On our first day in South Africa we visited the restaurant “Faber” in Paarl for lunch. It is located on a beautiful farm in the Avondale wine region. Before entering the restaurant, we passed through a flowering front garden, the beauty of which almost left us speechless. What may await us inside? The interior is a skillful mix of modern and rustic, with the large terracotta tiles almost a little Mediterranean. Many decorative elements come from our own handicrafts. The power of nature somehow captivates us here. Gentle, but still noticeable. Even more beautiful is the huge outdoor terrace with cast-iron seating and an ivy-covered roof.
After we sit down, we enjoy the view. If you don’t come down and relax here, it’s your own fault. It is simply idyllic and soothing.
But we weren’t here just for lunch. Like the chefs at Söl’ring Hof, Chef Eric Bullpit also cultivates his own herb and vegetable garden next to his restaurant. We didn’t miss the opportunity to go through it after dinner. Here grows actually everything you can imagine and much of it can be found on the menu, of course, from eggplant to pumpkin to chili. The sous chef guided us through the vegetable paradise. Even outside the garden we discovered wild sorrel, which tasted even more intense than that in Germany. It was nice to see with how much love vegetables and herbs are grown here and what product passion is in the concept of the restaurant. There are certainly many restaurants that dream of being as self-sufficient as possible and growing their own vegetables. Eric Bullpit and his team have made perfect use of their unique location. We were also able to taste the excellent product quality in our lunch before…
Chef Eric focuses on harmonious culinary craftsmanship and authentic South African cuisine with few products on the plate. His mission: to make his guests happy. With products that nature provides him and whose origin plays an elementary role. As the first small greeting from the kitchen, Eric sent us a cauliflower foam topped with spicy cauliflower. This was so delicious that I would have loved to eat it as a main course. His mission had already succeeded with this.
For my appetizer, I chose yellowtail mackerel with onion dressing, black beet and onion dashi. The fish had top quality and was given that extra something by the onion dashi, not too dominant but just right.
Also in my main course the onion was again concise. The Beef Sirloin with Brûlée Onions, Brown Onion Puree and Glazed Ox Marrow was super tender, the onions still al dente and flavorful, the onion puree could have been almost more intense. A really great dish made with just a few components. But unfortunately was the plate not preheated, and so our meat arrives only lukewarm at the table. Actually a gross mistake, but I calmly put it away. The ambience, the courteous and friendly service staff make up for it.
To finish, I did not opt for something sweet, but chose the variant with cheese. Indeed, I was interested in what is behind the Boerenkaas cream and then learned that it was farmer’s cheese. Accompanied it was goat cheese parfait, roasted fig and crispy olive bread that initially hid all the components on the plate. The farmer’s cheese cream was very salty and strict, the goat cheese parfait, however, tasted very good to me and harmonized super with the roasted figs.
Our conclusion
A visit to Faber is worthwhile for many reasons. The ambience is absolutely soothing. The menu promises a very good selection, the price-performance ratio is right and as far as the courteous service is concerned, the Faber can score 100 percent and surpasses some restaurants in which we were guests in South Africa.
What I particularly liked, and this verdict can be applied to many South African casual dining restaurants, was the portion size. I was a little apprehensive about eating a 3-course meal for lunch, but afterwards I didn’t feel too stuffed at all and had reached just the right level of fullness. Great compliment!
At a glance
- Restaurant: FABER (to the website)
- Chef: Eric Bullpit
- current award: –
- Date of visit: 12.01.2017
- Contact: Avondale Wine, 7624, Klein Drakenstein, Paarl, South Africa
+27 (0) 21 202-1219
