The Best Restaurants in Cape Town 2023
Our tried-and-tested picks.
In Cape Town, where new restaurants open faster than you can knock back a tequila, it’s easy to get caught up in the “hot-right-now” hype. But there’s a lot more depth to the city’s food scene. And, with the Winelands on our doorstep, we’re spoilt for even more choice – its magnificent vistas elevating an already-epic gastronomic outing to dizzying heights. Here are our tried-and-tested favourites for a consistently excellent day or night out.
Which are your favourites? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia
This perennially buzzed-about restaurant, suspended above the famous vine-clad valley, offers a set menu of fine-dining-calibre shared plates delivered with glorious views and casual finesse. Chef-patron Ivor Jones (who co-owns the eatery with celebrated restaurateur Liam Tomlin) has concocted an array of imaginative dishes, with an emphasis on freshly harvested produce from the farm’s gardens, and added an inspired injection of global flavours. Coupled with the open kitchen, chic interiors, spectacular setting and world-class wines, this is an unforgettable dining experience.
Hot tip Chefs Warehouse Tintswalo Atlantic in Hout Bay is also making waves with its splendid ocean views and a set menu focused on marine delights.
Pier
The newest addition to Scot Kirton’s restaurant empire is not “just another” La Colombe experience. Pier promises culinary adventure, as expected, but with a seaside location and chef John Norris-Rogers’ knack for coaxing the best flavours from the finest local produce. A set of 12 tasting dishes run the gauntlet with aplomb – from the opening “snacks” to the petit-fours with the bill, by way of deeply delicious curried hake butter with the bread course, sublime tableside-poached oysters and showstopping lamb. The team traverses a spider-silk thread between theatrics, molecular gastronomy and classic French technique, overshadowing even the floor-to-ceiling vistas.
FYN
Recently leaping from No.92 to No.37 on the World’s Best Restaurants 2022 list, chef Peter Tempelhoff’s restaurant is one of the most exciting epicurean experiences in the city right now. The sophisticated, loft-like space on the fifth floor of an innercity block (read: fantastic views) offers food and décor that is African-inspired, but with an overarching Japanese aesthetic. The multi-course kaiseki-style menu runs the full gamut of flavours and textures (where guinea fowl, springbok and Saldanha oysters meet ponzu, shiitake and daikon), each yielding a hit of flavour so lingering and sublime, you never want it to end. Pescatarian and plant-based menus are available for the lunch seating.