Friendly, delicious and delightfully surreal.

The Karoo Food Experience, at the Ibis in Nieu Bethesda, was one of the highlights of our South Africa trip.

It felt surreal because we were in Nieu Bethesda, a tiny village in the Great Karoo, that feels a little bit like it was put together by elves.

The village is cluster of beautiful buildings nestled in a ley line green Middle Earth landscape.

There’s no supermarket here, no petrol station. The roads are dust, mud and gravel.

But this is a town that attracts interesting, creative, hardy people.

We really, genuinely, felt like we were exploring another realm. If you’re spending time in South Africa and you’re thinking of heading into the interior I highly recommend you visit Nieu Bethesda.

But enough about the town, that’s for another post. This is all about THE must-do food experience here when you come to visit.

Barbara and her husband’s restaurant is called Stirlings at the Ibis.

Ibis is the name of their guest house and Stirlings is the name of their restaurant.

The restaurant has an a la carte offering, which looks fantastic. However, if you want the no holds barred, full on magical tasting menu experience you’ll need to choose ‘The Karoo Food Experience’.

I’m actually going to spell out this next bit in a staccato fashion because we got a tiny bit confused when we were trying to book initially over text/email.

(Hopefully this will make the process a breeze for any city bumpkins like us visiting Nieu Bethesda).

The Karoo Food Experience: Important Information on How to Book

For the tasting menu experience, here’s what you need to know:

💡 When It Takes Place: Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday at 6:30pm only (please doubly confirm with them though!)

💡 Is Advanced Booking Required? YES. Definitely book in advance

💡 What to Ask For When Booking: ‘The Karoo Food Experience’ (this is the amazing 6.30pm tasting menu that I talk about on this page)

💡 Is There a Drinks Pairing Option? Yes/maybe. Again, check well in advance

✔️ How to Book:

By Phone: Contact Barbara on 072 110 6254 (if you have a South African number or SIM card) to make your reservation.

Tip: This number does also work on WhatsApp, so if you are on an international SIM and using WiFi to surf, simply add the number above to your contacts, go into WhatsApp and message Barbara to make the booking.

Note: These details are correct at the time of writing. You can find up to date information on their website here.

Remember to give the date, number of people, and say you want the ‘Karoo Food Experience’.

I’ve said ‘Karoo Food Experience’ about 70 quadrillion times now, so hopefully you get the message that this is what you need to ask for.

When we visited there was a couple that hadn’t specified this, had booked to come at 7pm (rather than 6:30pm), and were dissapointed they missed out.

What to Expect: Delicious Food Which Takes You On a Thoughtful, Carefully Crafted Journey

The lovely thing about this experience is that you can expect something completely different from what I’m about to describe below.

The menu changes periodically throughout the year so that Barbara can explore different themes.

However, there are some common elements, which we loved.

One is that this tasting menu is all about local ingredients.

The focus is primarily about what’s in season and available nearby in this landscape at this time of year.

So that means you get fresh, interesting Karoo ingredients which we really appreciated. The Karoo is unlike anywhere on the planet we’ve ever experienced so to have a culinary exploration that showcases it’s uniqueness was fantastic.

The soup above looks humble but it was a delicious combination of beetroot, pear, lucerne and aniseed. The teacup is a nod to English settlers in the Karoo who would have brought over and used some of these ingredients

I’m not just talking necessasrily about Karoo lamb or other famous Karoo dishes you may have come across if you have spent time here but the little details. The herbs used which grow locally. The flavours infused into the drink when you’re greeted.

When we visited the theme for the tasting menu was called ‘Frontier’.

There was the story of the different peoples who have populated this area and navigated this ‘frontier’ landscape over the years.

In particuar it explored those ingredients they might have come across and eaten here in the Karoo. This is my understanding, by the way, the waitress did a much better job of describing!

So we had ingredients the bushmen would have foraged and eaten, as well as those the Afrikaner farmers would have introduced more recently, such as lamb.

The presentation was lovely and the menu came rolled in a little bow.

You can see what we were treated to in our tasting experience here:

Please remember: the menu changes periodically throughout the year, so you will experience something different when you visit.

If you want to know what’s included in the current menu, contact Barbara for more information (details above).

In case the image above is hard to read, for our experience we had:

Veltroos
Balderjan/Wildmint, Wilde-als/African Wormwood, Veldtee, Kankerbos, Lemon verbena

Early Man
Spekboom, Wild spinach, Grape skin flour, Walnuts, Agave blossoms, Raw Honey
(Pictured at the top of this article)

San
Ostrich, Kapokbos, Wild Chives, Pink Pepper

Colonial
Beetroot, Pear, Lucerne, Aniseed

Trek Boer
Lamb, Garden Veggies, Maize

Kaneelpyp Liefde
Milk, Cinnamon

Opsit Kers
Wildmint/Balderjan, Veldtea, Chocolate, Coconut

To round things off a candle, surrounded by beautiful chocolates.

This, Barbara explained, is an Afrikaner tradition known as the “Opsit Kers” or candle courting.

This was practiced here in the Karoo and other isolated farming communities.

When a young man came to court a girl, her family (often her father or mother) would light a candle. The young man could sit and talk with her for as long as the candle burned.

Once the candle went out, that was it, he had to leave. This was to ensure courtship was supervised (no hanky panky) but at the same time that the couple could get to know each other. It was a also a nod of respect for the family’s authority.

If mum and dad liked the young visitor he might get a longer candle, to give romance a chance to kindle. A bad sort might be given a stumpy little thing.

It might sound quaint or old fashioned but in secluded, rural areas these kinds of traditions often help maintain social harmony. Small communities, surviving in harsh terrains, totally rely on one another, so you have to know you can trust one another.

A beautiful end to a beautiful evening.

Before we left we ordered an amarula on the rocks for the road. Our guilty pleasure.