The grand, brand new Oyster Box hotel has places to eat for everyone. From high tea to sundowners, grills and, yes, pizza.
When Kevin Joseph, debonair executive chef of the new Oyster Box, talks passionately of "going back to the past," "reviving classics," "providing quality and comfort while being unpretentious and real," he is talking about the food served in its magnificent restaurants and bars. But he could just as well be talking of the hotel itself.
What makes this recently reopened "grand old lady of Umhlanga" so special is the warmth of recognition guests feel the instant they arrive. After a massive three-year refurbishment, it’s as though everything but nothing has changed. The Oyster Box is now unmistakably a five-star hotel.
Classic fare continues in the casual Ocean Terrace restaurant. Frothy white trelliswork resembles sea spray above the blue and green upholstered bamboo chairs and tables, where guests devour the view along with exceptional fish and chips. The hake comes in a crispy Castle beer batter with perfect French fries, marinated sun-blushed tomato and herb salad, sauce tartare and lemon.
There are also good old liver and onions, bangers and mash (English pork sausage, mash with spring onion, rocket and gravy), thin-based traditional pizzas from a woodfired oven on the terrace, and a curry buffet stretching from Singapore fish-head curry to one of the best Natal lamb curries anywhere.
But it’s in the Grill Room that the Oyster Box comes most fully into its own – especially at Saturday dinner-dances. Here, against sophisticated navy and white furnishings, with snowy napery and silverware that glints in the light of chandeliers and candles, Kevin’s team produces such star retro starters as crayfish and prawn cocktail, Caesar salad, and eggs royal (creamed eggs with smoked oysters, potted shrimps, smoked salmon and chivebuttered croutons).
These set the scene for the Oyster Box’s take on such legendary mains as sole Colbert, braised oxtail, fillet Béarnaise, hand-chopped sirloin (steak tartare), and pork belly. This last is slow-roasted and served with braised red cabbage and caraway seeds, whole-grain mustard and a single caramelised baby apple.
"The most important thing is that we want our guests to have an authentic experience," Wayne concludes. They do. Even the welcome gifts see to that – instead of ubiquitous fruit baskets in cellophane, Oyster Box guests receive bunches of ripe litchis with the leaves still attached, skewers of cubed green mango dusted with curry powder, or just six perfect tree-ripened Lady Finger bananas from the South Coast, with a note explaining why these are special to KwaZulu-Natal.
It's easy to see why people come back again, and again. If you want to re-create one of Joseph's secret recipes, try his Drunken Oysters - a great party starter!
The Oyster Box, 2 Lighthouse Road, Umhlanga Rocks;
tel: (031) 514-5000; www.oysterboxhotel.co.za