GOING back to Riebeek Kasteel after 18 months, most of those being lockdown, was a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, there are many places that have closed, or become other places; on the other, there are new and exciting things happening, particularly places to eat.
I’ve known Julien Debray for more years than I can remember, initially from Kasteelberg Country Inn & Bistro (which is still there). He’s now running his own brasserie, next door to the Royal Hotel (with which it is affiliated) and where the bottle store used to be. I still have a photo from a long-ago visit which ordered “Geen Stoepsittery/No Loitering”, to discourage booze customers from enjoying their tipple right there and then.
Julien told me he is very happy to be cooking his own food, in his own establishment, out of a teeny tiny kitchen. He sources local and organic produce, and can pretty much meet all tastes (unless you’re after melktert or a traditional English breakfast). “We are a French Brasserie after all,” says the Facebook page. “We also trace our produce back to its source so that we always know where, when and how it originated.” All you have to do is ask, and Julien or waiter Craig Kwenda will tell you.
I thought I’d go straight onto my main course of beef bavette – a cut you don’t see often on restaurant menus – but Julien had other ideas: a trio of cold prawns with aioli, and gravadlax filled the space with delicate, sophisticated and understated flavours. The bavette was served with ratatouille and chips. No wait, we should say pommes frites, right? Not French fries, quelle horreur!
PHOTO CREDIT: BIANCA COLEMAN ©