Three SA restaurants recognised among the world’s best

La Colombe, FYN Restaurant, and Salsify at the Roundhouse have secured positions on the coveted The World’s 50 Best Restaurants extended list (51 - 100), reaffirming Cape Town’s status as a premier gastronomic destination.  

La Colombe has clinched the impressive 55th spot, while FYN has earned an equally commendable place at 82th, with Salsify debuting at 88th. The recognition comes as no surprise to those familiar with SA’s vibrant fine-dining scene, where these three restaurants have long stood out for their innovation, quality, and consistency. In fact, FYN and La Colombe are both stalwarts on the list.

Set in the lush surroundings of Constantia, La Colombe enchants diners with its imaginative presentation, exceptional service, and panoramic vineyard views. With executive chef James Gaag at the helm, it has built a reputation for blending French-inspired technique with global and local flavours, resulting in a menu that surprises and delights, time after time.

FYN, led by renowned chef Peter Tempelhoff and Ashley Moss, together with service and beverage director Jennifer Hugé, has earned international praise for its seamless interpretation of SA ingredients through a Japanese lens. Located in Cape Town’s city centre, the restaurant’s sleek, urban interior offers a sophisticated setting that complements its artfully crafted dishes.

The arc of Salsify’s rise has been impressively short and steep. Accolades began filtering in soon after its 2018 opening, culminating in its being named the country’s very best at the 2025 Eat Out Woolworths awards, earning three stars for the third consecutive year. Internationally, it was hailed as Africa’s Best Landmark Restaurant for the second straight year at 2024’s World Culinary Awards.

The restaurant is situated in one of the Cape’s oldest historical buildings, the Roundhouse, built over 250 years ago. Perhaps subconsciously inspired by the surrounding woodlands, co-owner and executive chef Ryan Cole searches for arboreal imagery — the fruits of a tree, looking after the whole tree, nurturing its roots — to explain what this latest award means.

His feelings are clearer when he switches from Henry David Thoreau to straightforward Cole: “When you set out to do something for the right reasons, to the best of your ability and not for anything other than that, it’s cool when you get these nods of validation. These awards are great — but they aren’t the driver, and don’t define what we do.”

Illustration, then, lies in the 10-course chef’s menu. “My idea of what a restaurant should be doesn’t involve all the fuss of fine dining. Even those words annoy me,” he says with a wry smile, aware of and leaning into the irony. “I always wanted to create a space where people want to come to experience something meaningful but also playful, light, genuine.”

Asking a chef to highlight their favourite dish is like asking a parent to name their favourite child: they’re all loved, but differently; besides, it’s better not to say too much. But does Cole sense there was one dish that persuaded the judges of Salsify’s world-class inventiveness and standards? “No,” he replies quickly, “I think it was the overall experience.”

Surprises are scattered throughout diners’ two or three hours at Salsify, such as a welcome handwashing ritual and an imphepho (wild African sage) and Zambian honey-mead gin cocktail while being given a brief and sensitive history of the premises. But there are highlights. Chokka — squid caught in Simon’s Town — is served in a mirin tea with amasi curd, the charred peas and beans creating a meaty aroma, and the dish decorated with lovage and marigold leaves and flowers. Kingklip — light and firm but tending to blandness — is brought to new heights with a sunflower crumb and mussel-stock emulsion, shavings of roasted fennel dressed in a gastrique, plump mussels, and kumquat atchar. On the side is an amagwinya (traditional doughnut) topped with cod’s roe.

Sake-steamed pork jowl is a work of art, gracefully curved and resting underneath a wand of wafer-thin crackling. Shiitake, sultanas, and a slightly spicy crumb add texture and savoury-sweet contrast, the light chicken-bone broth calming the taste buds before the next mouthful.   

The Karoo Wagyu sirloin is embellished with a delicate pot pie of melt-in-the-mouth beef shin, mild chakalaka, a bite-sized ball of jollof rice, and beef jus. Alternately tender and satisfyingly chewy, sharp, rich, spicy, and smoky, it’s a composite of everything that makes a superb meat dish. 

We circle back to awards and international comparisons. The Michelin Guide doesn’t come to South Africa, but Cole is proud, not unrealistic or boastful, when he says that “Salsify, among other top restaurants in South Africa, is of Michelin standard”. He should know, having worked at two Michelin-starred London restaurants — The Square and La Trompette — and with illustrious Elystan Street chef patron, the SA-born Phil Howard. Howard was his mentor at The Square and is an occasional collaborator at special “Salsify & Friends” tasting-menu evenings.

“It may yet take time for South African restaurants and chefs to hold their heads high and have the confidence to say, ‘We are just as good,’ but the narrative is changing quickly now. Overseas visitors are saying our food is incredible. Salsify is part of this, telling a new African story,” Cole adds.

The inclusion of these restaurants on the extended list not only honours their individual achievements but also highlights the growing global recognition of SA’s culinary talent. It is a proud moment for the local industry and a compelling invitation for food enthusiasts from around the world to experience what Cape Town has to offer.

With the full 50 Best list set to be announced at a prestigious event later this month in Turin, Italy, South Africans will be watching eagerly to see whether any of our other famed restaurants will break into the top tier.