What the critics say ….
Tasting, testing and drinking - it’s all in a day’s work for Derek Taylor
After that bum-numbing winter it was a special delight to be booming up through the green hills of the Midlands to join the IWFS (International Wine and Food Society) family of friendly omnivores in that first jaunt of spring.
… The hit of the trip was the five course luncheon created by Adam Robinson at his rambling old reborn gourmet pub in Howick, Corner Post Bar & Dining Room. It was my second experience of Adam’s work, a distinguished chef who learned his art from the beginning of the gourmet-pub boom in London.
The meal was planned in combination with four Thelema wines and began with a brilliant fritto misto of seafood accompanied by a worthy sauvignon blanc.
This was a supremely professional feat of applaudable show-off – to serve about 20 people with a dish that depends on fast delivery before its crunch-crisp batter goes limp. Adam’s kitchen delivered the prawns, mussels and fish fragments in perfect condition with a home made aioli mayonnaise.
On to another starter: fillet of tender cured beef, razor-sliced and with cucumber salad in a mustard dressing. Thelema’s Sutherland viognier-roussanne blend was a good fit for these flavours.
Next, a tagliatelle in squid ink with saffron, mussels and Thelema chardonnay to wrap the flavours. The buzz of appreciation in the room went up a notch.
The main course was another daring idea: a Cocido Madrileno of tenderly poached meats – sliced salt pork, gammon and vegetables served in bowls of their stock with some tangy relishes alongside. This Spanish version of French pot-au-feu, as Adam pointed out, is a popular Continental alternative to a roast.
Good, careful cooking turned what could have been a heavy main of meat into a light-feeling dish of flavour and texture contrasts. The excellent Thelema shiraz teamed with it was loudly appreciated.
Little individual fruit tarts tatins with vanilla ice cream rounded off this memorable meal and the round of applause for the chef and his team was heartfelt. Thelema “”Vin de Hel” Muscat Late Harvest followed by good coffee finished it.
Derek Taylor - Sunday Tribune Sunday Magazine 18th September 2011
KZN’s first gastro pub, is just up the hill, so to say. Derek Taylor has a fine time dining with the Wine and Food Society.
The Corner Post is a sprawling old country pub brought up to date with some style. The old timber floors are resonant and chimney fireplaces crackle with wood fires on cool nights and misty days. And both locals and tourists appreciate the place.
The staff have an outgoing warmth of service that goes with the menus; light bar meals throughout the week from 11am, more elaborate lunches from Wednesday to Sunday and dinners from Wednesday to Saturday. It has the character of a welcoming round-the-corner local gastro pub.
Our lunch began with a glass or two of Pierre Jourdan ratafia, a cheerful, light, off-dry wine. The starter of latkes with Franschhoek smoked trout, fresh horseradish sauce touched slightly with pecorino and poached quail eggs was a delight. The eggs were beautifully cooked: just-poached, which as I once found out myself, is quite difficult.
This precision cooking was marked in the second course: baked Knysna oysters with a cucumber integrated beurre blanc. The oysters were flash-baked, wearing just a creamy coating of white over their meat. A welcome surprise of a taste.
A Stellenrust “45” 2009 barrel-fermented chenin blanc with a well flavoured fresh edge to it accompanied both these courses.
Farm reared breasts of duck from the Dargle Valley provided the main course with small beetroot touched with fresh horseradish and watercress – vivid flavours simply treated and allowed to speak for themselves. The duck was excellent; as good, in my memory, as the last Rouen duckling I ate in Normandy.
A 2007 Ross Gower cabernet sauvignon accompanied the main course and the cheese plate that followed. The cheese was also local - from the prestigious Swissland producer whose cheeses are now turning up in some of our coastal five-star hotel restaurants.
The cheeses were all chevre with variations of saltings and flavour, some of them almost buttery in their consistency; both delicious and interesting.
The wine was a full bodied 14 percent, hefty with complex flavours, and impressive and rewarding with both courses.
Our desert was an intense hot chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream and Jersey cream, a formidable end to a fine meal – especially teamed with its companion, a Compass Box Orangerie Scotch whisky, which had been infused with orange, cassia and cloves.
With its rural ambiance, cheerful service and remarkable food, Adam Robinson has created an excellent addition to Midlands dining. As the Michelin Guides say: “Well worth the detour”.
Derek Taylor - Sunday Tribune 3rd October 2010
“….London’s top restaurateurs quietly took over the Corner Post in Howick and transformed it. Adam and Katie Robinson, who moved to the Dargle from London six years ago …. their new joint project, the Corner Post Bar and Dining Room. Adam and Katie ran the Brackenbury, described by London entertainment guide Time Out as “a restaurant every neighbourhood would kill for”.”
“Now they’re working on inflaming the passions of local diners .. a light, no-frills bar area in the front and an interior that is more serene and formal. Out at the back there’s a sunny courtyard and a garden especially landscaped for children. ”
Adam describes the Corner Post as a restaurant where “locals are our bread and butter …” On the same sheet you might find game terrine, toast and green tomato chutney (R40), chargrilled Merrivale duck breast with chips and béarnaise (R110), and bangers and mash and onion gravy (served with a glass of beer, wine or soda) (R50).
The dessert selection is equally interesting. A recent menu included deep-fried doughnuts with iced butterscotch (R30), Individual plum and almond tarts with amaretto ice cream (R40) and a selection of fruit sorbets.
“This is not haute cuisine,” says Adam. “It’s not pretentious food. Produce is sourced locally and seasonality is important.”
“Fresh and vibrant — like an autumn day in the midlands.” Shelagh McLoughlin The Witness 1st April 2009
“Forget anything you’ve ever experienced or heard about the Corner Post in Howick. The new Corner Post .. bears no relation to the establishment which closed its doors in August last year - apart from its position at 124 Main Street.”
“.. the service is slick . And the food is, well, simply fabulous.”
“.. The fare changes regularly and features the likes of salmon and scallop tartare, seafood bisque, porcini risotto with rocket and parpadelle with courgettes, peas and mint.”
“The proprietors say that their aim is to keep the Corner Post a local restauarant, using local ingredients …. daily specials to attract locals. At lunch last week it was deep fried fish with calamari, mussels and a tiger prawn, served with soy and chips and a free glass of wine, beer or soda for R50. No wonder the veranda was packed”
“I’m going to make certain I get to try a lot more of this food, very soon”.
Anne Stevens The Mercury 27th January 2009. For the full article, visit The Mercury
“Adam and Katie Robinson’s place is a restaurant every neighbourhood would kill for”.
Time Out, Eating and Drinking Awards
“Probably the best local restaurant in London is The Brackenbury in which Adam Robinson cooks some of the most direct and best-value food in the capital”.
The Observer
“Adam Robinson is one of the defining spirits of his age, a leading player who has shaped the gastronomy of the nineties”.
Kit Chapman, Great British Chefs
