Not chef’s finest moment at peaceful Palm’s Restaurant

Apple and sultana pie at Palms Restaurant

A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

WB Yeats, the 20th Century Irish poet who wanted to build a cabin on the lake island of Innisfree, “where peace comes dropping slow”, would have loved to visit the Palms Restaurant at the Bronte Garden Hotel.
At the weekends, after the influx of business-related travellers, non-stop conferences and workshops has subsided, the verandah at The Palms is the place to come for a quiet meal or a cup of coffee, surrounded by green lawns, tropical shrubs and graceful palm trees.
Last Saturday, while hundreds of well wishers thronged Kew Drive in Highlands to pay their respects to the late iconic Morgan Tsvangirai, and a similar number of super hero fans queued up to see the block buster movie Black Panther, we were directed by friendly staff to a quiet table at the Palms Restaurant, a peaceful oasis in the busy suburb of the Avenues. Only a kilometre from the CBD, the Bronte is popular with both business and leisure travellers.
There was no buffet, so we spent some time studying the appetising and varied a la carte menu. To assess the skill of the chef, we planned to sample starters, mains and dessert.
Piri piri chicken livers, with a scattering of baby leaves, although mildly flavoured, was perfectly cooked and served with a mellow onion chutney. Teamed with a crisp Greek salad of tomato, cucumber, green pepper, onions, feta cheese and black olives, our lunch was off to a great start. Eating out for a food writer is always an investment in time and money, and it makes me happy when I can enthuse about the setting, the service and the food at the places I visit.
The starter was good, and I felt optimistic enough to order baked salmon, a notoriously difficult fish to cook correctly, for my main course. Over cook for a minute, and the fish becomes dry and leathery — undercook, and you’re eating raw fish. Hoping for the best, I ordered a supreme of baked salmon, served on a bed of colcannon (fluffy mashed potato, mixed with crisp steamed cabbage). The salmon was overdone, and the colcannon consisted of watery mashed potato.
George’s choice, escalope of pork in a paprika sauce, served with pasta, was a success. Perfectly al dente vegetables and slightly floppy French fries were served with both our meals.
Vegetarians will be heartened to know that several attractive options, such as soya and kidney bean chilli, served on a bed of quinoa, garnished with roasted peppers and asparagus, or vegetable lasagne made with seasonal veg and parmesan and ricotta cheese, are available.
Apple and sultana pie with ice cream was my choice from a nice sounding list of desserts; George finished off with an Amarula Dom Pedro. While my dessert was prettily presented and the apple filling sweet and spicy, the pastry was merely ‘‘good enough’’ and didn’t taste freshly-baked. This was not the finest moment of the chef on duty at the Palms Restaurant. On the way out, we met Chef Steve Hyde in the garden, enjoying a beer and kicking back on his day off. Executive chef of popular Emmanuel’s Restaurant at The Bronte, temporarily closed pending the exorbitant cost of quality food items, Steve said that he’s kept busy catering for an ever-increasing influx of hotel guests, and organising wedding receptions.
I didn’t tell him the sad story of the over-baked salmon, but Steve, if you read this, please run a refresher class in the kitchen, so that the majestic salmon will always be served as it should — moist, tender and flaky.