Bucket Scene: The Hussar Grill

When I first heard that The Hussar Grill was opening a branch in Durban I was over the moon, I've heard a lot of this legendary grill from my mates in Cape Town but whenever I find myself in Mountain-land, I never got a chance to experience dinning at one of their many branches. Like most men, I love my meat, and whilst there's many grill houses already in Durban, not many keep that consistancy. One can easily cock-up a steak and it's never a pleasant experience especially if you're paying top dollar for it. 

This is where establishments like The Hussar Grill come in, with over 50 years of experience, they're regarded as one of South Africa's Premier Grill Rooms and with good reason too. They have a loyal following and the reason they keep coming back is for their award-winning speciality steaks and wine selection, along with their superb service an warm ambience. 

This week myself a few mates decided to go give The Hussar Grill a try, with a booking made, it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Upon arrival I was warmly greeted by their gorgeous hostess at the entrance and then escorted to my table. The decor of the place is great, the low lighting sets the tone for a relaxed lounge feel and the restaurants theme sort of an old school library / wine cellar vibe. They're known for their great selection of wines but I'm not a wine person as I prefer my whisky, our waiter for the night was quick to go through their extensive range of single malts and mixed blends with me, I was quite surprised with the selction they have as many restaurants just cater with the popular ones.

Once I had my drink it was time to study the food menu, I'll be honest I already had in mind what I was going to order as I had a good look at the menu from their website prior to arriving. While doing so, our waiter brought some sweet potato crisps and marinated olives to snack on, both of which got snapped up in a matter of minutes. For starters, everything on the menu looks great and you really want to order more than one but when you flip over to have a look at the mains, you want to keep space for that. I eventually settled for calamari as its a personal favourite starter of mine, it was light and tender, crispy on the outside and with the right about of lemon on it. The accompanying tartar sauce was just as exquisite. Even though it is a starter, it was quite a generous portion and could well easily be shared with someone. 

While taking a break with some more good quality whisky, it was time to decide on the mains, the Hussar does have specilas on the day so be sure to check with your waiter when you do visit. Otherwise their menu has enough for to cater for anyones taste buds, whether it be beef, lamb, seafood, poultry or even game, depending on the hunt. Our waiter brought through their meat board to show us the various cuts and explain to us how it is prepared and what is the best way to order it. The menu also offers guidlines to your selection of how you would like your meal grilled. I opted for something off the menu, as the waitor informed me they had lamb steaks, not often you would find this around, lamb is best done medium and it was basted with their rib marinade, served with a side of chips, creamed spinach and a cheese sauce. 

It was quite a decent portion of meat, 250g of lamb with just a sliver of fat, crispened nicely. It was full of flavour and most importantly, tender and melted in my mouth. I also opt for a cheese sauce and I enjoy the taste of it with the lamb. They say you know a meal is good when everyone at the table is quiet and enjoying their meal but its not always the case as with us, each of my mates were raving about their meal, insisting what they ordered was better than the next. There was only one way to settle this, as we all tasted a little bit from each others plates. I honestly couldn't fault any dish I tasted, as everything was prepared perfectly and tasted great. In the end we all agreed that there was no dish better than the other as all were pretty darn good. 

Already stuffed, the waiter brought the menu's again to have a look at the dessert menu and as tempting as it was, I just couldn't eat anything else. But one that did catch my eye was the Hussar Grill Ice Cream, it's described so incredibly on the menu that it almost hypnotises you to order it "This extravagant dessert is a beguiling combination of vanilla ice cream, peanut brittle, marshmallow, nougat, honeycomb and sprinkled nuts. Drizzled with our signature dark chocolate sauce. Sometimes more is better." I mean if that isn't worthy to get your drooling I don't know what is. 

Overall my experience at The Hussar Grill was everything I expected it to be, and a perfect location of a boys night out but equally can be a great place to have a quiet dinner with a loved one, family or even a business luncheon or dinner. Another thing to note as I have mentioned their selction of wines before but if you opt to bring in your own bottle, they do not charge you a corkage free! The prices are very keen when you look at the level of service and quality of food you're getting. I highly reccommend you visit the Hussar Grill to see for yourself why they're one of the best. 

Details:

The Hussar Grill Gateway

Shop G003, Gateway Theatre of Shopping

Tel: 031 566 4047

Facebook: The Hussar Grill Gateway

Twitter: @TheHussarGrill

Instagram: thehussargrill

Bucket Scene: Eora - Kitchen & Bar

Like I said from the start, this segment is to discover new places that are a step away from the norm, we're so used to our usual places we go to that we forget the fun in exploring and trying out new places. A couple weeks back my mates wanted to go out for a quiet dinner and drink, instead of opting for our usual hangout I suggested we try Eora, a new Mediterranean restaurant that opened up in Umhlanga that was getting raving reviews from people who have tried it. I followed them on instagram, had a look at what to offer and it was a done deal. Everything looked good on pictures so it was time to see if the food tasted as good as it looked.

Located at 190 Ridge Road in Umhlanga Rocks, the venue is located conveniently at the entrance of the village area with ample street parking and paid parking available at the centre across the road. We were greeted by our hostess and seated upon arrival. The decor is quite cool and I like the fact they have posters of old South African products that served as the art. Being a bar as well, they serve a host of drinks abd cocktails, the craft beer however is limited to local KZN brewers, so there isn't much variety but at the same time, it's nice to see them promoting the local guys and giving them exposure as they're normally outshone by Cape Town or German brewers. 

While enjoying our local beers we ordered a few of the starters to munch on, they have a good range of starters catering for every ones taste buds. We opted for the crispy calamari and satay chicken, both of which were awesome. The calamari as the name suggested was crispy, coated in a light tempura style batter and fried till crisp, served with a harissa mayo that just  made the taste buds tingle, it was also quite a healthy serving as they don't feel shy to load the bowl. The chicken satay was perfect, the chicken was well spiced and cooked just right, moist and full of flavour. What I liked about the starters is that you can also choose to have them as tapas which is bigger in size. So if you're looking to go out and have some snacks instead of full meals, this is now an option. 

Tapas/ Starters selection

Onto the mains, there are mains to choose of the menu and they have weekly specials written on a chalk board above the entrance. Being a lover of lamb I was sold on the lamb burger that was offered on the menu. Others at the table ordered the Hake and Chips, Steak with mushroom sauce and Sword Fish with prawns. 

Lamb burger

My burger looked great and just like the pictures had me salivating just by looked at it. Organic lamb patty with melted mozzarella topped with tomato relish, served on a toasted bun with sweet potato fries on the side. I like to eat my burgers the way its meant to be eaten, with both hands but due to the size of the patty and the bun being a tad bit too crispy, I couldn't force my mouth open that wide, yes its that big of a burger! I opted to use the utensils instead, the patty for me was a bit dry, but the relish sort of made up for it in a way, the bun as said was a tad bit crispy as well, which made it a bit tricky to eat. 

Hake and chips

My mates on the other hand enjoyed their meals, fish and chips which to be honest is very hard to screw up was great but he felt the chips were a bit oily but its chips... that's the best way to have it. The other enjoyed his steak, cooked well and very tasty. The swordfish was done to perfection, had great flavour and prawns were great too, his only gripe was that the portion was too small as he was still a bit peckish after the meal, I guess that's why they have dessert on the menu but his form of dessert was another craft beer. 

Swordfish and prawn

On the whole, my dinning experience was great, yes my burger wasn't what I expected it to be but everyone else that's had it loved it so it could just be me. Never the less we had an awesome time and the service was top notch. There's loads of things on the menu that I still want to try, including a tapas evening so I will definitely pay them more visits in the future. They also serve breakfast daily from 7am till 11:30am.

website: http://www.eora.co.za/
instagram: http://instagram.com/eorarestaurant
facebook: www.facebook.com/eorarestaurant

Recipe: Roasted Ostrich Fillet

Well I got into the kitchen recently and made something different. There's only one type of bird I'm used to eating and that is chicken, I've tasted duck once or twice but never took a liking to it and the same goes for turkey but this time I decided to tackle a bigger bird. Ostrich, now its not like any bird meat you've seen, to start off its red and the package it comes with puts me off because it looks like its soaked in blood but I decided to go ahead and try it anyway. They say the meat is pretty healthy for you, its lean and doesn't have much fat. Here's how I went about cooking it.

Ingredients.

Ostrich fillet (200-400g)
1tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp English mustard
1 tsp golden syrup
thyme

1 tsp Robertsons Italian herbs

Extras

1 carrot, cut into strips
green beans, cut into long strips
1 large potato
half cup of milk
salt and pepper

Method

Mix ingredients in a bowl (besides the fillet), once everything is mix, massage it into the fillet. Once done, cover with cling film and pop it into the fridge. I let mine marinate over night so the flavour soaked in. Now to cook it, heat up a frying pan with some olive oil, make sure its nice and hot. We're not going to cook it, just seal it, so fry on one side for about 1 minute, then turn and seal for 1 minute. Once you're done, put the fillet in an oven tray along with what ever juice was left in the pan and from the dish it was marinated in. add your strips of carrots and green beans and cover with foil. Pop it into a preheated oven at 220 degrees. Allow to cook how you desire, I let mine get well done, it wasn't as dry as I expected and it still retained load of moisture.

I also made a smooth mash potato, boil the potato till its cooked. Mash in a bowl, add the milk and salt and pepper to taste. Keep on mixing till its nice and smooth.

I also made a quick cheese and spinach sauce, equal quantities butter and flour in a hot pan. Wait for the mixture to brown, add some milk while keep on stirring. add some cheddar cheese (I think this is the best cheese to use in a sauce). Once its thicken, take off the stove and add some chopped spinach and stir it in. Pour the sauce over the fillet while eating, it really is an awesome side! Enjoy.