Best Restaurant: The Greenhouse
Cuisine that is fun and inventive without being contrived – the entire experience from the Peter Rabbit-statuary to the edible soil on the plate will delight.
Templehoff's modern cuisine in this setting is even more arresting. Like the spectacular nine hectare gardens that surround the hotel, what is served on the plate is fragrant and dazzling -a thing of beauty to look at and to eat.
Nothing is as it seems at The Greenhouse and you'll be forgiven for following one of the stone bunnies down the rabbit hole. Beetroot and goat's cheese lollipops are served in edible grass and a diminutive "Scotch" egg, made from crumbed quail's egg with prawn suggest what is to follow.
The Greenhouse,
The Cellars-Hohenort Hotel,
Constantia. 021-794-2137.

Best fish: Hook, Line & Sinker
The selection of fish is always limited to what's freshly available – typically it will be tuna, kabeljou and perhaps Swordfish with wild prawns and Patagonian calamari. Dessert is a fabulous crème brule, a "wicked chocolate pot" and recently also a minted version of the former. At lunch, except Sunday where it is a la carte, ale-battered hake and chips cooked in palm oil are served on newspaper directly on the rustic wooden tables.
Stefan has an armoury of sauces and he decides which sauce will accompany your dish – a sharp vintage cheddar white sauce, his version of Old Man's with mustard and Jack Daniels' Bourbon and "green stuff" or "red stuff" made from an undisclosed mix of herbs and spices.
Hook, Line & Sinker,
382 Crescent Road,
Pringle Bay.
028 273 86 88
(Look for the blue roof and painted fish.)

Best sea view: Azure
Azure is ticking all the right boxes with its commitment to sustainable seafood and its involvement with StreetSmart. The menu is divided into dishes created by Bea Tollman, founder of Red Carnation, that owns the hotel, and those created by executive chef Henrico Grobbelaar. Henrico's previous profession as an engineer before coming to food has taught him the importance of structure – each flavour in the dish seems to build upon and enhance the first.
Leave space for Bea's famous baked cheese cake – a soft, rich bottom layer of cream cheese and an upper deck of sour cream which bakes into a layer that teases your teeth and tongue before it sinks, like into quicksand, into a cloud. And then there's the views, views, views.
Azure Restaurant,
12 Apostles Hotel,
Oudekraal
021-437-9000.

Best pizza: Grand Café & Beach
It is a glittering spectacle, iridescent as the setting sun fires up the white sandy beach and the iron warehouse shimmers like mercury. Light reflects off everything – the vast chandeliers and Venetian mirrors; the silver ice buckets; the diamonds on the rings and ears of patrons.
By dark, candles light up long tables of diners still with the feet in the sand. In the warehouse the pace is frenetic, long-aproned waiters shimmy past tables and through queues of people wishing they had one. This is not the spot for a quiet night out but it is for their crisp-based meter-long pizzas.
The Grand on the Beach,
Granger Bay.
021-425-0551,
sms 072-586 -052 or
email beach@thegrand.co.za.

Best Sunday brunch: 15 on Orange
Rather than pile-up your plate to the brim with gleaming oysters from the buffet, ask one of the brilliant waiters to bring a dozen or two to your table. Taste the zesty gazpacho soup, salmon sashimi, Tuna tataki, proper Greek salad and tuna ceviche. From the hot buffet enjoy top-notch tandoori chicken and Thai seafood curry with salmon, calamari and mussels in a rich coconut cream.
The dessert selection of individual confectioneries is superb. Too often hotels skimp here using factory made items, margarine and poor quality chocolate. This pastry chef has the skill and the budget to create masterpieces, and he has.
15 on Orange Hotel,
Grey's Pass,
Gardens.
R265 per person.
021-469-8000.

Best cakes: Treat
You too will circle the table like a cooped up jaguar being taunted by each plate – one more alluring than the next. Treat offers cakes that few others do and displays them in such an elegant manner – some under large glass domes that imprison and yet magnify their deliciousness – others on pedestals. There are platters of chequered squares of coconut ices, ooey-gooey chocolate brownies and pies and slices of quiches. The baked cheese cake with a sour cherry topping is evil as is their signature dish, the red velvet – a beetroot-red vanilla cake with a marshmallow coating that has been flamed. Also try spicy apple; the orange and poppy cake; humming bird with pineapple and cream-cheese topping and a chocolate cake topped with Lindor truffles.
Treat,
12 Bella Rosa Street,
Rosenpark, Hertex Fabrics.
021-914-7041.

Best value: The Common Room at LQF
When food and service is as outstanding as its famed sister, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, this is extraordinarily good value. Consider that all the ingredients used by executive chef Margot Janse meet the highest ethical eating standards you won't find food this good at this price elsewhere.
Feast on stellar strawberry daiquiris to start, and end with Amarula coffees, served in flasks (each enough for two) and in between on fish pops on colourful sticks with the chakalaka sauce, divine ham and cheese bitterballen with sweet apple mustard, lamb frikadelletjies with flat vetkoeks and raïta and satay spiced squid, in a spicy peanut and coriander sauce.
A mini pizza with pulled Springbok shank and cabbage is a winner and short rib and bacon crumble reminds us of cassoulet. More traditional tappas like pan-fried sardine fillets with anchovy salsa are also available.
The Common Room,
LQF, Main Road,
Franschhoek.
(021) 876 8442.
www.lqf.co.za

Best Power Table: Tower restaurant, Westin Grand.
Take the corner 19th floor table with floor-to-ceiling glass on either side to prove that you're king of the castle. Eat carpaccio of smoked duck and then the velvety summer squash soup with luscious ricotta-stuffed zucchini flowers. Lamb comes three ways: slow-roasted meat which is shredded, in a terrine and then grilled lamb loin all with mashed potatoes and truffle oil. The olive oil-poached Norwegian salmon with burnt citrus endive, gnocchi and a white chocolate sauce is inventive and delicious.
The Westin Grand, Foreshore.

Best for sundowners: Maestro's on the Beach
Right on Milnerton beach this popular spot spans pizzas to salads, to burgers to pastas to grilled steaks and stews. The Roquefort salad is packed with crumbled blue-veined cheese and interesting and fresh greens. The grilled line fish is served with Med-style veg and your choice of starch. Come here for friendly service, acceptable food and amazing views. Chicken Tikka pasta is a favourite.
Maestro's On The Beach,
Milnerton Golf Club,
Bridge Road,
Milnerton.
021-551-4992

Best Italian: 95 Keerom
One of the city's finest restaurants, enjoy Milanese cuisine where the focus is on the best ingredients and classic recipes. Giorgio Nava has a number of restaurants but you will find him cooking here and coming to each table to present the specials. Lamb comes from his Karoo farm and tuna, which he serves seared with a fresh tomato sauce, is fished by people he knows well. The fresh lobster pasta is perfect to start followed by richly fragrant osso bucco and parmesan enriched polenta. The chocolate soufflé has become almost as famous as the acclaimed Nava himself.
95 On Keerom,
95 Keerom Street,
Cape Town.
021-422-0765