Whether you’re eating out with friends or going on a date, you can always expect the usual routine: pick a restaurant, order, eat and pay. The food on the plate may change, but the experience rarely does. In search of more unique ways to enjoy food, MINILiving explored a few South African dining experiences that break the mould and dare to be different.

Located in Cape Town, Joburg, Durban, Dallas and even Dublin, Dine4Six offers guests an exclusive dining experience at some of these cities’ finest restaurants. Guests join an exclusive chef’s table for six and are treated to one-of-a-kind, designed menus, not available to other patrons. While you’re welcome to book an entire table, Dine4Six often receives single or double bookings, encouraging diners with a taste for the finer things in life to meet, mingle and eat together. It is an experience like no other. To make a reservation, browse their website for upcoming events and download the Dine4Six app to book and pay easily.

Dining in the Dark is an incredibly unique experience that forces you to abandon your vision for an hour or two, while you enjoy an evening of fine food and music in pitch darkness. To ensure you are totally in the dark, the menu is kept secret too, so as to surprise your taste buds. While it might sound strange, with complete loss of vision, your other four senses are heightened, encouraging your taste buds to work overtime to analyse exactly what it is you are tasting. A host explains the evening’s events every step of the way as you guess what you’re eating and who you’re sitting next to, and work out how to pour your drinks. It’s a multi-sensual dining experience that everyone should try. Bookings are essential.

If you miss sitting around the dinner table eating Mama’s cooking, Yeoville Dinner Club is where you need to be. In the heart of the culturally diverse city of Yeoville, Sanza Sandile has created a bustling space for family-style dining, reminiscent of true African home-cooked meals.

Sanza has found a way to combine and highlight the different nationalities from within this historically rich city through his banquet-style dishes, all served at an 18-seater table. Sourcing only the freshest ingredients from the famous Yeoville market and taxi rank, he conceptualises and creates everything from scratch. So what can you expect? Prepare yourself for a vegan, vegetarian and pescatarian Pan-African feast that will be shared and enjoyed among friends and strangers.

Visit the Yeoville Dinner Club Facebook page for more info. Booking is essential.

“I love food. Eating it, cooking it, sharing it…” says Ginger & Lime chef Denise Levy. Like so many others, her kitchen has always been the heart of her home, where friends and family bond over preparing and eating delicious food. This is where the concept for Ginger & Lime’s interactive cooking sessions was born. The freestyle approach to dining means guests can either help with preparing a variety of dishes or gather around the kitchen island, glass of wine in hand, and watch the professionals do it. “Something very special happens when people from different backgrounds get together and share in the preparation of food,” says Denise. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, as guests get to delve into the completed dishes having learned new skills, made new friends and created lasting memories.

Ginger & Lime offers various courses and cuisines that change regularly. All you need to do is pick your favourite.

What would a night of extraordinary dining be without a suitably strange cocktail to round it off? Whether you prefer pre- or post-dinner drinks – or both to be safe – Outrage of Modesty in Cape Town concocts cocktails like none other you’ve experienced.

Hidden near House of Machines just off the trendy Bree Street, silent bouncers usher in guests (bookings essential) to experience the outrageous and inspiring selection of cocktails. Updated seasonally by head cocktail creator Noreen Dunzo from Singapore, the menus offer a selection of drinks based on local flavours, the current zeitgeist and long-forgotten memories. Select the flavour profile you’re in the mood for from a list of innovative cocktails, with names like Rooibos LIT, Beet around the Bush, Crème Brûlée and Dunzo Dessert, and enjoy as you discover new flavours and favourites.

Images/Photographs: Grant Payne, Supplied