Review | Dusk restaurant

The sun is setting and I’m walking up to the unassuming entrance of the new Plein Street restaurant. There’s little that hints at the experience that lies ahead. The speakeasy-esque alleyway leads into a dark, black-marble-clad dining room where time seems to stand still and a multi-sensorial dining experience comes to life.

This is Dusk Restaurant, the latest project by Darren Badenhorst and Callan Austin — two chefs, mentor and mentee, who have worked together for the better part of a decade. Their new venture offers patrons a dining experience that pays homage to local, sustainable, and consciously sourced produce, showcased through fine technique and a host of well-executed culinary theatrics.

The experience begins with a presentation of black and white pill-shaped jellies. We’re told that the choice we make will influence an aspect of the 11-course tasting menu that lies ahead. While I won’t give away the secret, the Matrix-ish ploy does build up intrigue as each dish arrives and one tries to guess which was inspired by the chosen “pill”. Next, a trio of canapés arrives. The first, a “little corn bite”, is a playful twist on a childhood favourite, here in the shape of a floret and served with an umamirich, creamy boerenkaas catalan and topped with pickled jalapeños and popcorn dust.

It is followed by what surely is one of the most polarising dishes on the menu. It’s called “snails and roe”, and features a black-crusted tartlet filled with delicate snail meat covered with asparagus espuma and topped with pearls of nutty snail roe. It’s a dish of interesting ingredients, textures, and flavour combinations and, while it may not appeal to all palates, it certainly highlights the restaurant’s determination to push boundaries.

The last is a brilliant ostrich and mushroom dish that does a fantastic job of showcasing the two main ingredients. A bread course follows that includes a Japanese milk bun with a garlic-bread twist meant to be slathered with Diablo-coal butter. On its own, the latter is a gloriously smoky virgin butter, but it is overpowered by the equally delicious garlic bread. Appetites suitably whet, the seafood courses arrive. The first, an oyster dish, is gorgeous in its simplicity, the mollusc gently steamed and served with an amasi dressing and topped with lump-fish roe, chervil, and chives. A vibrant-green spinach agnolotti arrives next, the pasta pocket filled with a deeply flavourful preserved-truffle filling and served with chestnut mushroom, a bisque sabayon, and spring peas, finished with generous shavings of black truffle. Equally delectable, the sustainably sourced abalone arrives poached in a Japanese master stock with a bold and punchy abalone XO sauce.

It would be the dish of the evening if it were not for the pre-dessert. A smoked-filled dome is lifted to reveal a simple-looking dessert that is anything but. The base is an heirloom-squash dauphinoise layered with speculoos spice and treacle sugar, topped with tamarind caramel, toasted-nut praline, mascarpone sorbet, lacto-fermented plum jam, and paper-thin plum slices. It’s Austin at his best.

Dessert is a tonka-bean genoise surrounded by a whipped-coconut ganache and filled with a passion-fruit gel. Elegant and clean, it’s perfectly suited to the end of a tasting menu of such magnitude. The meal closes with a visit to the cellar, where a cognac nightcap is served along with chocolate bonbons. While the sentiment is lovely, perhaps a local equivalent would be more suitable. While each dish was delicious in its own right, I look forward to seeing Dusk start tying the experience together, finding the golden thread, and telling its story to its full potential, for it is an exceptional addition to Stellenbosch’s dining scene. I have no doubt it’ll only continue going from strength to strength.