The 2026 hot list: the best new restaurants in South Africa

High Constantia was the warm-up. Foxcroft has moved to Constantia Nek, taking chef-proprietor Glen Williams’ small-plates discipline into a southern suburbs landmark with valley views. La Colombe Restaurant Group holds two Eat Out Awards stars (2025) and runs tasting-style menus built on tight flavours and clean technique. Expect herbed-salt bread with jersey butter, truffled cauliflower and roasted yeast, yellowtail ssam and tomato kimchi with Namibian crab and perilla. Later courses lean bolder: crayfish with mushroom, jollof and berbere, cannon of lamb with turnip and denningvleis, then chestnut, mascarpone and burnt vanilla. Petit fours land at the end, as they should.