Restaurant review: Beluga

The prospect of high-end food always excites me, so with high expectations I went to enjoy a meal at Beluga in the Ballito Junction. It was hard to arrive there with no expectation as I have heard that food at Beluga is outstanding.

We arrived just before 7pm to try get in on the daily half price sushi special.

I was planning a go big on a platter but after going through the menu I felt I had to give them my best and order a few other items.

We did however still order a mixed sashimi platter which was of very good quality. The fish was fresh and delicious. We ordered two other starters. One was the duo of livers, which was duck liver pate and chicken livers.

The duck liver pate was divine, but I feel they need to look at how they plated the chicken liver, which did not look nice on the plate.

As for the beef carpaccio, they forgot the parmesan crisps promised on the menu and there could have been more of the confit baby onion.

I think the dish could have been improved by swapping out the butter lettuce for some wild rocket. However, the dish was saved by the fact that they pulled the carpaccio off beautifully.

It was perfectly thin and the colour showed they used very good quality meat.

We decided to share a main course of deboned beef ribs.

The meat was super tender and while the sauce was sweeter than I expected, it didn’t do the dish any harm. The
veg was also very nice and could have used a touch more of the minted cream mentioned on the menu.

It’s a good thing we ordered the main course to share as it was a large portion, to say the least. We did order a side of bone marrow and toast which I thoroughly enjoyed!

For dessert, we had the white chocolate beignet. According to Wikipedia, a beignet (synonymous with the English “fritter”) is the French term for a pastry made from deepfried choux pastry. I’ve never had a beignet so I can’t tell you if they were true to the original New Orleans classic.

As our waiter explained, the best thing to do was to eat it and he was so right! Place the beignet in your mouth, then scoop some caramel and ice cream and place in your mouth before chewing. The beignet erupts with the white chocolate Lindt ball and just pairs so well with the ice-cream and sauce.

So, how was my experience? To be honest I was a little disappointed.

With a little more attention to detail the food could be out of this world.

They have a stunning venue and the service is top notch, but they just need a bit of refinement.

In total we had one small sashimi platter, two starters, one main course and a dessert. Our bill came to R657 excluding tip, which I think was a touch expensive.

But they do offer specials like half price sushi which I’ll be back for, without a doubt.

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