Cape City: The culinary capital of South Africa

Cape City is sometimes called the culinary capital of South Africa, and with good cause. The meals scene right here blends African, European, and Asian flavours in thrilling and sudden methods, with the top product being one thing totally 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 neighborhood of cooks, artisans, and entrepreneurs who’re all about pushing boundaries. The result’s that whether or not you’re searching for the perfect price range bites or in search of out subtle high-quality eating, in Cape City you’ll discover one thing to tempt everybody’s tastebuds.

Meals markets

Cape City’s meals markets are an explosion of flavour, tradition and neighborhood. From the Outdated Biscuit Mill to Maker’s Touchdown on the V&A Waterfront, the Bay Harbour Market in Hout Bay, and the Oranjezicht Metropolis Farm Market, these bustling and vibrant places carry collectively connoisseur avenue meals, recent native produce, and artisanal treats.

Greater than only a place to eat, these markets are vibrant social spots, the place guests can store and pattern quite a lot of cuisines, usually whereas having fun with reside music.

Wine tasting and meals

Cape City 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, identified for its multi-award-winning wines, distinctive cave tastings and fabulous farm-to-table eating, or the famend De Grendel Wine Property, which sits elevated on the fynbos-covered slopes of the Tygerberg, searching over a postcard-perfect panorama of Desk Mountain and town.

Alternatively, strive heading out to total wine areas like Franshoek, Paarl and Stellenbosch, the place you may get pleasure from a relaxed picnic within the vineyards, or a classy meals and wine expertise in one of many many spectacular wine farm eating places. Cape City’s winelands are a feast for each the eyes and the urge for food. 

Meals Jams

For a relatively distinctive culinary expertise in Cape City, Meals Jams provides an immersive expertise that blends cooking, music, and social connection. Based in 2010 by Jade de Waal, a jazz musician and MasterChef SA finalist, Meals Jams transforms conventional cooking courses into full of life, collaborative occasions the place contributors cook dinner collectively to the soundtrack of curated playlists.

Members are grouped into groups and guided by way of 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 City’s Salt River and Woodstock neighbourhoods, Meals Jams emphasises creativity, collaboration, and the enjoyment of cooking.

Meals Jams is greater than only a meal out; it’s a enjoyable, interactive setting the place cooking is a shared expertise and a celebration of the common language of meals.

Eating out in model

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 ability. Government Chef and Co-owner Ryan Cole and Head Chef Nina du Toit, have collectively created a seasonally pushed tasting menu that showcases regionally sourced and foraged substances, reworking 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 similar time inviting. Distinctive 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 City’s V&A Waterfront, COY is a elegant, trendy restaurant that highlights African heritage, whereas treating it with a recent and modern strategy. Led by chef Ryan Cole, the menu leans into seafood, utilizing native substances and conventional strategies in artistic and considerate methods.

Diners can select between a seven-course tasting menu or a shorter lunch choice known as “The Two’s,” each are paired with South African wines and creative cocktails. The interiors characteristic a darkish, minimalist model which completely frames some sweeping views of Desk Mountain and the harbour. With a concentrate on sustainability, native sourcing, and high quality, COY is destined to be one among your memorable Cape City eating experiences, and one which captures the essence of town’s vibrant and ever-evolving meals tradition.

Terrarium

Positioned contained in the Queen Victoria Lodge at Cape City’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 at least one 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. Each menus showcase seasonal, foraged, and regionally 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 reside music.

De Tafel

Set inside the peaceable Palm Home Boutique Lodge in Wynberg, De Tafel provides a quiet fine-dining expertise, one that attracts deeply from the Cape’s pure environment. Led by acclaimed Government Chef Gregory Henderson, also referred to as The Forage Chef, the four- and six-course tasting menus (which embody plant-based choices) spotlight the realm’s indigenous substances comparable to wild rosemary (kapokbos), buchu, and foraged mushrooms.

Every course is paired with wines from small Cape estates, fastidiously chosen by sommelier Richard Goza to mirror a powerful sense of place. With its dedication to sustainability and storytelling by way of its meals, De Tafel is a eating expertise that’s refined, but on the similar time, deeply rooted within the native panorama.

Ouzeri

Discovered on Wale Avenue in Cape City’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 by way of Greece to create a menu that provides a recent, 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 strategy.

Ouzeri’s dedication to sustainability is obvious in its use of regionally sourced, seasonal substances and the fastidiously curated number of pure, low-intervention South African wines. With its heat atmosphere and attentive service, Ouzeri sends diners off on a culinary journey by way of the Mediterranean, all with out leaving the guts of Cape City.

A seaside feast

With the Atlantic Seaboard on one facet and the Indian Ocean on the opposite, Cape City 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; nevertheless you select to get pleasure from Cape City’s smorgasbord of seafood, every dish showcases the perfect the ocean has to supply.

Snoekies is a Cape City 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 Street 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 unit 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 Merchandise. However 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 City for reasonably priced and attractive fish and chips. 

The enduring Gatsby

The Gatsby is arguably Cape City’s most legendary avenue meals creation. This outsized, flavour-packed sandwich overflows with layers of masala steak, fried calamari, polony or rooster, 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 or not 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 numerous cultural affect. There are two distinct kinds of koeksister – The Cape Malay koeksister, which is a aromatic, frivolously spiced doughnut rolled in syrup and coconut, and the Afrikaner koeksister, which is a plaited, deep-fried pastry soaked in a wealthy, sticky syrup. Each variations ship that impossible to resist mixture of crispy, syrupy goodness that pairs completely with a cup of tea or espresso.

Whether or not discovered at a neighbourhood bakery or do-it-yourself 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 City, 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 disillusioned. Each time I go to Cape City, 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.