
Diners can’t stop raving about the deep-fried Parmesan balls in mushroom ragout. The pork belly is unbelievable. They’re mad for the churros and delighted by the friendly managers.
In the past six weeks alone, Bones in Woodstock has been reviewed more than 30 times on The Good, the Bad and the Nastyyyy. Some of the reviews have received upwards of 100 comments. If you search “Bones” the posts run on, screen after screen, all the way back to October last year when the restaurant opened. Combined, the number of posts and comments is well into four figures.
Of the very few, scattered criticisms, none have been more severe than a comment on noise levels and a reviewer saying she was “underwhelmed”. Someone else found The Palms parking lot “spooky”.
On TripAdvisor, there are 66 diner reviews of Bones. One reviewer rates it average, one rates it poor. The others rate it very good (12) or, in the case of 52 reviewers – a eyebrow-raising 80% of the group – excellent.
This is staggering. Is there a bandwagon factor at play here? Or could Bones just be that good?
I thoroughly enjoyed the carpaccio starter. The beef is from a farm in Bredasdorp. It was soft and flavourful, complemented by teeny enoki mushrooms, parmesan crisps and shavings, and roasted baby tomatoes. There was a strong sugary element to the dressing that complemented the intensely savoury tastes of the other elements. Here, as in so many dishes at Bones, there is a focus on the crowd-pleasing umami flavours found in red meat, strong cheese, mushrooms and deeply flavourful stocks and sauces.
The name Bones actually refers to the bones that are used in the base of any good stock – and the stocks that are reduced to make truly excellent sauces.
“Faultless” – pan fried steak with mushroom sauce.
Chefs Bella McLoed (formerly The Brasserie in Tokai) and Brendon November (formerly La Colombe and Bistro Sixteen82) are technically excellent. The wild mushroom risotto was perfectly textured and richly flavoured. The pan-fried steak was faultless. The Parmesan bon-bons were as decadently cheesy as expected; the mushroom ragout was creamily moreish.
Nothing about Bones is new or challenging. The fact that you can order a side of truffle-infused mac‘n’cheese alongside your steak or burger tells you all you need to know about the food concept here. Everything on the menu is safe, nostalgic and highly indulgent.
Consider my dessert: a homemade waffle with roasted marshmallow ice cream, salted caramel sauce and slab of homemade roasted marshmallow. How ‘70s retro? In concept it is half deconstructed ice cream sundae, half braai pudding. It’s a rich dessert but McCloed and November hold back on the sugar, they make the waffle light enough and the sauce salty enough to balance the dish.
It’s interesting. Marshmallows and mac‘n’cheese might seem childish, but this is comfort food intensified with cheffy skill and ingredients.
A very important feature of the Bones experience – often mentioned by online reviewers – is the highly engaged attitude of the staff, led by manager Neil de Klerk.
Apparently, this food and this service is what Cape Town diners desire – rather deeply, as it turns out.
Bones owner Rudi Minnaar has not chanced by accident upon this “sweet spot”. He is a restauranteur of many, many years experience. He owned The Moosehead in Rosebank, Johannesburg. He bought 220-seater Morton’s On the Wharf in 1992. He owned Beluga from 1999, and ran both Pastis and Bertha’s in the early 2000s.
That Minnaar has won so many fans in spite of the fact that his restaurant is, in the evenings, the only point of light in a deserted shopping centre is testament to the power of his concept.
Minnaar and his team occupy a space between fine dining and upmarket steakhouse. I’d call Bones a gastro-pub, except that the focus – despite the name – is on the food offering, not the drinks.
The cocktail menu, for instance, leans away from sour or bitter towards soothing comfort drinks. There’s the hot-buttered rum cocktail and the espresso martini with vanilla and hazelnut. The whisky sour is all warm, soothing tastes, textures and smells. There’s a froth on top and a Christmassy aroma of nutmeg. The martini is served in a glass that is not classically conical but wide and shallow, like a Peter Rabbit porridge dish. The olives are uncomplicated: just as salty as the sea.
The wine menu is average length, with a focus on affordability. A sommelier might have been able to suggest wines that would stand up to rich and buttery dishes. When we asked for a recommendation the manager said: “What do you like to drink?”
This seems to be the ethos at Bones: we’ll happily serve what you’ve loved your whole South African life. In the kitchen, we’ll make your favourites taste better. It’s not a “global” or trendy approach. It might seem old-fashioned. It might be. But boy, does it fly.
Bones Kitchen & Bar: 021 286 6200; Unit 102, The Palms Centre,145 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock; Boneskitchenandbar.co.za
89
Slanghoek Private Selection Pinotage 2017
Price: R65
Total production: 9 798 bottles
Abv: 13.82%
16 months in 80% new French oak, 20% second fill. Pinotage harvested from 17-year-old bushvines in the Slanghoek Valley. Strawberry, black cherry and oak spice come to the fore. There’s a definite fruit-sweetness on the palate, the oak is well integrated, and the wine finishes with slightly drying, chalky tannins.
88
Bonnievale River Collection Pinotage 2018
Price: R70
Total production: 6 667 bottles
Abv: 13.7%
Upfront aromas of red cherries, blackberries, a hint of smoke and liquorice. Juicy and vibrant on the palate with a well-rounded, smooth finish.
89
Lammershoek The Innocent Pinotage 2017
Price: R94
Total production: 12 450 bottles
Abv: 12.17%
The grapes for this wine were sourced from two dry-land bush vine Pinotage vineyards, 21 and 42-years-old respectively. A combination of whole bunch and de-stemmed crushed berry fermentation was carried out in open concrete fermentation tanks, and was aged for a further 10 months in these same tanks. Cherry and raspberry on the nose while the palate is super juicy with bright acidity – utterly smashable.
90
Bloemendal Waterlily Pinotage 2016
Price: R95
Total production: 4 133 bottles
Abv: 14.71%
Aged in 300-litre French Oak barrels for 18 months, 10% new oak. The judicious use of oak allowed the fruit to shine of this estate grown, Durbanville Pinotage. Floral aromas to go with cherry and plum, the palate is rich and smooth with a gently savoury finish.
90
Bader & Walters Pinotage 2016
Price: R80
Total production: 4 776 bottles
Abv: 13.88%
W.O Western Cape. Plenty of red fruit plus a herbal note on the nose. Good depth of flavour on the palate with an edge of salinity. Medium-bodied, the fruit is supported by firm tannins and a refreshing acidity.
Results of the inaugural Best Value Pinotage Tasting aimed at finding the best examples of this variety costing between R60 and R100 a bottle are now out.
The top five wines were as follows:
1.= Bader & Walters 2016 – 90/100
1.= Bloemendal Waterlily 2016 – 90/100
3.= Lammershoek The Innocent 2017 – 89/100
3.= Bonnievale River Collection 2018 – 89/100
3.= Slanghoek Private Selection 2017 – 89/100
COMMENTARY
Pinotage has long had an identity problem, which is somewhat ironic considering it’s the grape that we as South Africans can claim as our own. Tasting the selection of Best Value Pinotage submissions was an interesting exercise on a few levels. As a panel we were pleasantly surprised by the quality on offer at the sub-R100 price point. We had steeled ourselves for chocolate and coffee, and instead we got fruit. The top wines in the line-up offered plenty of purity and vibrancy, black and purple fruit as well as more red-fruited ‘new wave’ examples.
Two distinct styles emerged at this price point: classically-styled pinotage – flavours of black cherry, plum and blackcurrant on a medium to full-bodied palate – with a judicious use of oak. The wines that impressed had a degree of finesse and polish while the less successful veered to the rustic side.
There were also wines that had a whole bunch, carbonic character with plenty of red fruits in the flavour profiles. Easy drinking, juicy wines that stood out for their freshness.
Perhaps the sample size wasn’t big enough but there weren’t many coffee or chocolate flavoured examples. That being said, the use of oak did dominate some of the wines, and the general sentiment of the panel was that winemakers could pull back on the use of oak with this variety, and allow the wines to be more fruit-driven.
Conversely, 2016 is being hailed as the vintage of ‘red fruit’ so it’s interesting to note that two of the top wines have that descriptor as well as vintage, and at this price point fresh red fruit seems to be an agreeable characteristic.
Two of the top wines also came out of the Breede River area, a region that is proving synonymous with price-point related quality. As if to underscore this, Slanghoek Cellars not only has a top wine in this Pinotage report, but as well as in the Best Value Chardonnay report too.
On the matter of stylistic identity, Pinotage – at all price points – can be made in a diverse number of styles. London-based fine wine buyer, Greg Sherwood MW recently wrote about this quandary for this site, alluding to its ‘flexibility, versatility and chameleon-like character’ (see here). Instead of seeing this diversity as a failing, we should champion it, just as we do with Chenin Blanc. In this selection I certainly enjoyed both the soft, juicy wines as well as the more classic versions.
JUDGING PROCEDURES
The wines were tasted blind by a three-person panel consisting of journalist Malu Lambert, Warwick Estate sales manager Spencer Fondaumiere and winemaker as well as a business development manager at Wine Cellar Jolette Steyn.
Scoring was done according to the 100-point quality scale, with the top-scoring wines going through to the second round of blind tasting and discussion with Christian Eedes (winemag.co.za editor and roving chair). In other words, the final results do not merely reflect arithmetic averaging.
An entry fee of R899 including VAT per wine applies and you will be directed to our online shop to make payment after you have completed the form below. Please note that if you want to enter multiple wines, each will require a separate form although payment can be made all at once.
Rules:
Entry form
An entry fee of R899 including VAT per wine applies and you will be directed to our online shop to make payment after you have completed the form below. Please note that if you want to enter multiple wines, each will require a separate form although payment can be made all at once.
Rules:
Entry form
An entry fee of R899 including VAT per wine applies and you will be directed to our online shop to make payment after you have completed the form below. Please note that if you want to enter multiple wines, each will require a separate form although payment can be made all at once.
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