Enticing menu at The Plot Cafe in Quinnington

Prawn combo, salad and chips at The Plot Cafe

A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

STRIKE out along Borrowdale Road towards Domboshawa, and turn into Crowhill Road. Before reaching the Brooke, home to Harare’s rich and famous, you’ll be confronted at the corner with Carrick Creagh Road by a desolate unfinished building, looming ahead like the remains of a rebel enclave in Eastern Ghouta.

Turn right here, and before long you’ll see a sign pointing to The Plot Nursery and Cafe, a fertile oasis growing seedlings, shrubs and day lilies, alongside a welcoming restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and coffee seven days a week.

Decorated in Out of Africa style with a high, thatched roof, the restaurant is spacious and cool, overlooking cycads, palm trees, and a manicured green lawn where toddlers can bounce happily on a trampoline or explore a wooden jungle gym. Comfortable directors’ chairs and dining tables are solid wood, and not so close together that you can hear every word of conversations to the right or left.

The menu being so enticing, and dishes being served on either side of our table looking so delectable, it took a while for us to decide what to order. Breakfast is served daily until 11 am, and options range from French toast with bacon and honey to eggs Benedict or to a deluxe breakfast of eggs, beans, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet corn fritters, onions and toast.

The lunch menu has a host of mouth-watering options, such as gourmet steak rolls, grilled tilapia with new potatoes and salad, and beef medallions served on creamed spinach with potato wedges and salad. George made an inspired choice of a prawn and calamari combo, served with chips and salad ($18); I chose bruschetta with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers, served with salad ($10).

Local chefs have not always excelled when preparing seafood, partly to do with C J Rhodes failing to secure the port of Beira during the land grabs of 1890, resulting in Zimbabwe’s existence as a landlocked country. But times change, and chefs are no longer judged solely on their ability to grill a steak or create a fragrant beef stew. Any chef who knows his onions will know how to choose the freshest of fish and will understand the specific cooking techniques required to prepare seafood.

Chef Nyari Mutseyekwa at The Plot Cafe studied catering and hotel management at Meikles Hotel and The Rainbow Towers, before completing her culinary training at Capsicum Culinary Studio in Cape Town. It’s possible that living and studying at the confluence of the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans has given Chef Nyari the edge when it comes to preparing crustaceans, but it must be said that the prawn and calamari combo I tasted last Saturday was second to none. Crumbed calamari rings were fresh and crisply fried, and delicately flavoured prawns tasted of the sea. Time had been taken to cut the chips evenly to the same size, and they were golden, crisp on the outside and mellow within.

Playground at The Plot Cafe

The first bite of my bruschetta told me that the salmon and cream cheese were of the best quality, the occasional encounter with a salty caper adding overall interest and variety of flavouring to the dish. How often have you eaten out and absolutely loved everything on your plate? The Plot Cafe has its own herb and vegetable garden, and their salads are a work of art. Micro greens combine tender young rocket and basil leaves with green and lollo rosso lettuce, while halved cherry tomatoes and shredded carrot add colour and texture to make delicious salads. The subtle salad dressing was among the best I’ve tasted in six months.

We shared a delicious lemon meringue sundae ($5) for dessert, a combination of lemon curd, meringue and fresh cream that Chef Nyari says was inspired while watching Master Chef Australia.

From time to time Plot Cafe opens in the evening for pop-up dinners, offering two courses for $27 and three for $30. Bring your own wine, as the restaurant is as yet unlicensed.

Don’t just go for the food when you visit The Plot Cafe – take time to admire the field of day lilies stretching into the horizon, visit the plant nursery, and buy all the plants you need to beautify your winter garden this year.

The Plot Cafe

9 Carrick Creagh Road

Quinnington

Harare

Mobile: 0776 638 385

Open Monday – Friday 07.30 – 16.30

Saturday and Sunday – 0800 – 14.00

Comments to: cmalakoff@gmail.com