Wolfgat has just been named as one of the world’s 50 best restaurants!
Paternoster, South Africa (06 October 2021) – A tiny restaurant tucked away in a 130-year-old ocean-side cottage on the historic Wolfgat cave – with a menu specialising in local seafood and plants foraged from the Western Cape – has made the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants!
Since 2002, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has reflected the diversity of the world’s culinary landscape. Thanks to its panel of more than 1,000 culinary experts, as well as its structured and audited voting procedure, the annual list of the world’s finest restaurants, provides a snapshot of some of the best destinations for unique culinary experiences, in addition to being a barometer for global gastronomic trends.
With the annual awards ceremony held in London from 2003 to 2015 before starting a global tour with stops in New York in 2016, Melbourne in 2017, the Basque Country in 2018 and Singapore in 2019, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants creates a fantastic opportunity to bring an incredible community of chefs together from around the world.
And this year, Wolfgat came in at number 50 but was the only South African restaurant grouped with incredible eateries like Noma in Copenhagen, Cosme in New York and The Clove Club in London.
“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.”
Apart from the restaurant building dating back some 130 years, the placement of Wolfgat is especially meaningful because of the location of the Wolfgat cave on the premises – a site of immense archaeological and geological significance.
According to leading archaeologist, John Parkington, the Wolfgat cave is “…a substantial chamber lying under an unusually large calcrete shelf. Almost certainly, the chamber, and passages leading into it, owe their origin to underground stream erosion that has removed softer sand from below the cemented shelf.”
Local legend has it that the underground passages of Wolfgat cave extend some kilometres inland, and some even say that it stretches all the way into Cape Columbine reserve, with more than one southern exit.
Congratulations Wolgat! Proudly South African and proud of South Africa!!! To see the full list of winners, click here.
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