Meraki by Charlie Lakin

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

15/07/2026

The week aheads menu's full of delightful dishes created with the best of the local KZN ingredients and a little of Charlie's magic.

We starting you if with a dish that Charlie first create back pre-covid days when he first met Andrew Taylor his business partner in Meraki, doing his vegan popups in our bakery Pablo Honey when it was owned by his daughter Sam. Macadamias we get from the south coast that Charlie has blended into a light cream seared with freshly harvested green beans, raw turnips for a peppery bite, zesty ruby grapefruit and freshly foraged chickweed.

Lamb fillet tartar a play in the flavours a good lamb curry topped with crispy fibres of pulled lamb, one Charlie's classics ham hock ballontine with fried quail egg and cauliflower. Free range chicken from Tracey in Wartburg with fresh sugar snap peas, jerusalem artichokes from Deon and Chisomo in Merrivale and fresh truffles from Willowdale Truffles

For our main dish we have a stunning 28 day dry aged midlands beef organized for us as always by Benji Dunlop of Waterloo meats, a friend of Charlie's since he moved to South Africa and a butcher that has forgotten more about meat than most people know. We are serving this with braised shortrib, earthy sweet beetroot, leeks and our decadent bone marrow gravy finished with a variety if radishes to cut the richness of the dish.

Finishing up with our pumpkin rum baba using the last of the seasons candy roster pumpkin soaked in a Brad & Marisa O'Neill barrel aged rum served with a confit of orange and a rich mascarpone ice cream

All to be enjoyed with one of our local ingredient created cocktails, locally brewed craft beers or a bottle of wine from our carefully created list.

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

14/07/2026

MFR.

Meraki fried rabbit, whey brined rabbit cutlet coated in a herb seasoning and fried served with buttery mash and a truffled gravy one of the new nibbles Charlie is playing with to start the Meraki dinning experience of with.

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