4 Best Restaurants in The Northern Cape, South Africa

What a nice and welcome surprise! Good coffee is generally hard to find in such remote parts, but the owners here have got this right. Though they are not quite baristas, their "flat whites" nevertheless taste like real coffee. The café is also a deli, stocking yummy chutneys (try the peach), relishes, and more. It's got a nice atmosphere and serves good, hearty lunches (it closes at 5). One interesting fact to know is that the owners' husbands work for opposing engineering firms, but that hasn't hindered their cooperation. If you're headed toward Springbok, it's worth calling ahead for a table; there are not many good places to eat here.

The current owner of this restaurant was so impressed by a sushi-cum-cocktail bar in Cape Town that he bought it and moved it—plus the barman—to the table-grape farming town of Kakamas. Rave reviews (even in the New York Times of all places) are probably due more to its novelty value. But it's a fun place, and although local menu additions like springbok won't appeal to everyone, real sushi is served here, and there's a good cocktail bar. It's definitely worth a visit. There are also rooms for rent in the hotel.

Some nibbles may be required on your journey, and this would be the ideal place for a snack, particularly because stops in this area are few and far between.

Finish off your tour of Barkly West with a drink or light snack at the Pump House Bar, on the important Vaal river and within a stone's throw of the museum. It's a great place to meet locals, enjoy a good steak or other pub fare, and contemplate the waters of the Vaal River.