Klein Jan

"Chef Jan Hendrik, one of the first one Michelin stars of South Africa Tasting from $145pp There’s destination dining and then there’s Klein Jan. Four hours' drive from the nearest town and planted on the untamed plains of the exclusive Tswalu Reserve, Klein Jan's dusty patch appears like a freeze-frame straight from an old Western movie. Swerving evergreen Cape Town for the remote Kalahari dust bowl, owner Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen immerses this restaurant in its locale. The concise plot with its orange-hued terrain comprises little more than an historic Karoo farmhouse cottage, emblematic windpump and non-descript shed – but things get interesting when you see starched white linens dance on the warm bushland breeze of the veranda – a hint of what’s to come. Dressed in reclaimed furniture with dried bush flowers hanging from the ceiling, fully retractable glass yields to reveal a cosy scene that brings the sound, scent and scenes of the Kalahari within. It’s an appropriate framework for an exciting menu that champions native desert ingredients across a unique seven-course tasting menu. Driven by heritage recipes and a zero-waste ethos, hero dishes celebrate the underrated and the exotic, transforming that which sustained the San bushmen into culinary art. From foraged Spekboom succulents, spiked cucumbers and deset tsamma melons to Senqu River pistachios, local springbok, camel milk and Kalahari salt, it’s a bona fide taste of the terroir."