2 Best Restaurants in The Eastern Cape, South Africa

While locals love to stop in for coffee, breakfast, and brunch, this house-converted-into-a-restaurant is also an excellent place to tuck into a selection of popular South African dishes such as slaphakskeentjies (boiled onions served in an egg sauce) or mosbolletjies (a kind of sweet dessert bread). There's also pizza, burgers, and BBQ chicken on the menu, but look out for anything featuring Karoo lamb. They also use the local rum to make cocktails, so be to try it. A selection of deli items (artisanal jams, teas, toffee, and more) is available to buy. It's not necessarily fine-dining, but fine eating in a relaxed environment.

Next to the Seal Point Lighthouse, this restaurant, bakery, and deli has brought a sophisticated touch to the laidback holiday resort of Cape St Francis. At the helm is Wesley Randles, a celebrated Cape Town chef who moved to the Eastern Cape with his family, which has allowed him to be more adventurous with fresh seafood ingredients, bake decadent treats (like chocolate-filled doughnuts), and integrate a profound knowledge of sensual flavors with a knack for creative plating. Dishes are imaginative and flavorsome, and range from rib-eye steaks and burgers to prawns in a wood-roasted coriander "mojo" (which means "special sauce"). That said, you can also sit here and stare dreamily through the wraparound windows, watching the waves battering the promontory and admiring the old lighthouse as you sip coffee, nibble on delectable wood-fired potato bread, or slurp down fresh oysters. There's a take-away hatch where you can stock up on sourdough loaves or buy homemade ice cream.