Summerhill Guest Estate

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Summerhill Guest Estate

A culinary retreat with unpretentious vibes overlooking Durban & the Indian Ocean. The destination s

28/04/2026

The LivingRoom Experience

Autumn| The Season of Abundance

Welcome to our home, the house and
living room where our head chef
Johannes Richter grew up.

We are proud to host you in this special
part of the world, in Durban, which lies
between the world’s oldest mountain
range, the Drakensberg, and the Indian
Ocean.

To the East, the warm Agulhas current
brings us a mild subtropical climate and
with it a seasonal pantry rich in variety
and diversity.
To the West the mountains enrich our land
with rainfall that forms rivers, and altitude
creating a more moderate climate.

After the most sweltering months of the
year, the East Coast of Southern Africa
is recovering from relentless heat and
humidity.

During this time plants harness the last
of summer’s energy in preparation for a
dry winter - storing it as sugars and
starch.

This is the season of grains such as
mabele and maize, the season of
starchy tubers such as madumbe and
sweet potatoes and the season of fruit
both wild and cultured, giving us a huge
palette of flavours and textures to play
with for this menu, as well as preserving
them for future plates and experiences.

Our team can’t wait to share this
magical time of the year with you.

28/03/2026

Strength in numbers

We are unbelievably proud to have received the third consecutive green star for sustainability, and what makes this accolade even greater is that we’re not alone!
We’re honored to be sharing this space (and the stage), with the amazing teams of and !

Huge congratulations and respect to all in this incredible industry, working hard in giving their guests delicious meals and restaurant experiences whilst thinking of tomorrow.

25/03/2026

We’ve been made aware of a fraudulent Google listing impersonating our business and requesting payments via eWallet.
We do not accept payments in this way.
Please only use our official contact details and DinePlan link for all bookings and payments.
We are working to have this resolved as a matter of urgency.

28/02/2026

Sorghum/Mabele

Fun fact to beat the heat:

Sorghum is not only delicious and one of the continent’s oldest heritage foods, but also acts as a natural cooling food, ideal for summer diets, thanks to its high magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus content that helps regulate body temperature and provide a nutritional boost.

Here are a couple of Mabele dishes over the years:

1) Sorghum bread course end 2025
2) Sour porridge dessert - Sorghum, Amasi, Vanilla
3) Close up of the sour porridge dessert
4) Sorghum „TV Bar“
5) Fresh Sorghum from our garden
6) Non-alcoholic pairing: Sorghum amazake & Banana vinegar
7) Miso - Sorghum & Cape sugar bean (before blending)
8) Sorghum flatbread- bread course 2026
9) Fresh Sorghum
10) Shoyu - Sorghum & pigeon pea
11) Miso - Sorghum & Pigeon pea
12) Sorghum dessert served at food festival in Italy

23/01/2026

Life at Summerhill and The LivingRoom lately:

Celebrating our Summer, the season of fire.

1) Hardbody chicken, fermented cabbage & guavadilla
2) North coast litchis
3) Litchi wine fermenting
4) Pigeon peas fermenting for our “TLR Shoyu”
5-7) Steps of our miso production
8) “TLR Miso” & “TLR Shoyu” ready to age
9) Banana harvest
10) The final product after 3 months of TLC- Banana amazake vinegar
11) Arts and craft session for the perfect biodegradable plates
12) Tomatoes for our next menu rotation

See you soon! 🔥

thelivingroomexperience

12/12/2025

“Guinea fowl, magnolia & Jabuticaba vinegar”

Hyper-local cooking, often means two things, cooking with incredible (sometimes rare) local ingredients, given the right suppliers. As well as not having access to the “global-pantry”, often taken for granted in well stocked restaurants and homes.

With our uncompromising stance on locality, we have no access to this “global-pantry”, meaning we only get to use shoyu (soy sauce), misos, gochujang, vinegars, kimchi, garums, etc. that are made from local ingredients, in house.

Luckily, this time of the year brings with it one of our favorite ingredients, especially from a vinegar making point of view-Jabuticaba, the Brazilian grape.

Similar to grapes, it has a sweet fruit flesh held together by an aromatic skin holding many tannins. The Jabuticaba is also full of natural yeasts aiding its fermentation to wine, but what we’re really after is the incredible vinegar we get from the second fermentation where the wine is transformed.
This vinegar derived, is similar to red wine vinegar, that we hope to turn into something similar to a Balsamico, in time.

The above dish is structured around blossoms of Magnolia from the beginning of spring, that we have paired with wild guinea fowl, as a Bitterballen as well as its liver.
The liver has been seared in the pan before being deglazed with a guinea fowl jus and Jabuticaba vinegar which gives it the much necessary play on sweet, umami and sour.

The Bitterballen, then being served with a hollandaise infused with magnolia and galangal, finished off with some of the above mentioned sauce.

In the remaining pictures, we have the transition from the tree through its various changes until we end up with the final product (vinegar), all made in house, locally.

20/11/2025

Cauliflower, aromatic herbs & root spices

This dish is based on cauliflower marinated in winter’s root spices directly from our garden.
After marinating, the cauliflower is carefully baked in our wood fire to add savoriness and smoke and finished with organic local yoghurt.

Then raw marinated cauliflower is carefully layered over this, to be garnished with aromatic herbs picked moments before serving.
Here, mint is used for freshness, curry leaves for umami and rose pelargonium for its elegant floral notes with each herb interacting differently with the “root masala”.
The indigenous pelargonium becomes the aromatic driving force, present in the vinaigrette and the palette cleansing sorbet that starts off this seasons LivingRoom Experience.

This dish showcases the perfect transition between KwaZulu-Natal’s earthy winter, rainy spring and powerful summer season.

13/11/2025

Our second menu rotation for “The Rainy season - Spring in Durban” is well underway and we can’t wait to share this beautiful time of the year with you!

As always, we will be focusing on showcasing our unique part of the world, merging the subtropics and mountains with ingredients ranging from spring lamb, pelargonium, mussels, imfino, watermelon, mango, spring onion, ceps, sour milk, oxalis, and so much more.

We can’t wait to share our home with you.

03/11/2025

The LivingRoom WineClub this November

Thursday, 6th November
18:00 - 19:30

After an inspiring trip to Europe, the LivingRoom team invites you on a journey through France, Italy & Spain with the amazing and .

This will be accompanied by snacks, with dinner reservations available for after the LivingRoom WineClub.

28/10/2025

The time has come to wish our very own .ma all the best for the GRAND FINALE 2025, in Milan today.

Mentored by , we are proud to be sharing this incredible platform with the worlds most talented young chefs.

More to come!…

Address

9 Belvedale Road
Pinetown
3610

Telephone

+27635291966

Website

http://www.summerhillkzn.com/

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