Eat & Drink
Cape Town is one of the great eating cities of the southern hemisphere, and also a place where a bad tourist meal is always thirty metres away. This list is short on purpose: every room here has been sat in, every dish recommended has been ordered twice. No one pays to appear.
RestaurantWoodstock · Special occasion
Luke Dale-Roberts' tapas room at the top of the Silo at the Old Biscuit Mill. Sixth-floor views over the city, plates built for arguing over who gets the last bite.
Order this
The smoked beef fillet with black pepper & truffle café au lait
RestaurantGardens · Special occasion
A Victorian mansion strung with fairy lights, velvet everywhere, jazz on Sundays. The garden at dusk is the most romantic square metreage in the city.
Order this
Slow-roasted lamb shoulder, and a Negroni in the front garden first
CaféCity Bowl · Worth every rand
A steampunk cathedral of coffee in a heritage warehouse — top hats, brass pipes, and roasts that have been named among the best in the world.
Order this
A pourover of whatever single origin they roasted this week
Wine BarGardens · Worth every rand
A tiny room with an outsized cellar of natural and small-producer Cape wines you won't find in bottle stores. The staff pour what you didn't know you wanted.
Order this
Ask for something skin-contact from Swartland
BakeryCity Bowl · Easy on the wallet
Bree Street's pastry benchmark. The Saturday-only doughssant has its own queue, its own hashtag, and a habit of selling out before 10am.
Order this
Bacon croissant and a flat white, standing on the pavement
Cocktail BarV&A Waterfront · Worth every rand
A cocktail bar built like a Cape wine laboratory — barrel-aged experiments, fynbos infusions, and brandy given the reverence it never gets elsewhere.
Order this
The tasting flight of Cape brandy cocktails
MarketGranger Bay · Easy on the wallet
The city's Saturday and Sunday morning ritual: farm stalls, ocean air, and more breakfast options than any reasonable person can process.
Order this
Mushroom toastie, fresh oysters, then flowers for the week
RestaurantConstantia · Special occasion
Perched on Silvermist estate above the vineyards, consistently ranked among the world's best restaurants. The tasting menu is theatre; the 'tuna la colombe' in its tin is legend.
Order this
The full Chef's Menu — clear the afternoon