I dragged my Golf bag from my Bugatti and entrusted the valuable Tiger Wood clubs to the Caddy. With my handicap set at par, it was the match of the day. As I approached the restaurant I expected Tiger Woods and Ernie Els to greet me at the set table. A stingy poke reminder of Chef Peter from Bella Mia who accompanied me woke me up and made me realize, I was only dreaming. I looked into the friendly faces of Executive Chef Martin Karlsson and ever smiling staff. “Welcome to the Black Mountain Golf Club Restaurant”.
A bit out of town , this Golf Paradise is quickly developing into a full grown Country Club with facilities like a top notch, 18 hole international golf course, Tennis courts, beach sand Volley Ball Court, Water world with water skiing and all sorts of other water related sports and amusements. Kids Play ground and hopefully a respectfully sized swimming pool. This is not a dream. It would be a great country club to spend your Sundays or even weekend if cabins available to stay over. A table was set for our lunch appointment with Chef Martin. Before disappearing into the kitchen, he announced a light but popular lunch which he would prepare by himself. We were invited to join him in the kitchen, but a short visit to same made me decide to wait at the table for the first course.
As astarter, an interesting toastcalled “ Skagen “, shrimps in dill mayonnaise on toasted white bread had a very fresh and flowery taste caused by the dill. It was presented on a rectangular plate and usually accompanied by a sparkling wine or a blanc de blanc, served well chilled.
TheMain course was a lightly grilled blue fin tuna exposing the hardly grilled inside with a mouth watering roasted garlic crème and a French potato salad with pesto. The combination of this course has a lot to add to your imagination as it is a combination of brilliantly composed crèmes and pesto without any one of the ingredients ruling over the other. A perfect balance of spices and herbs. A course, which among the greedy, could be served twice. This dish would be well sided with a lighter aromatic Australian white wine from the McLaren vale. Needless to mention that there is wide selection of international wines of your choice.
The Dessert, vanilla ice cream with marshmallows, roasted mixed nuts and our own hot caramel sauce was the end of a dream with the everyday reality returning to us as we headed for home after a double espresso, tempting to “flush” the cup with a Grappa. This technique requires you to order Grappa and Espresso at the same time, enjoy the coffee and pour the grappa into the empty Espresso cup , shake not stir and down it .
I don’t believe that Black Mountain want to stamp themselves off as a fine dining restaurant but rather a Golf Club Restaurant with most of the restaurant guests staying for lunch. Now this will definitely change once the water world is operative and other facilities are in place. However the food is delicious, well selected balancing East and West. As many Golf players come from Japan, Korea and Singapore, Asian dishes are as popular as western dishes. Congratulations to Chef Marten and Staff ( Khun Miu and Waitresses) Check out the Black Mountain Golf Club at www.bmghuahin.com.
