Cape Town is sometimes called the culinary capital of South Africa, and with good purpose. The meals scene right here blends African, European, and Asian flavours in thrilling and sudden methods, with the tip product being one thing solely of its personal. Surrounded by the winelands, the ocean, and a few specialised small-scale farms, town additionally has direct entry to a number of the freshest substances within the nation. Add to this a thriving group of cooks, artisans, and entrepreneurs who’re all about pushing boundaries. The result’s that whether or not you’re on the lookout for one of the best finances bites or looking for out subtle high-quality eating, in Cape Town you’ll discover one thing to tempt everybody’s tastebuds.
Food markets
Cape Town’s meals markets are an explosion of flavour, tradition and group. From the Old Biscuit Mill to Maker’s Landing on the V&A Waterfront, the Bay Harbour Market in Hout Bay, and the Oranjezicht City Farm Market, these bustling and vibrant locations carry collectively connoisseur road meals, contemporary native produce, and artisanal treats.
More than only a place to eat, these markets are vibrant social spots, the place guests can store and pattern a wide range of cuisines, usually whereas having fun with stay music.
Wine tasting and meals
Cape Town is surrounded by world-class wine areas, making it the perfect vacation spot for wine tastings and connoisseur meals. A brief drive will carry you to wine farms like Durbanville’s Klein Roosboom, recognized for its multi-award-winning wines, distinctive cave tastings and fabulous farm-to-table eating, or the famend De Grendel Wine Estate, which sits elevated on the fynbos-covered slopes of the Tygerberg, looking over a postcard-perfect panorama of Table Mountain and town.
Alternatively, attempt heading out to complete wine areas like Franshoek, Paarl and Stellenbosch, the place you possibly can get pleasure from a relaxed picnic within the vineyards, or a complicated meals and wine expertise in one of many many spectacular wine farm eating places. Cape Town’s winelands are a feast for each the eyes and the urge for food.
Food Jams
For a slightly distinctive culinary expertise in Cape Town, Food Jams provides an immersive expertise that blends cooking, music, and social connection. Founded in 2010 by Jade de Waal, a jazz musician and GraspChef SA finalist, Food Jams transforms conventional cooking lessons into vigorous, collaborative occasions the place contributors cook dinner collectively to the soundtrack of curated playlists.
Participants are grouped into groups and guided via the preparation of a themed menu, with choices starting from Mediterranean to Asian cuisines. The expertise culminates in a communal feast at a protracted desk, the place everybody enjoys the dishes they’ve created collectively. With venues in Cape Town’s Salt River and Woodstock neighbourhoods, Food Jams emphasises creativity, collaboration, and the enjoyment of cooking.
Food Jams is greater than only a meal out; it’s a enjoyable, interactive surroundings the place cooking is a shared expertise and a celebration of the common language of meals.
Everything it’s good to plan your journey in 2025
Dining out in type
Salsify
Perched above Camps Bay, contained in the historic 18th-century Roundhouse, Salsify provides you a high-quality eating expertise, the place heritage structure meets modern culinary talent. Executive Chef and Co-owner Ryan Cole and Head Chef Nina du Toit, have collectively created a seasonally pushed tasting menu that showcases domestically sourced and foraged substances, remodeling them into fantastically plated dishes, that mirror their approach, experience, aptitude and innovation.
With panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Lion’s Head, the restaurant’s subtle interiors, that includes classic rugs, trendy artwork, and a hanging bronze sculpture, create an atmosphere that’s each luxurious and on the identical time inviting. Exceptional service and thoughtfully curated wine pairings full an unforgettable meal right here.
Coy
Tucked between the Time Out Market and the Silo District at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, COY is a sophisticated, trendy restaurant that highlights African heritage, whereas treating it with a contemporary and modern method. Led by chef Ryan Cole, the menu leans into seafood, utilizing native substances and conventional methods in artistic and considerate methods.
Diners can select between a seven-course tasting menu or a shorter lunch possibility known as “The Two’s,” each are paired with South African wines and ingenious cocktails. The interiors characteristic a darkish, minimalist type which completely frames some sweeping views of Table Mountain and the harbour. With a give attention to sustainability, native sourcing, and high quality, COY is destined to be one in all your memorable Cape Town eating experiences, and one which captures the essence of town’s vibrant and ever-evolving meals tradition.
Terrarium
Located contained in the Queen Victoria Hotel at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, Terrarium is a fine-dining expertise that brings collectively sustainability and creativity. Led by famend South African chef Chris Erasmus and head chef Anlou Erasmus (unrelated to 1 one other!), the restaurant serves two eight-course tasting menus: Fauna, which focuses on native seafood and meats, and Flora, a totally plant-based menu. Both menus showcase seasonal, foraged, and domestically sourced substances.
Wine pairings, curated by sommelier Marlvin Gwese, characteristic small-batch picks from South African producers that complement every course. The house additionally options modern native artwork and occasional stay music.
De Tafel
Set inside the peaceable Palm House Boutique Hotel in Wynberg, De Tafel provides a quiet fine-dining expertise, one that pulls deeply from the Cape’s pure environment. Led by acclaimed Executive Chef Gregory Henderson, often known as The Forage Chef, the four- and six-course tasting menus (which embody plant-based choices) spotlight the world’s indigenous substances corresponding to wild rosemary (kapokbos), buchu, and foraged mushrooms.
Each course is paired with wines from small Cape estates, rigorously chosen by sommelier Richard Goza to mirror a robust sense of place. With its dedication to sustainability and storytelling via its meals, De Tafel is a eating expertise that’s refined, but on the identical time, deeply rooted within the native panorama.
Ouzeri
Found on Wale Street in Cape Town’s metropolis centre, eating at Ouzeri is a relaxed, hip expertise, with a menu of reimagined conventional Greek and Cypriot delicacies. Chef-owner Nic Charalambous has drawn inspiration from his Cypriot heritage and his travels via Greece to create a menu that offers a contemporary, trendy spin on conventional dishes. Signature dishes just like the savoury loukoumades with caramelised onions and smoked cheese, or the kalamaki that includes smoked pork stomach with fermented chilli honey, showcase this progressive method.
Ouzeri’s dedication to sustainability is obvious in its use of domestically sourced, seasonal substances and the rigorously curated number of pure, low-intervention South African wines. With its heat atmosphere and attentive service, Ouzeri sends diners off on a culinary journey via the Mediterranean, all with out leaving the guts of Cape Town.
A seaside feast
With the Atlantic Seaboard on one facet and the Indian Ocean on the opposite, Cape Town is a seafood lover’s dream. Freshly caught kingklip, crayfish, and West Coast mussels take centre stage at ocean entrance eating places, the place panoramic views add to the expertise. Tuck into crispy deep-fried fish and chips in a harbour setting or savour seafood platters at a extra upscale institution; nonetheless you select to get pleasure from Cape Town’s smorgasbord of seafood, every dish showcases one of the best the ocean has to supply.
Snoekies is a Cape Town establishment. After WWII, founder Hans Mickeleit bought an previous bus, which he transformed right into a takeaway café, and positioned on the finish of Harbour Road in Hout Bay. He and his spouse named the take-away café Snoekies, and served fish & chips to the native fishermen. Hans’s spouse ran the café, while he experimented with smoking fish, earlier than lengthy organising a manufacturing facility in Hout Bay Harbour in 1956. Just a few years later, the enterprise, along with Hans’s secret for smoking fish, was bought. to South African Sea Products. But greater than 60 years since its humble beginnings, you’ll nonetheless discover Snoekies located on the far finish of Hout Bay Harbour, offering locals and vacationers alike with crispy-golden battered hake and freshly-cut chips. There are a number of Snoekies retailers round Cape Town for reasonably priced and attractive fish and chips.
The iconic Gatsby
The Gatsby is arguably Cape Town’s most legendary road meals creation. This outsized, flavour-packed sandwich overflows with layers of masala steak, fried calamari, polony or hen, all topped with ‘slap chips’ (French fries) and a beneficiant dollop of sauce.
Created within the Seventies as an reasonably priced, satisfying meal, the Gatsby has since turn into a cultural icon, with numerous eateries placing their very own spin on this beloved traditional. Whether loved at a neighborhood takeaway or from a buzzing market stall, the Gatsby is a deliciously messy expertise you received’t quickly overlook.
Koeksisters – the candy style of custom
For these with a candy tooth, koeksisters are a style of South Africa’s various cultural affect. There are two distinct forms of koeksister – The Cape Malay koeksister, which is a aromatic, flippantly spiced doughnut rolled in syrup and coconut, and the Afrikaner koeksister, which is a plaited, deep-fried pastry soaked in a wealthy, sticky syrup. Both variations ship that impossible to resist mixture of crispy, syrupy goodness that pairs completely with a cup of tea or espresso.
Whether discovered at a neighbourhood bakery or home made ones bought from a neighborhood market, koeksisters are a cherished South African deal with that can hold you coming again for extra.
I’ve spent the final 15 years exploring the meals scene in Cape Town, from fish and chips by the seashore, to multicourse meals at a number of the metropolis’s greatest eating places, and I’ve but to be disenchanted. Every time I go to Cape Town, the meals is a particular spotlight and one thing that I at all times look ahead to. There are some actual treasures to be discovered right here.
Sarah Kingdom
Sarah Kingdom is a journey author from Sydney, Australia. When she just isn’t climbing or touring, she lives on a cattle ranch in central Zambia.
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