First Taste: Violet at Cabo Beach Club

Cabo Beach Club is undoubtedly the place to be this summer in the Mother City. The swanky new space delivers an international beach club experience unlike anything the city has seen before. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the new club though is Violet, the in-house restaurant helmed by Cabo partner and award winning chef Ryan Cole.

Situated within the Europe-inspired waterfront establishment, Violet offers guests a sophisticated and refined dining experience. It is Cole’s prodigious skill, keen eye for detail and dedication to top-notch produce, offered up in the form of contemporary small plates.

The menu, separated into ocean, produce and pasture, highlights the chef’s passion for provenance, locality and respect for the ingredients with which he works. The offering is best enjoyed by ordering for the table and sharing.

From the Ocean there are the delicate slivers of  sea-run trout, pine-smoked, served with textures of apple, dill and crème fraîche — the supplement of caviar with its glorious salinity elevating the dish from great to sublime. It’s a dish which is a sheer exercise in restraint and demonstrates an unrivalled understanding of taste and texture. So too, does the salt baked whole fish, the delicate perfectly cooked meat to be enjoyed with Middle Eastern influenced-sides in the form of flatbreads and a carrot hummus.

If the pasture takes your fancy, the beef tataki with an Asian inspired miso and yuzu dressing is utterly mouthwatering, the crispy kale adding another dimension with its glorious crunch. The fillet is not to be missed either, with a bold deep sherry and black peppercorn sauce.

No matter what your selection is, it’s recommended to order from the produce section where refreshing plates of greens and veg make for the perfect sides. The miso bagna cauda is a revelation, served over coal-fired lettuce with a scrumptious sesame granola.

Last but not least are the sweets, the rhubarb Paris-brests making for gorgeous little mouthfuls of sweet and tart, choux bites, while the triple chocolate tart is every bit of an indulgence as it sounds, served with elements of tonka bean and raspberry for balance.

These are but a few of the dishes on offer and while the restaurant may be billed as a more casual style of eating than the fine-dining tasting menus we’ve come to expect from Cole, the dishes themselves are the precise, refined, considered and flavourful cooking for which the chef has become known.