Date night spot: Epicure.

I’m in love with Chef Coco’s restaurant EPICURE

We have found a wonderful date night spot. Nestled in the heart of Sandton, this restaurant offers African cuisine in a fine dining setting. This spot is great for international guests, birthday parties and other special occasions. Equipped with a restaurant, bar, cigar lounge and private dining room. There’s something here to suit every occasion, every taste and every setting.

I love that Epicure offers mouth-watering delicacies from all over Africa. They cater for your every want, and they offer delicious morsels that you may not have even known you needed, until you taste them. Delicacies from north, to South Africa and everywhere in between – There’s something for everyone and you’ll be spoilt for choice on what to order.

Decor

The first thing you’ll notice when you walk in to the restaurant is the magnificent décor, from royal blue couches, to engraved ostrich eggs and a feature wall in the shape of Africa, with mirrors on it. The staff dress well, explain the menu in a way that you cannot decide what to order as each thing sounds better than the next and the service is quick.

It’s clear that Chef Coco Reinarhz takes pride in his work and has a genuine love for his African restaurant and bar. The African theme carries through from the décor, to the food, even the bathroom hand soap is proudly African. They have a keen eye for detail and nothing slips through the cracks here.

Wine offerings:

You could read the wine list like a novel as it’s about 100 pages long, sporting a superb selection of both local and international wines to select from. They also have a great selection of cocktails that look like gorgeous works of art when they arrive at your table. Personally I opted for a cocktail and Dr Bae for a local beer. The cocktail looked too good to drink and the fact that it was served with a copper straw made it that much more delicious. The copper straw and 100% biodegradeable napkin were not lost on me, this is a restaurant that cares about the environment, another fab reason to support them.

While the space itself looks very upmarket and glam, the ambiance and feel of the restaurant is welcoming and relaxed, while in a gorgeous setting of floor to ceiling windows, and walk-in glass cellars. Epicure is a well balanced mix of sophisticated relaxation. Step outside onto a well-manicured lawn and you will no longer feel as though you are in Sandton but rather on holiday away from the city.

Cuisine:

Chef Coco’s love for African cuisine comes through strongly in the menu he has thoughtfully prepared, which is separated into breakfast, share-share plates, mains and desserts. You will get a taste of this celebrity chefs personality through his cooking – no matter which dish you order. If you feel like something local then the vetkoek fritters stuffed with savory mince and chakalaka relish, umphokogo with amasi, ostrich fillet with butternut mash a pinotage jus and venison loin with biltong butter and sweet potato wedges may appeal to you.

Want to try something from the far east of Africa, then you need to look into the Ethiopian chicken or cabbage stew with iniera pancakes.

Feel like something from the north? Then perhaps the Moroccan duck samosas with dried fruit chutney and Egyptian dukkah-spiced rib-eye beef steak are dishes that would appeal to you?

From central Africa you can find Congolese guinea fowl with palm nut sauce and cassava leaves and from west Africa Epicure offers the likes pf Senegalese-inspired tuna loin with okra, tamarind sauce and aromatic rice. A night out at Epicure is a sensorial, culinary journey through Africa. The fillet was so mouth-wateringly delicious Dr Bae even said he thinks a vegetarian would enjoy it. What’s noteworthy is that while these dishes sound complicated and slightly intimidating. They’re presented in such a way that you’ll want to sample everything.

After a highly detailed menu and wine list, I expected the dessert menu to be pretty plain but I was once again pleasantly surprised.  Each offering sounded more intriguing than the next, you can expect to see items such as caramelised ripe plantain banana served with hibiscus (bissap) ice cream, koeksisters, coconut and date balls and chocolate brownies.

Chef Coco brought us a selection of starters, mains and desserts so we were lucky enough to be exposed to a range of dishes from all over Africa. Some of which were not even on the menu yet. This restaurant scores a 10/10 from us and we will definitely be back soon.