Small-town restaurants in South Africa are a mixed bag. For the most part, you’ll find perfectly friendly places serving perfectly adequate dishes from a familiar menu replicated time and again from Springbok to Storms River. Every so often though, you come across a real diamond in the rough.

Gallery is most definitely a diamond, although it wouldn’t really be fair or accurate to describe Prince Albert as rough. The quiet Karoo town, 400km from Cape Town, counts more than a handful of artists, gourmands and corporate refugees among its 7000 inhabitants. But even in a town boasting delis, cooking schools, olive emporiums and some long-standing restaurants serving traditional Karoo cuisine, Gallery stands out.

Sitting on the first floor above, not surprisingly, an art gallery, the restaurant offers the kind of dishes that wouldn’t be out of place in a big city eatery. The chalkboard menu offers a small but sumptuous selection of dishes featuring largely local ingredients, including herbs from the chef’s own garden. Gallery is one of those places where nobody around the table has to suffer from food envy. Sure you want to taste what your dining companions have ordered, but with each dish as good as the next, everyone leaves content with their choice.

Being in the Karoo, lamb is a solid option for those seeking a local speciality, though the perfectly seared game steaks are also superb. All desserts come with cream or ice cream from Prince Albert’s own dairy – get the chocolate fondant if it’s on the menu. You won’t regret it.

Gallery is rightfully popular with locals and weekend residents who escape big city life for a slice of the country whenever they can, so booking ahead on weekends is a good idea, especially if you’d like a table on the balcony overlooking Prince Albert’s main street. There’s never too much opportunity for people-watching in this sleepy town but in summer, when temperatures often inch towards the 40°C mark, you’ll be grateful for a little extra fresh air with your meal.