Sitting pretty on a hilltop above West Coast scrub, !Khwa ttu Restaurant gazes out across the Atlantic with Dassen Island in quiet contemplation on the horizon. It’s certainly the sort of view that encourages long lunches and reckless second bottles of wine. Inside, the mood is unfussy and grounded.
The menu reads like anthropology with excellent seasoning. A sparkling soda infused with sceletium and rooibos arrives tasting vaguely medicinal in a good way. The cheese and meat platter for two is piled with venison charcuterie, Kokerboom cheese, farm preserves, crackers and warm potbrood; less a starter than a persuasive argument for cancelling your afternoon plans entirely. Roosterkoek, stuffed with molten Gruberg cheese and smoky tomato-and-onion smoor, makes you regret all the sad café toasties you’ve tolerated.
For mains, West Coast mussels lounge in a fermented pepper and askoek sauce with potato dumplings that deserve their own small pension fund. The pulled springbok shoulder is deeply savoury, rich without swagger, resting on creamed organic yellow maize with cabbage while kei apple jelly brings sharpness to the party.
Dessert—a condensed milk and brown butter ice cream sandwich with strawberry powder and honeycomb—tastes divine.
What makes !Khwa ttu Restaurant remarkable is the absence of gimmickry. Seasonal, local and lightly tread upon are simply how things are done here.
Book: 022 4922998; Khwa ttu Restaurant, R27, West Coast Rd.
