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Only one restaurant on the entire African continent cracked a spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 list.

Before we get to that, it’s worth noting that two South African restaurants – FYN and La Colombe – did come in 92nd and 81st respectively, so our culinary nous hasn’t been altogether overlooked.

That’s particularly impressive for FYN, given that the Cape Town restaurant only opened three years ago.

But let’s focus on our sole entry in the top 50, and it’s Paternoster’s ever-popular Wolfgat, just sneaking in at 50th.

This top 50 this year includes 27 restaurants from Europe and the UK, eight restaurants from Central and South America, eight from Asia, and six from the USA.

There are no restaurants on the list from India, a country of 1,38 billion people.

Here’s the write-up for Wolfgat via the list’s official site:

What makes it special: With a heavy focus on sustainability, Kobus van der Merwe’s restaurant in beautiful coastal Paternoster serves a seven-course menu built on local indigenous ingredients in dishes inspired by the surrounding landscape. With only 20 diners per sitting, the restaurant has an intimate atmosphere and, more importantly, maintains sustainability by keeping it small.

Where it’s at: In a building dating back 130 years, Wolfgat is built around an archeologically significant cave that is home to ceramic remains, sheep bones and ostrich eggshells dating back up to 2,000 years. With outdoor and terrace seating looking out onto the ocean in this quiet fishing village, Wolfgat is the perfect place to admire the stunning view and appreciate the provenance of the food, much of which comes from within 10km.

On the menu: The seven-course degustation is an intro to the flavours of West Coast South Africa, with dishes including springbok loin with Saldanha Bay mussels and veldkool, a perennial plant, and sourdough flatbread with wild sage and Wolfgat’s signature butter made with bokkom, a local salted and dried mullet.

The write-up adds that van der Merwe has been compared to world-renowned Danish chef René Redzepi due to his love of foraging and championing local produce.

Wolfgat’s team was understandably proud of the honour:

 

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Kobus has spoken publicly about the restaurant’s struggle during COVID-19, so they deserve full credit for maintaining such high standards during this time.

Let’s turn our attention to the top of that list, and a little controversy. Here’s Eater:

René Redzepi’s three Michelin-starred Noma has again ascended to the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list…

Noma’s win comes as even as all other previous number one restaurants were disqualified from being on the list this year. But because Noma is actually new Noma — it opened in its current location in February 2018 with a tasting menu that now rotates a few times a year — the wins from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 do not count.

Now that Noma 2.0 has won, it should actually be off the list next year, unless René Redzepi does another reboot, or unless the 50 Best organization changes its rules again.

Tell us how you really feel.

Second place also went to a Copenhagen-based restaurant, Geranium, while third went to Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain.

The rest of the top 10:

4. Central (Lima, Peru)

5. Disfrutar (Barcelona, Spain)

6. Frantzén (Stockholm, Sweden)

7. Maido (Lima, Peru)

8. Odette (Singapore)

9. Pujol (Mexico City, Mexico)

10. The Chairman (Hong Kong, China)

The Chairman also won the Highest Climber Award

You can see the full top 50 here.

For those wondering what a day out at Wolfgat entails, The Daily Maverick’s Lin Sampson visited a few weeks back. She finished her story as follows:

It is a learning experience which opens a new culinary lexicon. Nothing I ate had I tasted before; this can be said of few chefs. There is little written history.

The thing about much of nature, particularly marine life, is that it is so weird; strange fruit, dappled innards, eyes like chipped glass, fish the colour of a rainstorm, leaves that bleed, shells that open to mushy orange innards, spikes, curlicues, tickly fringes, and the strange dark matter of creatures that live in caves.

I studied the food as if it were a book holding completely new words.

I felt many of the dishes were still in the making and it was like taking part in a story, a theatre act, a moveable feast that would change from day to day.

Suffice to say she had a good day out.

You might be waiting a while for a table, but if you want to make a booking here’s the Wolfgat site.

[sources:worlds50best&eater&dailymav]