Amanzi attracts the more discerning gourmet

By The Standard | Feb. 24, 2013

My wife and I were in a festive mood after completing a home building project.

My wife and I were in a festive mood after completing a home building project. We chose to celebrate at Amanzi. I had booked, and when we arrived we were guided to a nice place on the verandah, as requested in my efficiently dealt with phone call earlier. It had been hot, so our verandah table with the little breeze that played around us was just what was required. by le connoisseur

We certainly wanted some good wine but decided to have a gin and tonic and whisky and soda first. These were brought quickly, with the menu and wine list. We enjoyed the drinks very much, selected a good wine and checked what food would do it justice and whet our appetite. Our first selected wine was not available so I opted for an alternative that had already caught my eye as a serious contender.

The table next to us had a large group of Scandinavian tourists enjoying some respite from the hot sun and their touristy travails, sporting among them, the classical blond Scandinavian beauty. Not long after, the table on our other side was also occupied by three Scandinavian ladies, who evidently enjoyed all that was on offer. It is clear that Amanzi attracts the more discerning gourmet!

We made our choice of starter and mains, eventually, after a refill of pre-prandial drinks. My wife chose the char-grilled Kariba crayfish tails, I went for the sushi. For mains, we had the five-spice oxtail and the stuffed quails. Of course there were plenty of other delicious starters on offer; camembert wrapped in Parma ham, snails, Carpaccio of springbok, delicious soups, prawns in various forms, etc. Main courses also offered a good variety of fillet, chicken, curries, fish dishes, etc. All were dishes that escaped from the run-of-the-mill fare by having interesting ways of preparing them, interesting spices and herbs (grown in the garden of Amanzi itself), interesting origins and creative and intriguing examples of Euro-Asian fusion.

The wine was brought and expertly presented for tasting. It proved an excellent sauvignon blanc, with just that bit of acidity to give interest and bite and the power to stand up against our various dishes. Our starters followed suit, and we found the char-grilled crayfish very tasty, the grilling having given a lovely expansion of taste to the crayfish’s sweet meat. They were a little difficult to get out of their shells, but we soon learned how to do this effectively. The sushi was most beautifully presented on a long plate and had a great variety. Luckily, it came with chopsticks, which I always love using. I had a few nasal blasts from the strong wasabi, but that cleared the head all the better to enjoy the subtle varieties of taste.

After lingering over starters, sipping our fine sauvignon blanc, we were presented with our main courses. Even the oxtail managed to combine well with the wine.

It was most succulently prepared, with a gentle mix of spices, and a lovely creamy potato mash. The quails came stuffed with pear and surrounded by a beautifully constructed apple-jus that held together well and combined in a greatly enhancing manner with the nice glace on the quails. The quails were done just about right, although for me they could have been slightly less done.

Just then, a gentleman we had observed smoking a lonely cigarette at the bottom of the darkened garden, returned to the verandah. My wife — never shy — accosted him and after trying to pretend he did not notice her, he grudgingly stopped. In little time she had wheedled a cigarette out of him! It came from a packet with Russian script, and he confessed to having come from St. Petersburg just two days before!

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The vegetables with our main dishes were fine, the potato cubes crispy outside and soft inside, the carrots also crispy, but we would have liked them boiled just that little longer before their sautéing. The peas, onions and courgettes were nice and delicate.

We enjoyed finishing our wine with the delicious, subtly prepared flavours of the food. My wife was quite satisfied and did not require dessert. But I did, of course. I did not choose from the various chocolate desserts [white and dark cakes, ice-creams, meringue puddings, etc.]

I ordered a coffee and cognac to complete our regal repast. Alas, the coffee was poor — but the cognac was good! Our Russian cigarette supplier came past again — and offered another! In fact, he gave us his entire packet. We chatted a bit and met his colleague. Eventually it was time to go, alas. We enjoyed a brilliant evening where good wine, beautifully prepared and served food, unobtrusive but ever-ready service, and a great and pleasant ambience had conspired together to produce just that unique experience: it left us blissful gourmets!

expert staff at amanzi

It was absolutely lovely to be surrounded by expert service staff, such a nice setting and all that excellent food: Amanzi managed to create that experience where the world just stops for an evening and one can savour food at leisure; everything was great: food, service, wine and ambience!

the tiramisu myth

Since I needed a pick-me-up I opted for the Amarula tiramisu. This was brought after a short wait, and while enjoying it [my wife had even been given a spoon by the waiter, because he knows la donna e mobile; yet she refrained from sampling the tiramisu] I told the story behind the name of the dish. There was this Madam in Rome with a house of very popular girls in great demand. Every now and then they needed something to sustain them in their work and Madam concocted this mixture of cream, biscuits, coffee, mascarpone, with liqueur and cinnamon. This the girls found very effective, it picked them up: tira mi su was born!

Deluxe Restaurant 5 Plates Expect to spend US$50 – 60 per head 158 Enterprise Road, Highlands, Harare