Meraki by Charlie Lakin

02/09/2026

The first week of spring and the ingredient lists and foraging has really been showing off the splendors of the season, fresh broad beans, juicy fennel bulbs, tender young carrots and baby beetroot and Charlie has been foraging a large selection wild leaves, mulberry, wineberries and gooseberries all featuring through out the full dining experience.

Charlie has kept a few dishes the same this week but as always there is other changes like the rabbit served with preserved Willowdale Truffles and Jerusalem artichokes lifted with freshly foraged dandelions and tassel berries. Ducks from Tracey Jones Roderick served with freshly harvested turnips and broad beans from Camp Orchards here in Hillcrest.

We rounding the menu up as well with the a locally grown banana souffle which actually was the first souffle that Charlie ever made many years ago and still doing the same recipe served with a macadamia nougat glace and a Brad & Marisa O'Neill and banana skin caramel.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995

2 star Eat Out

26/08/2026

As we enter our last week of August and spring is popping its head out this week's menu is taking full advantage of the tail end of the winter ingredients and the start of the spring especially on the foraging front as all the young tender leaves and shoots are coming through in abundance.

We start the menu of with freshly harvested carrots and curry leaves from bluehorizonsestate served with North coast pineapple and fresh fennel from Deon and Chisomo in Merrivale, duck rillette seasoned with tender young shoots of pine dressed with with cured duck breast,tassel berries and kumquats both from one of our regular customers gardens adding a typical Charlie flavour profile and dandelions to add a little bitterness. Kolbroek pork slow cooked in Clockwork Brewhouse tamarillo sour beer served a variety of preparations of cauliflower and tamarillo also from Nik at Blue horizons and vibrant purple sweet potatoes.

The next dishes Charlie is really working his no waste frugal attitude towards cooking, first up a quail from Tracey Jones Roderick where every bit is bit used right down the hearts and livers served with cabbage, turnips and a raiding of our little herb patch at Meraki especially the lemon thyme and oregano

To follow we have a stunning 28 day dry aged midlands beef sirloin served with beetroot, scallions, Kokstad potatoes and a good forage of peppery wild leaves like nasturtium, peppercress and bittercress all picked within 500m of Meraki and finished with the infamous Clockwork brewery English best bitter and bone marrow gravy.

Finishing up with the yacon tarte tatin and ice cream a dish so goid it just had to be repeated.

All of this as well as the usual little extra we like to serve throughout the evening.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995

Photos by Olga Hazell

2 star Eat Out

21/08/2026

We will be hosting Keermont Vineyards from Stellenbosch for dinner on Thursday 3rd September starting at 6pm

We will be showcasing 5 wines from the Keermont range served alongside our Anam manu that Charlie will create for the evening at R1150 per person.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995 limited availability remaining so booking early is advised to not miss out

2 star Eat Out

19/08/2026

The start of a new week and a new menu that Charlie has created with some dishes staying on like the green beans an unassuming dish showcasing the different harvests and forms of preservation creating a light but flavourful dish to start our menu. Baltic porter cured Eland loin a dish brought back from a couple of weeks ago with a little change on the wild leaves after a foraging haul of stunning tender bittercress Charlie stumbled across this week.

Then we follow up with several regular firm Meraki favorites from the repertoire of dishes, braised kolbroek belly pork with a punchy galangal broth and crispy Spur inspired scallions, duck breast with our wild peppercorn sauce, beetroot, leeks and kumquats then a main course of lamb bringing together 3 classic British dishes of the classic roast leg, hotpot and shepherds pie.

The dessert though is a brand new dish for Meraki, a play on a classic tarte tatin using a truffled butter braised yacon topped with a Willowdale Truffles mascarpone ice cream.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995

2 star Eat Out

17/08/2026

12/08/2026

The menu for the week ahead definitely composed with the bleak weather that hit KZN this week definitely giving Charlie the Yorkshire moors in winter vibes.

First up we are starting with a dish composed of 3 harvests of green beans from Deon and Chisomo in Merrivale, dried from last year creating a hummus style puree, pickled from early this year and freshly harvested served with, brinjal, salted lemon and wild garlic giving it north African feel.

Then we have the rabbit served with first of this harvest of carrots from bluehorizonsestate to recreate Charlie's starter from the Great British Menu from 2012 which has gone through 14 years of development and a little KZN influence of pineapples from the north coast

Then we have a couple of dishes that have made regular appearances over tge last couple of months, kolbroek ham hock with a soft poached quail egg, jerusalem artichokes and a light ham consomme followed by a confit of duck leg with cabbage, turnip and leeks and our rich wild peppercorn sauce both dishes to warm the heart.

Lamb as a main this week working with all the parts of the saddle served with beetroot, kale, south coast macadamia, a mackrute lime pickle from last year and curry leaves giving the dish a local Indian twist.

Charlie had thought about changing the sticky toffee pudding this week but it's a dish that was just created for such weather, rich warm and decadent.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995

Photos by Olga Hazell

2 star Eat Out

07/08/2026

The new bread course, a simple celebration all about the wheat harvested from the Kzn Southern Drakensburg and traditionally stone ground by Champagne Valley Flour with no additives just the wheat. We have taken the thought of just the wheat with a little seasoning and a collection of memories and stories from Charlie to create our new bread course, oh and of course some The Gourmet Greek farmhouse butter because we're would we be with great bread without done nice butter to smoother over it.

The new individual items are

*Sourdough wholegrain loaf,

05/08/2026

29/07/2026

A new week, a new menu full of locally sourced and freshly harvested and foraged ingredients, composed into a menu flowing with creativity.

Charlie is featuring classic regulars like the beef with bone marrow gravy and the yacon sticky toffee pudding, revisting recent dishes like the macadamia creme with radish, green beans and ruby grapefruit and rabbit a collection showcasing different rabbit preparations served with peas, pumpkin and Willowdale Truffles. Then a couple of new dishes, a stunning Baltic porter cured Eland loin with the last of the seasons fresh Jerusalem artichokes, tassel berries, kumquats and dandelions and an old school confit duck leg garnished with fermented cabbage, turnips, jaboticaba and locally foraged splash pine.

We do say goodbye this week to a part of the menu that has been with us since day one, the bread course as we know it. As we drive to source all of our ingredients from KZN the breads was an area that needed to be tackled but don't worry we will still be featuring a bread course that will be celebrating the wheat grown in the foothills of the Drakensburg mountains. This does also allow Charlie to feature a few new additions to the Meraki experience.

To make a booking or any other enquiries please drop us a WhatsApp on 067 346 5995

Photos Olga Hazell

2 star Eat Out