Restaurant review: Spoonful Eatery, Durban

Glynis Horning puts MasterChefSA 2014 winner Roxi Wardman’s new Spoonful Eatery in Glenwood Durban to the taste test.

Masterchef cooks are remembered as much for their personal quirks as their culinary creations, and for most viewers, 2014 winner Roxi Wardman will always be the train driver's assistant with the tats, glittery lip stud and fuchsia hair - who also baked cakes.

She's played this up to perfection at Spoonful Eatery, which after an experimental spell in the corner of a lifestyle shop in Durban's Windermere Centre, has popped up proudly in its own sassy premises: a converted training centre in the city's best culinary suburb, Glenwood.

With hipster boyfriend Byron, who she married the weekend before opening, Wardman painted the premises throughout in sunshine yellow, and persuaded graffiti artist Jono Hornby to add a mural of all she loves best - rickshaws and the Durban City Hall to symbolise her city, waves, the sun, and a cake, of course.

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Cakes predominate, in a cabinet near the entrance: extravagantly frosted in cream, cream cheese and meringue, spangled with fresh berries, nuts and flowers, and swathed in salty caramel and chocolate.

Customers requiring anything more than these and coffee work backwards from them, debating which items from the small, evolving breakfast and lunch-burger menu will best accommodate their "happy ending".

Many resort to doggie boxes. Breakfast choices (R50 to R55) range from Sweet Potato Love - a sweet potato and carrot rosti with impressively poached eggs, bacon and lemon thyme aioli - to a Bacon and Egg Bunny, the tender hollowed bun ("She has great buns," murmurs a diner) stuffed with bacon, caramelised onions, cheddar, mushrooms, an egg and lethal homemade chakalaka.

But the winner, and prime reason cakes are relegated to doggie boxes, is the Elvis Presley: a banana-bread French toast sarmie oozing peanut butter and topped with toasted peanuts, crispy bacon, dark chocolate shavings and crème fraîche with an inspired hint of mint. It's a combo to gladly die for.

Evolving lunch burgers (R60-R68) include a Hot Chick with chicken strips, caramelised onions, crunchy mixed greens and a masala pineapple jam mayo and This Is My Jam: a spunky 120g beef patty, bacon, brie, pear jam, house pickled onions and mixed leaves.

My man's new regular, however, has become The Incredible Hulk. With a patty of peas, corn, cannellini beans, sunflower seeds and herbs, plus house pickled cucumbers, greens and egg-free mayo, it's "vegan with balls", as he puts it. All come with magnificent hand-cut fries, tender on the inside with a crispy crust.

90 Helen Joseph (Davenport) Road, Glenwood, 072-983-4239, roxiwardman.co.za

sub_head_start THE LOWDOWN sub_head_end

Price: R200 should cover breakfast or lunch, cappies and cupcakes for two.

Vibe: Relaxed and cheerful as the yellow walls.

If it had a soundtrack: 'Walking on Sunshine'.

People who will like it: Those into gourmet comfort food with a twist.

People who will not like it: Those into three-courses and linen napkins.

What to wear: Beards, tats and polka-dot nail art like the staff, or whatever turns you on.

Hot tips: Take a table on the terrace.

Scorecard (out of 5)

Food: 3

Ambience: 4

Service: 3

Value for Money: 4

Total: 14/20