Overture

It's a cold rainy Cape winters day and having properly celebrated Bastille Day in Franschhoek the previous day we went off to Overture to celebrate a friend's birthday. I must admit that it may not be the easiest restaurant to find, but it is certainly worth the trip. It truly is in a hidden valley and the venue and surrounds are magnificent. Clearly no money has been spared in setting up the cellar and the restaurant and it is always a pleasure to see something built with passion rather than just purpose. Unfortunately we did not have the best of views, but got glimpses of how magnificent it must be on a clear day.

Our friend had been kind enough to provide us with a four course selection and this meant that each could choose a number of delights to pleasure the taste buds. The menu is small, but comprehensive enough to provide for most tastes and we sat pondering on how to make the best use of our four choices.

I found the wine list to be disappointing as there are only a few wines, mostly from the estate, on offer. I just find that although restaurants look to offer something unique when based on an estate and offer their wines, they tend to limit themselves and the patrons to what may be an enhanced experience if other wines were available. I also feel that they limit themselves in terms of the spending opportunities they offer the patrons as if you do not enjoy that particular estate's wine you are not likely to order another bottle. Each to their own though.

However, getting to the good stuff. Their top ten rating and platinum status hangs proudly on the wall as it should. This establishment really makes fantastic food and there were only praises flowing from all the members of the party. This taking into account that there were 15 people and not one negative peep. Between my wife, her mother and I we tried all but one of the starters, all but one of the main courses, the cheese and both desserts and I have to say that we would have happily had any of those dishes and almost each one was as good as the next. It really is great to see the consistency of the food quality across the board.

As good as the food was all round, there was one dish for me that stood out a little above the rest and that was the braised blesbok. It really seemed to have a little something extra, besides the fact that it is an antelope that is not often offered on menus. It's great to try something else other than kudu or springbok.

This restaurant certainly will require further visits, particularly when you are able to see all the way across to Cape Point on a beautiful day with something cold in your hand. On top of this all, the costs of the various menu choices were very reasonable taking into account the restaurant's status and rating.