aurelia's restaurant - peermont d'oreale grande

4,5
date of visit: 15 aug 2019

a visit to aurelia's is always a treat.  the beautiful and luxurious ambience and attentive service are tops! 

we were keen to try out the winter menu items, comfort food with a stylish twist.  firstly, looking at the wine list it is quite impressive.  it features some local favourites as well as luxury imported brands. they also have a good selection of wine-by-the-glass which is alwaysgreatfor flexible food pairings.  

we started off with starters from the small plates menu, keeping with a #proudlysa theme! bobotie tortellini and venison boerewors pinwheel! super tasty and beautifully plated. those fried pap croquettes!

looking at the menu, with all the mouthwatering options, i decided to go for a 'lighter' mains, seeing that i just had to have the crepes suzette for dessert.  i opted for a meal that was light, a real burst of colour, the sweet potato gnocchi.  my dinner partner couldn't resist the hearty oxtail papardelle. gorgeous tummy-warming comfort food.

the table-side presentation of the crepes suzette is such a classic favourite.  a real show!  my dinner partner had the rooibos lemon meringue, that came deconstructed - what a feast of textures and flavours. 

what a lovely experience!  aurelia's calls their style of cuisine #afroperial (adj. a classical fusion of imperial roman tradition and elegance, melted with bold, modern african cuisine).  and it is done perfectly! 

thank you so much for hosting us.

great restaurant, i go here regularly for breakfast.greatservice but quite expensive, and in my opinion not much value for money. as for the other menu items i have not tried but give this a try if you don’t mind spending r200 on breakfast buffet.

really disappointing service and food, went for my birthday lunch and was shocked at the lack of service, when we arrived we were given menus and then were forgotten, we had to go up to the hostess 3 times before someone attended to us.

one of our drinks took over an hour to arrive (and it was incorrect)

the food was just bad, out of a table of 10 only the burgers were decent, the steak wasn’t cooked as requested and tasted like it came out of a freezer, the chicken pasta dish was bland, someone ordered a bacon and egg “gourmet” sandwich firstly it was a really long wait for it, the bacon was over cooked and so was the egg (which was a specific request that the yolk be runny) we did notify our waiter who was very sorry and it was brought back fairly quickly, still not correct. the tapas were mediocre.
i have to admit the presentation wasgreatand if you like just salt and pepper in your food you might enjoy this place, but we were highly disappointed.

we ended up going to platia at emperor’s, the food was so much better (as it always is) and the service was exceptional, our waiter went out of his way to make my day.

we came here for a saturday lunch buffet.

the food was well set up, and you couldn't help wanting to taste each item on display.

really enjoyed the food here, and definitely want to come back for dinner some time.

however, when a restaurant is known as a high class establishment, and while having your lunch a guest walks in and around the food barefoot, and her son placing his feet where the clean plates are kept, you shouldn't expect me there for a lunch again. guests of the hotel should be managed better.

food and service was howevergreatand we had no complaints there :)

a beautiful restaurant to do lunch with friends and family. good service and good food. their weekend buffets aregreatand well worth the money. try dining outside on the terrace if you can get a table!

after reading through the reviews and looking at the website i must say i was looking forward to agreatevening with some superb food. unfortunately my experience was not great.

bad service well that is putting it lightly as you have to have service for it to be bad.

on phone the restaurant to make a booking i was informed they only open 6:30pm at which i replied to the host then unfortunately i will have to book at another restaurant due to the show starting at 8pm and i did not what to rush through my food. without waiting any time the hostess ask me to hold as she will speak to the chef to see if we can get in at 6pm. the chef agreed and my booking was made confirmation received the saturday morning was still confirming for 6pm.

on our arrival i was told the restaurant only open at 6:30pm. after telling the hostess you made arrangements for me and you even confirmed it with a sms we were still not allowed to enter. making our way outside to have a drink before dinner we selected an area with couches. for the 30 minus we sat there and the one time a waiter attended to us nobody made an effort to clean our table and the previous guest mess was still on the table.

at 6:30 i was quite surprised that nobody came to call us to our table and we had to go back to the queue to wait for the hostess to show us to our table.

after finally being seated the hostess returned to our table three times. firstly to apologies that she forgot to give us menus and the second two times apologising that no waiter was helping us (both table next to us had the same problem with no waiters attending to them).

after finally getting a waiter to assist us and explaining to him we are on a tight timeline we were served with our starter. must say my starter did proof the reviews to be correct and both presentation and taste was great.

just before our starters arrived i requested a drink for my wife and had to ask the waiter a second time after the starters came if we can please have a drink. during this time the table next to us requested for black pepper and ended up getting up and walking to the hostess to go get it themselves as the waiter forgot about it. it is important to note. it is important to know that we had different waiters

the service just kept on disappointing me through the evening with us sitting 10 minutes after we finished our starters before our table got cleared. the table next to us actually started getting up and getting their own wine and water bottles that was placed on table behind them due to space as the waiter never make any effort to

finally after another 10minutes of waiting our main course arrived. yet again it did look the part. although my wife’s salmon was cooked to perfection the scallop to my opinion was not cooked throughout and the dish in total was a bit boring (but this is personal preference and might differ between people)

on biting into my impala spring roll (easiest way to describe) the centre was still ice cold. this suggested to me that this food was taking out of the freezer and only warmed up.

once i manage to get hold of my waiter to send the food back to the kitchen the service suddenly got a lot better. the waiter did apologise for the food and said both the chef and the manager are really sorry about the food i received. might be a good idea for the manager to actually come and speak to us himself instead of using the poor waiter that does not have any control regarding the food he brings us.

the management did however only charged us for our drinks and not the food and to be honest if it was only my plate of food that was a problem i would have probably gave them agreatreview with a small comment on my plate but my food was only the final straw in this evening.

a very well maintained and well decorated restaurant,the ambience is absolutelygreatincluding the food,as i was staying at the d'oreal so went there for a late dinner and its totally worth waiting for the food...i had oak smoked venison tartar for my small plate...it was quite unique and tasty....and the presentation was very admirable... open seafood lasagne was my order for the main course which was so good and i liked it more because i could taste the flavours distinctively,with the signature dom perignon,champaign france (champagne)...a class to cherish.... a wonderful experience...!!!

last night, i travelled a long way to find aurelia's and am pleased to say that this gem was worth the drive! zomato in conjunction with aurelia's and ryan matheson did an incredible job to ensure that the pink table project cancer initiative is going to be firmly and knowledgeably supported.

how to participate: just log onto zomato and book your table for the 4th february 2016 (world cancer day), using any restaurant of your choice from the pinktableproject collection on there. i honestly can't think of anything better than eating out for agreatcause! can you?

aurelia's restaurant situated in the award-winning five star peermont d’oreale grande hotel was nothing but class! their restaurant showcases a classic, yet opulent luxury that is unrivalled in the east of johannesburg with such attention to detail that you cannot help but think, once seated, that you are in fact somewhere in europe. 

i arrived early to have a look around and was fortunate enough to meet chef justin jonah who let me come into his kitchen and watch him prep for the incredible dinner ahead! we discussed both his passion for food, and in particular his passion for good beef! 

onto the food:
i selected the oak smoked venison tartar starter: garlic cloves, red onion, caper berries, corn toast, pommel gaufrette, quail eggs and kalahari truffle oil. the venison tartar had an unusual texture to it, but the combination of garlic and caper berries added a lot of exciting flavours. 
i have to admit that this dish though wasn't my cup of tea, and the saldanha bay clams with pea risotto (which i also sampled) was by far the winner out of the starters!  

for mains, i selected the vegetarian dish: spinach & ricotta maultaschen: pasta sheets, grilled mushrooms, a delicious mushroom creme, micro greens, pecorino, balsamic cherry tomatoes and truffle oil. the vegetarian main was delicious! 

for dessert: matcha mousse with mango panacotta, yuzu caviar, green tea crumble, nerikiri wagashi sweet bean paste and hakuto jelly. a very japanese green tea inspired dessert that surprised my taste buds. 

aurelia’s dinner menu options last night were nothing short of spectacular and i thoroughly enjoyed the interactive open-plan chef station located in the centre of the restaurant, allowing us to see each meal being completed. 
the dinner was nothing short of fine dining brilliance, and molecular gastronomy at its best!

we were served attentively by alpheus, who was always on hand with a smile or recommendation, and what a special cause! we all know or have lost a loved one to cancer so my only recommendation this time will be to ask everyone to get behind zomato's pink table project!

this must be one of the top 5 restaurants on the east rand.we had agreattime celebrating our anniversary. the food, service and atmosphere exceeded our expectations.i will definitely be returning to aurelia's

whether you go for high tea or a elegant dinner this restaurant will deliver withgreatfood. the is kitchen is quite slow but if you not in a hurry its worth the wait. the waiters were very friendly and it had agreatatmosphere.

situated on the ground floor of 5 star hotel d'oreale grande, it makes for a pretty setting as it connects the main lobby to the pool and garden area. it's also very close to the airport and they have free shuttles running every 20 minutes or so.

we had breakfast at this luxurious joint and i was amazed by the sheer variety of the items they had on the buffet. right from the usual cereals/fruits counter to the fairly common indian or asian counter to the rare sushi counter (the first time i ever encountered sushi being served for a breakfast buffet except for in japan!) every single counter was decorated beautifully, specially the huge centre one which had an assortment of healthy desserts - made from cereals, yoghurt and fruits; and believe me, it was extremely yummy :d - along with 12 different kinds of dips, exotic fruits and my beloved sushi.

they also had a live counter for eggs-to-order and waffles, but i just had the waffles, which were good. in the asian section, i loved the stir fry vegetables, as they were cooked and seasoned to perfection. apart from this, there was rice, noodles, various egg preparations and sauces, the honey-chilli sauce being the best. sushi, was awesome, no doubt about that. comparatively, indian section lacked the lustre and all the preparations were tasteless when matched with the requirements of the indian people. corn and peas, rajma, basmati rice and eggplant vegetable were the four main preparations and every single one had one or the other shortcoming, but i wasn't complaining; there was a lot of other stuff that i loved more than all this!

there were 6 different kinds of juices, out of which i liked litchi the most. they also had iced milo in this beverage section, but it was too icy for my taste, even though that's how it was supposed to be. there was a counter for breakfast breads and pastries - banana bread and pain au chocolat were extremely soft and delicious. i may have skipped some things in this - what i want to say is that they havegreatvariety, excellent service (they take away your half-empty dishes before you can say no - so be careful about what you don't want them to take away! :d), wonderful ambience and wholesome food.