Harbour House Constantia rebrands to The Restaurant @ The Nek with Chef Dylan Laity

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. About two years ago, the Harbour House Group saw the potential and majorly revamped the interior and menu offerings, while keeping the iconic and charming dark wood, stone and thatch roof exterior intact.

Image sourced from www.eatout.co.za

The space was converted into two restaurants the vibey tapas eatery La Parada and the fancier Harbour House.

Inspired by the surroundings

This month sees a refocus on the branding and menu for the Harbour House section, which has been renamed The Restaurant @ The Nek and sees Chef Dylan Laity, formerly of the Roundhouse, at the helm. With a move away from seafood offerings to a mix of delicate Asian and South African-inspired dishes, the new menu is much more in tune with the beautiful vineyards and forest area that surround it.

I attended a media lunch and a tasting of the five-course menu last week and can only support this new direction.

The interior is light and bright with natural elements, a stunning feature wall of a print of a tapestry and quite unique and elegant cutlery and crockery.

The menu offers a choice of a three, five, or eight-course menu with the option of wine pairings included.

““We’re serving modern South African cuisine with definite influences from my travels abroad. There’s a good mix of seafood, vegetarian, vegan and meat courses and I’m determined to use only the best and most seasonal produce I can source”, says Laity. 

Chef Dylan Laity

Proudly SA with an Asian twist

We sampled a delicious Asian inspired starter of Mozambican langoustine, amasi, kimchi, and tom yum jelly - super vibrant, my only complaint it was a tad too salty for my palette. This was followed by my favourite course the raw Karan beef in Rooikrans coal oil with fermented chilli,  lemon, and mustard, such a delicate yet robustly tasty dish, I could easily smash a huge plateful of this.

For mains, we were presented with spiced hake, chermoula, parsley, organic carrots, and brown butter; a wonderful Cape Malay-inspired dish and a perfect course for the tourists. This was followed by the tender springbok loin, semi-dried beetroot, blueberry, crispy fried kale and celeriac.

Next, some dry ice drama arrived at our tables with the Amarula and white chocolate mousse, green tea crumb, coconut ice-cream, and lychee snow. A wonderfully decadent melding of Asian and South African ingredients and flavours.

Other dishes offered include the savoury vetkoek, dried vinegar, snoek and mackerel patê with pickled apple, roasted cauliflower, Hanepoot grapes, capers, mint, yeast and the naartjie sorbet, creane fresh walnut, gooseberry and basil. I can’t wait to return to try these dishes.

The full eight-course menu is R820 per person and R1,150 per person with wine pairing.

The Restaurant @ The Nek opens on Tuesday 16 October 2018, serving dinner from Tuesdays through to Saturdays. From November, lunch will also be available. For bookings call (27) (21)795 0688 or send an e-mail to az.oc.kenaitnatsnoc@tnaruatserehT. www.constantianek.co.za #restaurantatthenek