For my 29th birthday, my parents bought us a meal at a South African restaurant on the North Bank called High Timber. For several months we had tried, and failed, to secure a booking only to discover (when Alison called them up) that they don't actually open on weekends... whoops! At any rate, almost a year later we finally found a weeknight that worked; it was well worth the wait! I wouldn't say it's a particularly comprehensive menu if you're looking for SA food (no bobotie, melktart, boerewors etc.) but what they have is clearly Afrikaanse in outlook and the wine selection is almost entirely from the Cape (and priced to match!).
We didn't really fancy wine, though, instead opting for Windhoek and an old fashioned. Similarly, we shared a selection of starters, effectively creating our own African tapas of calamari (great), bread (good), chakalaka sausage and cuttlefish (excellent), and biltong croquettes (tasty but a little weird). High Timber specialises in steak and, despite my own misgivings about British beef, we went for a shared fillet with chips, creamed spinach, and some surprisingly good (but still all for Alison) aubergine and cheese hotpot as sides. The steak was perfectly cooked[1] and (huzzah!) actually had some flavour, proving once again that it isn't the meat in Britain but rather the way Brits cook it that makes it so incredibly boring. The chimichurri sauce was spot on too. We rounded everything out with malva pudding, which was thick and well balanced. Overall, a delicious meal with a great view (not too dissimilar than the one from Sea Containers) and warm service. I'd definitely go back and recommend them to anyone looking for a hidden gem.
