Where to Eat in Stellenbosch

The view does a lot of the work here. Delaire sits at the top of the Helshoogte pass and the terrace looks straight across the Banhoek valley, which is why the outside tables go first.

The kitchen is guided by head chef Clinton Jacobs and the cooking is the formal end of what Stellenbosch does. Lunch runs every day with the last seating at two, dinner only from Wednesday to Saturday. Telephone reservations are taken between nine and five, which tells you something about how far ahead people book.

A steakhouse that also sells you the meat. The butchery shop and knife range run alongside the restaurant on the corner of Van Riebeeck and Drostdy, and the cuts come to the table to be chosen rather than described.

All the beef is pasture reared and grain fed. Inside it is wooden floors and leather booths, with a shaded courtyard at the back for when the town gets hot. Open all day, every day, with the kitchen going until half past ten, which makes it one of the few places in the centre that will still feed you late.

You reach it down a narrow passage, which is most of the charm. The passage opens onto a courtyard on a square that was once the original Stellenbosch produce market, strung with lights at night.

It belongs to the Bertus Basson group and the kitchen is run by chef Michael Fuller. The menu is small plates alongside a wine list that goes looking for the less obvious bottles. A good answer to an evening that is not a full sit-down dinner.

A converted stable at the top of Dorp Street with an oak-shaded courtyard, serving a short menu of small plates the kitchen describes as global cuisine.

The flavours are punchy and the room is not precious about it. Lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday, booked online with larger parties and private functions arranged by email.

Glenelly sits in Ida’s Valley in the foothills of the Simonsberg, and the bistro is the quieter way to eat on an estate.

The cooking is traditional French bistro on a menu that changes weekly, with a terrace looking out across fynbos gardens and vine-clad slopes. Sunday lunch is run separately from the a la carte menu. Booking goes through the estate.

Fire and bread. Vadas cooks over flame and bakes its own, out on Spier Wine Farm on the Baden Powell road.

It is built around platters meant to be passed around rather than plates of your own, which makes it the easiest of these for a group or a family. Open from nine, and on into the evening from Wednesday to Saturday. Reservations are made online.

Basque-inspired small plates and paella meant to be passed around a communal table, with pavement seating spilling onto Church Street.

It comes from the Chefs Warehouse group and takes no reservations at all, so it suits an evening you have not planned. All-day service Monday to Sunday with last orders at nine. The operator currently brands it Le Grand Domaine Cantina.

On the corner of Church and Ryneveld, light-filled and open from seven, running all the way from breakfast through to evening pizza.

Walk-ins only and no bookings taken, which is worth knowing at the busy hours. It handles a coffee and a croissant on the way somewhere as readily as it handles a long table.

The town centre bakery, on the corner of Bird and Church, turning out sourdough, pastries and proper coffee from seven in the morning.

There is Wi-Fi and people use it, so it doubles as somewhere to sit and work. It opens earlier on weekdays than anything else on this list and closes by mid-afternoon at weekends.

Tokara’s deli sits between the olive groves and the vineyards on Helshoogte Road, with the Simonsberg in front of you.

Breakfast and lunch a la carte, every day of the week, from a kitchen led by chef Stephanie de Wet. There is an outdoor play area, which makes it one of the few Winelands stops that genuinely works with children.