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“The Half” as it is popularly known, has and always will be a Kimberley institution and is now the only ‘drive-in bar’ in the world. Frequented by tens of thousands over the many years, the Half can boast some illustrious patrons from the early diamond rush days through to the modern post-democratic Kimberley of the early 21st Century.
‘The Half’ dates back to January 1872 when it was known as the Young America and advertised as “…an excellent framed house with bar stools and full stock…” It was sensibly positioned halfway on the main road between Dutoitspan and the New Rush mines, the latter of which became known as the Kimberley mine.
This is where the De Beers family started out their empire. This is where, within twelve months of the discovery of diamonds at Colesberg Kopje in 1871, 50 000 fortune hunters crowded into the first little shantytown of New Rush that later became known as Kimberley. You will no longer find the Kopje here, instead you will find the biggest man made hole ever dug with pick and shovel.
The Half Restaurant is under new management
Kitchen Hours
Monday to Thursday 12:00 – 21:00
Friday to Saturday 12:00 – 22:00
Sundays – CLOSEDBookings are essential
Shortlink for this post: https://www.kimberley.co.za/?p=1027
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Phone: +27 81 407 7173Fax: +27 53 832 7847Admin Mail:Delivery: No100% Local: -Premium Company: -Service Excellence Promise: -Local Grading: -
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3 Reviews on “The Halfway House Pub & Restaurant – The Half”
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Went for a steak the meat was tuff I sent it back the cheff did not even offer an other steak he did say he was sorry.
I had to look how my wife had her food when I left I went and got a hamburger
We visited the Half today. We placed our order and after 45 minutes the waitress informed us that a meal we had ordered was not available. Why there was such a big delay in conveying this to us is anyone’s guess. A further ten minutes later, the kitchen had still not started cooking our meals. We cancelled our order and received no apology and there appeared to be no manager on duty. Avoid the Half at all costs.
What a treat having lunch at the Half today.
We’ve seen the food quality fluctuating a bit from time to time, and after a couple of not so good meals we’ve been skipping the Half the last couple of months.
Given we are in a new year we went back today and we’re very glad we did.
My companion and I both ordered the current lunch special.
Surf and Turf. A 200g sirloin, calamari & chips with chimichurri sauce for R74.50.
The steak had great flavour and the chimichurri sauce is a winner.
We ordered the steaks one medium rare and one medium. Both leaned a bit more to a higher temperature than ordered, but was still very good.
These were not the best quality steaks we’ve ever had at The Half as it was a bit stringy, but the quality in prep and cooking more than made up for that, and it was still better than the steaks at any other Kimberley restaurant we visited in the last month or so.
The calamari was the best I’ve had in Kimberley lately with a very tasty batter, although my squid heads was smaller than my companions resulting in them being a bit too crispy.
No complaints about chips they were spot on.
The staff was very friendly and helpful as usual and get a 5/5. Service only gets a 4/5 since the waiter/barman was absent now and again, not his fault though as he alone was handling the bar and tables in the outside area, and seem to have some other chores as well.
My biggest complaint is the size of the coffee cups! That’s not coffee cups. It’s double shot espresso cups.
The final bill came in at just over R200 for lunch for two including four drinks.
A bargain considering the quality of the meal and the fact that a similar type of meal elsewhere in Kimberley (most probably of lower quality) will easily set you back about R300 or more.
Overall a very pleasant experience, and I’d recommend everyone to go try out The Half’s current Surf & Turf Lunch Special.
Final verdict: Highly recommended. Good job Halfway House, keep it up!.
PS: Another big thumbs up is that the look of the actual meal fairly closely resembled the photo on the advert.