Protege Restaurant

My best meal during my one week stay in the Western Cape. Cozy location, attentive service, curated menu fearing impeccably presented dishes bursting with flavours and complexity, all washed down with superb wine pairing choices. Thank you for a memorable night. I can’t wait to be back.

We have eaten at most of the La Colombe group restaurants and always thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We tried Protégé during a weekend away in Franschoek and it was positively mind blowing. The food, service and ambiance were all next level. The friendly team were helpful, engaged, patient and funny! We had such a great time. The prawn stuffed Korean fried chicken was a particularly great standout and the cocktails were unreal!

Everything was absolutely delicious. Perfect combination of flavours, great service and presentation.

Absolutely fantastic experience and my favourite restaurant in Franschhoek. The food delights with the creativity and flavours. Tables are well spaced or at the bar looking over the kitchen. With the kitchen in the centre of it all they have still got the acoustics just right. Very good value including the wine flight.

Protégé is a casual fine-dining restaurant located in the heart of Franschhoek. We booked to visit the restaurant on our first night in Franschhoek, as it got great reviews. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly service team who quickly seated us and talked through the menu concept. The restaurant serves a range of innovative small dishes using seasonal ingredients, and we’d just arrived in time to sample their new autumn menu. We enjoyed a pre-dinner cocktail, and then the dishes started coming, with the first up being a small selection of breads and nibbles. Next up, we both sampled the Korean Fried Chicken which was very tasty, especially for such a simple ingredient. Next up I sampled the BBQ Pork Roti, which was delicious, albeit very awkward to eat. The dishes were beautifully presented and the flavors were well balanced. The service at Protégé is attentive and friendly, however, towards the end of the meal and the final course, there was a very long wait for our main course. I’m not too sure what happened, but we were waiting for nearly 45 minutes for our final course. We arrived at 7:30pm and finally left at 10:30pm, skipping dessert. When we eventually chased the progress of our meal the team were happy to help, but it had soured the experience. We did enjoy our Protégé experience, but unfortunately, I can’t give it 5 stars due to the final course taking so long to arrive. It is a fairly expensive restaurant, so I feel for the price paid, the score reflects the experience we had.