Test Kitchen, Cape Town

For our first night in Cape Town our wonderful hotel 52 De Wet organised us dinner at the incredible Test Kitchen. The restaurant has won countless awards and tables are booked up to six months in advance so if you want to go be organised and make a reservation. The restaurant is the creation of Luke Dale-Roberts who can often be found working in the kitchen and even came to our table to ensure everything was to our liking!

We took a taxi to Test Kitchen and were greeted by friendly staff who could not do enough to help us throughout our evening. Lunch and dinner is served Tuesday - Saturday and is a tasting menu. The staff will ask if you have any allergies or dislikes but we went for everything on offer. The food can be paired with wine or tea tastings or you are free to order from the extensive wine list. As we had an early start I chose a very large glass of Chenin Blanc, however, the hubby chose the more expensive wine pairing option.

The Dinner Gourmand menu begins with Test Kitchen Appetizers, these were really interesting and quite challenging on the taste buds! Definitely worth a try! The menu is then documented on the website but it includes trout ceviche, foie gras, langoustine, kingklip (this was by far the most amazing dish), duck and dessert.

Every dish is remarkably presented and absolutely delicious in taste. For a £5 supplement they were also offering a Ribeye course, which we both opted for and were thoroughly impressed with. The photos below are in the order the dishes were presented to us. As you can see we had twelve different dishes to try in total. We were also offered complementary champagne to begin with and a box of chocolates wishing us a happy first wedding anniversary from the team to take home and devour later.

The Kingklip was definitely my favourite dish and one I had never tried before. The flavours and textures were incredible. The dish was presented in a clay pot and allowed to steam at the table providing us with mouth watering smells. It was then taken away to be dished up and was well worth the tempting wait!

Test Kitchen is a culinary experience like no other. The food is amazing, the menu enables you to try a large variety of dishes, some of which I had never heard of before this experience. Everything is clever and inventive too, which ensures you are entertained throughout the meal. You will leave feeling incredibly satisfied and very full as whilst this is a tasting menu each portion is still generous. The quality of ingredients is superb and the price is expensive for South Africa but very reasonable if you compare this experience to a celebrity chef in London.

The restaurant is dark and romantic and ideal for a special occasion. The kitchen is open so you can watch the chefs work their magic. It's not huge hence the long waiting list but tables are very well spaced out and feel pretty private. I would urge anybody going to Cape Town to book this experience. I could not have thought of a better way to spend our first night in the city!