Wolfgat

Directions Website Contact the restaurant

Wolfgat A Strandveld eatery, showcasing the seasonal veldkos and seafood of the West Coast. Lunch and dinner, by appointment only.
(644)

FEBRUARY AVAILABILITYLimited availability for dates in February 2027 will be released for online booking tomorrow, 29 Oc...
28/10/2026

FEBRUARY AVAILABILITY

Limited availability for dates in February 2027 will be released for online booking tomorrow, 29 October 2026, at 12 noon.

Please visit our website at www.wolfgat.co.za to make your prepaid reservation using the Dineplan calendar.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Ten years.In September 2016, Wolfgat opened in a historic cottage at 10 Sampson street, overlooking the bay of Paternost...
17/09/2026

Ten years.

In September 2016, Wolfgat opened in a historic cottage at 10 Sampson street, overlooking the bay of Paternoster. Twenty seats and no real plan beyond cooking what this coastline gave us.

There have been accolades since that we never went looking for. At the World Restaurant Awards in Paris in 2019 we were named Off-Map Destination of the Year, and Restaurant of the Year. Time listed us among the 100 Greatest Places in the World. Other best-of lists and awards have followed, locally and abroad, and we're grateful for each one.

But there are more important reasons why Wolfgat is still standing:

The team who show up every day: Alicia, Emily, Emmerson, Rochelle and She-Earl since day one (and more recently Matthew), as well as our supporting cast of colleagues and family, and those who have joined for previous stints along the way.

The fishing community of Paternoster: Wolfgat does not exist without the people who go out to sea every day, or without the generations who made this a working village long before we arrived.

Our colleagues, from here and around the world, who have cooked alongside us in this kitchen, and welcomed us into theirs.

And our guests, who made the journey out to this remote stretch of coast, who came back, who told someone else to come. Thank you for embracing our sometimes unconventional ways, and for your continued curiosity.

Cheers to the next ten.

SUMMER SEASON AVAILABILITYAvailability for dates in December 2026 and January 2027 will be released for online booking t...
01/09/2026

SUMMER SEASON AVAILABILITY

Availability for dates in December 2026 and January 2027 will be released for online booking tomorrow, 2 September 2026 at 12 midday, South African time.

Please visit our website at www.wolfgat.co.za to make your prepaid reservation using the Dineplan calendar.

We can't wait to welcome you!

NOVEMBER AVAILABILITYAvailability for dates in November 2026 will be released for online booking on Monday 17 August at ...
15/08/2026

NOVEMBER AVAILABILITY

Availability for dates in November 2026 will be released for online booking on Monday 17 August at 12 noon.

Please visit our website at www.wolfgat.co.za to make your prepaid reservation using the Dineplan calendar.



📷 Nectarine ice-cream with wild sage meringue. Jac de Villiers

LAST MINUTE AVAILABILITYTables have become available for lunch this Saturday 1 August 2026.We're in the height of the ve...
30/07/2026

LAST MINUTE AVAILABILITY
Tables have become available for lunch this Saturday 1 August 2026.

We're in the height of the veldkool micro season. And all the flowers are already out. Join us!

wolfgat.co.za for reservations or email us on [email protected]



Pictured here, from our current menu: Veldkool three ways, with oyster, surings and Vin John.

📷 Jac de Villiers

Last week we joined Food Indaba to talk about water and the food system - from the perspective of a twenty-seat restaura...
29/07/2026

Last week we joined Food Indaba to talk about water and the food system - from the perspective of a twenty-seat restaurant on the West Coast.

It began with cold water - the Benguela current, which runs up this coast from the Southern Ocean and informs everything Wolfgat serves.

We cook what the sea delivers and what the boats bring in - no order sheet. Cultivated mussels and oysters, limpet and white mussels from Paternoster bay, fish from small-scale suppliers. When the south-easter blows for days, or an algal bloom affects the bay, the menu changes with it.

But coastal foraging, cooking to the day's catch, and collecting food from the veld, are not contemporary restaurant ideas. These are the oldest food practices on this coast, and have never stopped.

A restaurant that depends on a water system inherits that system's limits: cultivated abalone left our menu when a farm up the road closed, undone by a market on the other side of the world. Other species are under immense pressure too, from environmental and socio-economic change.

Then there is the other water system - the one we don't have. Paternoster is semi-arid: rain from maybe June to August, then essentially none. It sets the foraging calendar and shapes our pantry. Preservation here is a water-saving technology, not nostalgia.

Most of what Wolfgat knows about this coast was known in Paternoster long before we opened - and that knowledge lives in our team, who grew up on this shoreline and have watched it change in their own lifetimes.

* * *

20 seats. A team of 7. One restaurant, built to fit a landscape.

This model doesn't scale, and that's the point.



Photography by Jac de Villiers and Kobus van der Merwe

OCTOBER AVAILABILITYLimited availability for dates in October will be released for online booking tomorrow, 7 July 2026 ...
06/07/2026

OCTOBER AVAILABILITY

Limited availability for dates in October will be released for online booking tomorrow, 7 July 2026 at 12:00.

Please visit our website at www.wolfgat.co.za to make your prepaid reservation using the Dineplan calendar.

We can't wait to welcome you.



📷 'Perlemoen in its shell' captured by Jac de Villiers

Seven years ago!
17/06/2026

Seven years ago!

Klipkombers, Cape Bream and Waterblommetjies. We cooked some of  our favourite ingredients for BBC 'Discover the World'.
03/06/2026

Klipkombers, Cape Bream and Waterblommetjies. We cooked some of our favourite ingredients for BBC 'Discover the World'.

Travel to the world's wonders with BBC, featuring videos, reels and short-form documentaries that explore the beauty and sights of our planet.

Address

10 Sampson Street
Paternoster
7381

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12:30 - 12:35
Thursday 12:30 - 12:35
Friday 12:30 - 12:35
19:00 - 19:05
Saturday 12:30 - 12:35
19:00 - 19:05
Sunday 12:00 - 12:05

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wolfgat posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Restaurant

Send a message to Wolfgat:

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Nearby restaurants