Fast fine, a concept which is a cross between fast food and fine dining, offers the best of both experiences - fast, casual food with everything we love about fine dining.
Chefs restaurant, in St John’s Street, Cape Town, is doing that.
The first of its kind in the city, Chefs is the perfect spot for quick lunch or a casual after work dinner.
The concept is aimed at giving guests a fine dining experience with a casual feel as fast food joints.
Louise de Kock of Chefs says the popularity of fast casual outlets is propelled by cheap but good meals that can be taken away or eaten in a slightly more attractive restaurant environment than a fast food counterpart.
The spread of the trend has been aided by the global economic downturn, which has reduced spending at expensive restaurants.
“It does away with all the negatives struggling for reservations, overly extensive and complicated menus, waiters, long waits for food and service, expensive bills and tipping - and retains all the positive aspects in order to serve up Michelin-quality meals, quickly,” she said.
“In essence, then, fast fine hits the foodie sweet spot with excellent food at a lesser price and quicker turnaround time.
The focus on fresh ingredients, culinary finesse, and menus that change regularly, are perfect for the millennial mindset which wants every meal to be an experience.
But the trend isn’t only good for patrons, she says. Restaurant owners benefit, too.
“Fast fine establishments don’t cost as much to set up as fine dining restaurants and the simplicity of the concept makes them easier
to operate.”
At Chefs there are no bookings, no waiters and no tipping.
Every morning, three meal options are set out for the day and loaded on the website. The options include one vegetarian dish and a dessert with a choice of wine, juice of the day or beer.
The open-plan kitchen allows guests to see how meals are prepared from scratch and the staff comprise chefs, including head chef Jenny Ward.
On the night of our visit the options were Mexican Seafood Stew, which is wood-roasted Mexican fish and seafood spiced stew topped with charred corn, served with cumin tortilla crisps, guacamole and whipped sour crème and tomato salsa at R165.
The second dish was a Balsamic mustard wood-roasted sirloin with mixed gable mushrooms, served with triple-cooked chips, leafy salad with baby gem, celeriac and apple and mustard crème, green chilli and caper salsa, for R180.
The vegetarian option was Ricotta and Parmesan ravioli with pistachio herb velouté, seared tomato, olives and basil. Salad of rocket, baby spinach, fennel and a mustard vinaigrette. Tomato-brushed focaccia, herb pesto and chilli salsa for R150.
For dessert there was Smoky quince pudding with vanilla frozen yoghurt for R60.
My friend and I chose the fish and meat dishes.
We chose a table with the best view of the kitchen and fire oven. With an open-plan kitchen one would expect noise from the kitchen, but this was not the case.
Each of the chefs was concentrated on their tasks, which ensured everything ran smoothly. The food hit all the right spots - perhaps a little too much sauce on my sirloin, which is not good for a messy eater like myself, but the sirloin was perfectly done.
My no carb diet went out the door when I laid eyes on the perfectly cut and seasoned fries.
You also want to go back to try the other servings, something I plan on doing.
* Chefs is open for lunch Monday-Friday from 12pm- 8.30pm.