South Africa's Unusual Flavors: Nation's 1st insect restaurant opens in Cape Town

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South Africa's first insect-only restaurant has opened in Cape Town, making creepy crawlies their star ingredient. The Insect Experience is a pop-up restaurant in Mother City, that has created quite a buzz. CGTN's Travers Andrews takes us there.

It's lunchtime in Woodstock's trendy culinary hotspot, the Ironworks, and on today's menu, there's certainly something special, bugs.

They're part of a delectable choice of dishes on offer by The Insect Experience, the Mother City's first new concept restaurant that specializes in all things crawly.

Under the creative talents of chef Mario Barnard, the pop-up restaurant fuzes various aspects of fine dining while still managing to draw on the key flavors of the main ingredients

MARIO BARNARD CHEF, THE INSECT EXPERIENCE "We try to make it as visual appealing for everybody, basically it helps with you mental block once you had it, it's like, oh it's ok, like I can have the actual insect now, it's easier to overcome and do it in this way, obviously it's got massive health benefits, as a sustainable source of protein."

All the insects are locally sourced as well and some have a nutty flavor profile, including mopani worm polenta and black soldier fly larvae croquettes which are just some of the novel dishes to tuck into.

Here patrons mop up what's left of their dishes with dried mail worms and as a protein source, they are quite healthy to eat as well.

MARIO BARNARD CHEF, THE INSECT EXPERIENCE "The external skeleton has huge amounts of fiber, it has magnesium, the diary alternative, the ento milk has more calcium, it's just truly a superfood."

The restaurant is owned by Gourmet Grubb, which brought Cape Townian's bug ice cream, but how does the food actually taste?

"First of all it doesn't taste like a bug, it actually tastes quite delicious, so you don't feel as if you eating a bug, you don't taste it, I've never eaten an insect before in my life, so first time for me, it actually tastes very nice."

"It's more like an overall experience, so getting through the idea of eating it for the first time was a bit tricky but now that I've gotten through that it's kind of just an everyday thing for me."

Of course, no good meal is complete without a great dessert and the restaurant even has it's own insect-based ice cream which is not only decadent but a crowd-pleaser.

TRAVERS ANDREWS CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA "The restaurant currently has 4 insects on the menu but that is set to change, once Cape Townian's palettes become more favorable to the experience, plans are also underway to take it from a pop up to a standalone fine dining establishment, Travers Andrews, CGTN, Cape Town."