The Tasting Room, Cape Town, South Africa

The Tasting Room at Cape Town’s Le Quartier Français hotel has quite the record going: It has made San Pellegrino’s list of the world’s Top 50 Best Restaurants seven years in a row. The credit goes to chef Margot Janse, a Relais & Châteaux grande chef, whose eight-course, three-and-a-half-hour African-inspired Surprise Tasting menu melds African influences with classic haute cuisine in an innovative, elevated way. There’s no guarantee what will emerge from the kitchen each night (the menu is truly a surprise), but past meals have included squid-ink “cigars”; rabbit terrine with fermented garlic and salt-baked swedes; baobab with watermelon and fennel pollen; and pasture-fed yolk, lovage and vegetable cornflakes (pictured here). Eight courses, $100; optional wine pairings, $50; Corner of Berg and Wilhelmina Sts., Franschhoek; 27-21/876-8442; lqf.co.za/cuisine.