Review: MillHouse Kitchen - Lourensford Estate

We have been patrons of the Millhouse Kitchen restaurant on Lourensford Estate from the River Garden Deli days before it became the Millhouse, at least the past 13 years. We have always enjoyed the ambiance and nice food (although the new Millhouse never lived up to the standards of its predecessor).

We travel a lot, but whenever we are in the Somerset West area we are sure to visit the Restaurant on the Lourensford Estate, even if only by tradition. This was the case on Monday 28th July 2025 when we visited the Millhouse Kitchen for lunch. On a previous trip my wife had ordered the ROASTED BUTTERNUT & BEETROOT (R145 couscous, tomatoes, rocket, feta, toasted sunflower seeds, orange, mustard dressing) which she had enjoyed very much. I had had the ROASTED PORK BELLY (R240 sweet potato, red cabbage, apple) which I did not enjoy – the pork belly had zero crispy crackling, the skin being tough and leathery – the whole dish being rather tasteless.

This time around my wife determined to again have the Roasted Butternut & Beetroot salad which she had so enjoyed last time. I on the other hand was weary of the pork belly, but after talking to the chef and enquiring if the pork belly crust would be done to a crispy turn I was assured that this was so, maybe not to Chinese standards but at least a little crackling. And so we ordered:

The dishes duly arrived at the table: - The Butternut & Beetroot Salad had, literally, count them, two small cubes of butternut, which deficiency was made up for by an overabundance of orange pieces. Zero sunflower seeds, and the very little dressing was absolutely bland without any reference to mustard, or even any taste. After calling this to the attention of the chef (?) he went away and returned to inform us that he has gotten “agter die kap van die byl” and ascertained that the reason for lack of butternut in the salad was that the kitchen had run out of prepared butternut but had gone ahead and plated and served the salad anyway. An offer by the chef to have more butternut cooked and prepared and brought to our table as soon as they could was turned down by us – our food was before us and mine getting cold. Never the less, 20 minutes later a bowl of hot, boiled (probably microwaved), unroasted butternut was brought to the table, to be added to the cold salad dish. We told them to take the butternut away.

As for my pork belly: It was everything I hated in a pork belly, and in no way lived up to the chefs promises. The pork was overcooked (maybe in trying to get some crisp going), dry and absolutely tasteless, but the worst was the skin. No sign of crackling or even a little bubble, rubbery and leathery and literally impossible to cut with the sharp steak knife. The sweet potato mash had the consistency of something out of a baby’s diaper, with no texture and absolutely no taste, except sweet. Three, count them, 3 slices of apple on the side, and an apple sauce straight out of a baby puree bottle. The only edible part of this dish was the red cabbage.

Our mistake, we should have refused the food, gotten up and walked out. But being shy and averse to conflict, we ate what we could, leaving more the half the food on the plates. We were offered a free desert which we declined, but still we were charged the full amount for the food, even though the Butternut salad ordered had no butternut. We will most certainly not be returning to the Millhouse Kitchen. How the standards have dropped, for which tradition cannot make up.