A lovely dinner experience at Matt Manning’s new restaurant venture, Grub & Vine

by Karisa

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Werner & I, visited bustling Bree Street to try out the new Bistro in the hood called Grub & Vine:

Grub & Vine share’s building space with Frogitt & Vonkel Wine Bar as well as Matt’s other venture – The Chef’s Studio.

Owned by Chef Matt Manning, who you may know as the man behind the “One Ingredient” concept, Grub & Vine offers (in Matt’s own words):  “No-nonsense, good grub. Beautiful produce and honest cooking”.

From a decor & setting perspective, I really love how Matt has transformed the space which used to house IYO Burgers.  It’s modern without being stuffy with the olive green, dark brown & natural wood palette bringing a lot of warmth to the space.

Let me show you around:

The menu (which will be changing seasonally) has a selection of veg, fish, poultry & meat, and dessert options.  Nothing’s really considered as a starter in the traditional sense, you can select any of the dishes in the first 3 categories and have them in any order you like.

As far as pricing goes, there are 3 options:

  • 4 courses @ R545 (R795 with wine)
  • 3 courses @ R425
  • 2 courses @ R295

We decided to go for the 3 course option – but worked together in selecting our dishes so we could pick 5 dishes from the veg/fish/poultry & meat categories & then do 1 dessert to share.

Another notable mention is that their wine selection is really affordable, with most options sitting within the R200 – R500 range. Cheers to that!

A really nice surprise addition is that they also start you off with some complimentary snacks.  On the night we had these babies which were absolutely delicious:

Now let’s get down to the dishes we selected:

  • From the veg section:  the char-grilled broccoli, fresh pear, forest phantom cheese & pommery mustard
  • From the fish section:  the yellowtail caesar salad with crispy bacon, caesar dressing & local parmesan and the pan fried west coast hake with steamed mussels, peas & bacon
  • From the meat & poultry section:  the braised ham hock, baked potato gnocchi, asparagus & parmesan and the karoo lamb rump with smoked aubergine, turnip, pommes anna & lamb sauce
  • From the dessert section: the blackberry almond cake with fig, honey custard & honeycomb

Our waitress mentioned that they normally try to bring the dishes out two at a time if they can.  In our case they brought out the veg dish plus one fish dish in round one, then the other fish dish plus one meat & poultry dish in round 2, followed by the remaining meat & poultry dish on its own in round 3 and then finally the dessert in round 4.

This is what it all looked like:

Our veg dish – the char-grilled broccoli: I’m normally not a broccoli person at all, so wasn’t expecting to enjoy this, but ended up loving every bite.

One of our fish dishes: the yellowtail caesar salad. Didn’t enjoy this as much as the char-grilled brocolli, but still a lovely dish nonetheless.

The 2nd fish dish: pan fried west coast hake – another standout for both of us.

The first meat & poultry dish: the braised ham hock. Very interesting dish, particularly because ham hock isn’t something I think I’ve ever had at a restaurant (or anywhere else really). Loved the saltiness of the ham and how well that worked with the creaminess of the gnocchi.

The 2nd meat & poultry dish: the karoo lamb rump. Definitely another favourite out of the 5 savoury dishes.

And then finally the blackberry almond cake: Normally if a dessert doesn’t contain chocolate, I’m not interested – especially if fruits are involved (as fruit to me is a breakfast food), but this was a really lovely, light way to end off the meal.

We really enjoyed the food – with standouts being that broccoli, the hake, the lamb & the dessert.

Other notable mentions:  Friendly & attentive service and a relaxed atmosphere that makes you want to linger longer.

Werner and I have jointly decided to give Grub & Vine a solid score of  on my Miss K Kiss-o-Meter scale.  It is definitely a new restaurant to add to your “must try” list.  For reservations (which are recommended), you can use their online booking system, or contact them on 076 256 8654.

Grub & Vine is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday – Friday, as well as Saturdays from 16:30 until 21:00 & you’ll find them at 103 Bree St.

When paying them a visit, I also recommend that you pop into Frogitt & Vonkel for a drink before (or maybe even a game of pool after):

Other spaces to take note of are The Chef’s Studio where Matt hosts group events – both public & private, including corporate functions and cooking classes:

Find out more about The Chef’s Studio over here.

And then finally The Green Room where they host Vine Night – a weekly complimentary wine tasting (every Wednesday from 6pm to 7pm), hosted by a different wine farm every week.

The Vine Night’s for the rest of Feb look as follows: 13th February – Ernie Els, 19th February – Rijks, 20th February – Wildehurst, 27th February – Bosman Wines. The cost is FREE, but bookings are essential as there are only 24 spots. To book, use the Dineplan calendar on the Grub & Vine website.

The Green Room also has a really nice outdoor space for those warm, summer nights…

As you can see, plenty of reasons to visit, that’s for sure. 🙂

xxx

** This was not a sponsored meal, I used my own moolah **

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