Jack Salmon

Jack Salmon (Jack Salmon Fish House - to give it its full and slightly odd title) has been open in Durban for a year now, and is already making major waves, winning rave reviews, full bookings and Eat Out 2014's stamp of approval as 'Durban's best seafood only restaurant'.

In the kitchen is Australian seafood chef John Porcelli. I first heard of Porcelli back in 2008 when I was living in Hilton. His eponymous restaurant there sadly closed soon after we moved to the Midlands and before we had a chance to try it out. Some years later, he opened a pop up restaurant in Pietermaritzburg that operated on weekends out of a coffee shop. We went along very excitedly to see what all the fuss was about, and ran straight into one of my pet peeves (read it on the bio: The Hungry Hedonist) – overdone tuna steak.

Based, rather unfairly, on this one poor experience, I had been wary of visiting Jack Salmon until now (I’m like a culinary elephant, I never forget).

On arrival at the restaurant you will immediately see that the venue is a delight - Durban has a surprising lack of venues that take advantage of our coastal views, but Jack Salmon gets a good piece of sea view in from its second story position in a small centre in Glenashley. Part of the view is obscured by the coastal scrub that grows between the Ruth First highway and the beach, but the ribbon of blue that you can see unfolds over 180 degrees and sets the scene beautifully.

Inside, the restaurant is pretty tastefully decorated, with a large sepia wallpaper print of a fishing boat on one wall, and large mirrors on the other. If the weather is good (and this is Durban, after all) the balcony is the best place to be to enjoy the fresh air and the sea views. A word of warning, however, an onshore breeze will carry with it a haze of cigarette smoke from those last desperate individuals that are yet to shake the habit and who congregate on the stairs for a quick puff.

The wine list (look carefully and you'll find it hidden on the back of the menu) is a very short one, with 9 whites and 3 reds - we went with the Tokara Chardonnay which Platter's describes as easy-going but firm with 'invisibly supportive oak', whatever that means. It went well with the view, anyway.

Starter options include calamari in its various forms; mussels; prawns; oysters, and even a seafood soup. We wanted a bit of everything, so opted for the mezze platter (calamari tubes and tentacles as well as olives and grilled halloumi). Annoyingly, the waiter returned to our table 20 minutes after taking our order to let us know that there was no halloumi. This is a(nother) pet peeve of mine for two reasons: one - that you shouldn't be running out of basics, and two - how did it take 20 minutes for awareness of this sad state of affairs to sink in?

Having agreed grudgingly to substitute extra calamari for the absent halloumi, the platter then arrived cold. The calamari was delicious, tender and sea-salty, but would have been markedly better warm. The marinated olives were plump and ripe and pips were soon flying merrily into the hedges below us.

In Jack Salmon’s defence, it was an unusually cold afternoon, with a chilly breeze blowing in from the Drakensberg. However, I was wary of receiving another cold dish (cold fish - not good), so we took a tactical decision to go for sushi (already cold), and the 'scrumptious prawn and fish cakes' which would stand up better to the weather than a delicate dish like the (apparently excellent) grilled and poached Norwegian salmon.

The scrumptious fish cakes lived up to their name admirably. The dish was made up of two good sized, grilled cakes that were a lovely blend of subtle fish flavours and prawn pieces, served on a bed of mash playfully studded with a scattering of peas and sweetcorn. The lemon, pineapple and sweet chilli sauce was a particularly pleasant surprise, the sweet pineapple marrying well with the hint of prawn in the fishcakes.

The sushi was also very good, with a couple of nice finds, particularly the crunchy California rolls (the crunch comes courtesy of Panko crumbs inside the roll) and the rice paper rolls, which substitute the usual nori wrap for a delicate rice paper cover. Happily we discovered that sushi is half-priced most afternoons: Tuesday to Saturday 12 to 6 p.m. One quibble for the sushi - the rice was not sufficiently sticky, and so the rolls tended to fall apart a little under enthusiastic soy-dunking.

On the dessert front, there was a novel take on the classic chocolate brownie which has to be recommended: two spheres of brownie each surrounding a caramel centre and carefully coated in Panko crumbs! A fantastic idea and a winning combination. The brownies were served with vanilla ice cream, however, which I have recently decided needs to be banned from all restaurants nicer than a Spur (homemade ice cream with real vanilla excluded). Let’s get serious and have some salted caramel ice cream or pistachio and honeycomb, or butter pecan. Vanilla is so done.

Jack Salmon's is not a cheap and cheerful spot (they consider themselves ‘semi-fine dining’ and most of the main courses will set you back around R140), so you do go expecting a lot. I did have a couple of criticisms, but that won’t stop me from coming back for more at some point - even if only for sundowners and half price sushi.

The Greedy Buddha

Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama as he was also known, was born in the Himalayan foothills around 2500 years ago, and found enlightenment through a 'middle way' which avoided both sensual indulgence and severe self-restraint. So he would possibly be a little bit peeved at being called greedy. Having said that, if he were to eat a meal at this fresh and cheerful Durban North restaurant he would probably be forgiven for throwing caution to the wind and getting really stuck in - after all you only live once (a little Buddhist joke there for you).

Describing their approach as 'Asian fusion tapas', The Greedy Buddha delights with playful morsels, tastefully presented and served by a knowledgeable and friendly staff. When we visited, we were seated at a round table for eight and found that conversation (and tasters) flowed much more freely than in most venues, where a couple of small square tables get stuck together for larger groups. The food and the menu here are structured around sharing (not greedy at all really) and this is an ideal venue to visit with a group of friends.

The decor is simple - white plastic tables and chairs with green cushions, and all of the seating is outdoors on a covered veranda, which works well in Durban and adds to the easy going ambiance. The tables are bare, except for a central lazy Susan which makes it easy to shoot your dim sum from one side of the table to the other in a kind of delicious Asian roulette.

As it was our first visit, we were happy to try the '11 Tastes' option which offers eleven selections from each portion of the menu, excepting desert (at a reasonable R185 a head). At this point our waiter came in very useful, assisting us with choices and pointing out the various possible combinations and permutations. 

We began our trip through South East Asia with a Japanese miso soup. The soups are all served in espresso cups, and this one was mildly flavoured, salty and slightly sweet, with mushrooms, sweetcorn and spring onions - a good opening act for the dim sum that followed.

Dim Sum are available in three variants: 'potstickers', which are pan fried on one side, then steamed;  'shumai' with translucent wonton wrappers holding together steamed fillings, and steamed buns, with soft, fluffy dough that breaks open to reveal lamb, duck or roast pork.

Each kind of dim sum has a choice of three fillings, and the beauty of the tasting menu is that you don't have to think too hard about it, because you can try a lamb, chilli and coriander filling in the potsticker (there are two per portion) then move on to duck, spring onion and hoisin for the steamed buns, and finish off with pork and ginger shumai. This kind of approach avoids a lot of menu envy, and each combination that we tried was delicious. The sides were also excellent, with the sweet and sour pickled cabbage that came with the potstickers so good, it could have almost stood proudly as its own dish. 

Next on the menu was a miniature Yorkshire pudding with roast beef and horseradish wasabi mayo - I guess this is the 'fusion' aspect of the restaurant's offering. It was a tasty morsel, that at another establishment would have been well received as an upmarket bar snack, but here I felt that it didn't really add anything to the overall experience, with the introduction of a British classic a step too far from the main thrust of the meal. Perhaps if the wasabi had given a real kick, rather than just a subtle poke.

The next group of courses from the 'Classics' section of the menu headed back in the right direction with the aptly named 'ducking fantastic', crisp slices of pork belly on braised red cabbage, sweet and hot glazed halloumi, and an unusual dish of crispy spinach - a deep fried treat with a dusting of five spice sugar that made it moreish in a way spinach shouldn't really be.

Our final course before dessert was from the wok - calamari in a Kung Pao sauce, served with steamed rice. I was won over by the mention of Thai Sriracha chilli in the sauce, but found this dish slightly wanting. The calamari was tender and enjoyable, but the sauce was a little thin and sweet for my taste, with not enough fire, and too little rice to soak everything up. 

Some people have mentioned about this restaurant that the portions are too small, and that they left hungry. I felt overall that the portion sizes were well balanced, although I easily managed 11 tastes, and still had room for desert, so keep in mind that one or two courses will not fill you up - this is tapas after all.

Desserts are changed regularly, and when we visited there were two interesting options to choose from, a chocolate brownie with candied orange rind and rice crispies in white chocolate, or a lemongrass panna cotta with green tea sherbet. Both options were dinky - the chocolate brownie is about half the size of a box of matches, but are a great sweet mouthful to end on. The brownie was more like a square of dark chocolate mousse, resting in an intense orange sauce - slightly too much for me, but I'm not a huge fan of orange and chocolate. The panna cotta was lovely, a lightly flavoured, smooth shot of panna cotta, with a refreshing jolt of sherbet dusted on top. Very close to Nirvana...