Top 20 Best Restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa
In the search of very best restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa, an amazing deal comes down to personal preferences, tastes, budget and even ambience. Ask any local to name their favourite restaurants, and you will get a different reply for each person you ask. The City Centre alone is packed with restaurants to suit every taste… burgers, seafood, Indian, fine dining, tapas, grill and casual dining are just some examples. Check out our selection of the top 20 best restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa:
Here we highlight the top 10 best restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa 2020:
1) Blanko Restaurant
The Blanko restaurant at the historic Alphen Hotel is perfect dining with a difference. Open Wednesday to Saturday for dinner for lunch on Sundays, the menu provides simple, but tasty meals, with fish, meat, vegetarian dishes accessible. House within the old Manor House, Blanko lends itself to a luxurious and intimate experience.
2) De Grendel Restaurant
A perfect dining experience in a refined setting overlooking the De Grendel wine farm vineyards and Table Mountain. Many of the items of best vegetarian restaurants Cape Town on the seasonal menu are grown and sourced from the farm, while the De Grendel wines are accessible at cellar door prices. Famous for Sunday lunches, the De Grendel Restaurant is best escape from the city hustle.
3) Beleza Restaurant and Bar
Tuck into a taste meal at the popular Beleza restaurant and bar in the eclectic region of Tamboerskloof – and you will be hooked! best Italian restaurants Cape Town is perched between Kloofnek Road and Burnside in Tamboerskloof and enjoys being the melting pot for the diverse flavors of the area and surrounds! Their menu reads like an international fairy-tale with dishes from Lisbon, Mozambique, Goa, Madeira and definitely Portugal and Italy.
4) Lefty’s and Downtown Ramen
At first, this may look like a bit of dive bar. And we guess it is a bit with its grungy feel and look. Proprietor and Chef, Ryan McDonagh, knows his stuff when it comes to cooking up the best ribs, burgers, and chicks wings in the city. In addition to the range of American-style diner food and wood-fired pizzas on offer, you can go to upstairs to Downtown Ramen, the noodle bar where you can get a little flavor of Japan.
5) Poplar’s Restaurant at d’aria
This is a famous stop along the Durbanville wine Route and a perfect dining venue. The best restaurant in Cape Town has various rooms that can used for little, private functions. For the evenings, there are blazing fire in charming open fire locations, while in summer, guests can enjoy the shaded garden place or the backyard braai area where there is often live music. On the menu, you will find Italian Inspired dishes and a range of mezze boards. Arrive early for some tasty breakfast choices, with light lunches accessible later on.
6) Olympia Cafe
Olympia is one of the famous places in Kalk Bay and it is simple to view why. This amazing eatery keeps their menu simple with a chalk board with the days food on it. Everything is prepared from portions and scratch are big. The setting is rustic and the staff are friendly. The area is little and famous so get there early to secure a table. Around the corner from this eatery is the popular bakery with the red door. Here you can purchase all the yummy pastries served at Olympia plus pickup some tasty Truth Coffee.
7) Pomegranate Restaurant
Set in a historical manor on the charming Vergenoeged Wine estate – just twenty-five minutes outside of Cape Town – this amazing fine-dining best restaurants Cape Town with a relax and intimate environment, gathered with wonderful service and stunning food, prepared with an emphasis on simple, fresh fare with an undercurrent of new techniques.
8) Hussar Grill
If it is meant you are after, you need to look no additional than Hussar Grill a restaurant chain famed for its meat dishes. The real Hussar Grill first opened its door in Rondebosch but has since branched out into Camps Bay, Green Point, Willowbridge, Stellenbosch and Paarl. The mains are all about the meat – although there are some chicken and fish dishes on offer with some serious choices like the carpetbagger and filet moutarde. There is also a big wine list to complement the meat and to make sure you do not go thirsty.
9) The Commissary
The commissary is a little, graffiti-covered area in the heart of town from the same team as the Potluck Club and the Test Kitchen. But instead of plates that were actually made with tweezers, the food here can only be famous as American carnival food with an Asian taste – things like barbecue pork belly with deep-fried shrimp and toasted coconut. They do not take reservations because they are best restaurants Cape Town waterfront, but you can wait for your table over beer s at the House of Machines next door.
10) El Burro
The food here is delicately fresh, spiced and tasteful. For starters, try the rellenos or the ceviche. The esquites – sweetcorn dressed with lime juice, parmesan cheese, butter and coriander are really moreish. For mains, pick from a range of tacos packed with pulled pork, vegetables or lamb. The line fish tacos have big pieces of delicately battered fried fish cooked to a tender flake, served with tomato salsa, guacamole, and picked onions. There is also an option of quesadillas, as well as baked enchiladas and chicken mole. Desert option is restricted but you cannot go wrong with churros.
11) Haru
Expect a combination of Korean and Japanese specialities. Kick things off with the rich but flavor crispy salmon skin, and a double order of gyoza – the well-executed and delicate chicken or pork dumplings are a highlight. Sushi is famous: try one of the specials, like the dragon rolls with flaming salmon rolls or tempura prawns with velvety torched salmon and teriyaki sauce. Ramen is precisely flavoured and filling. Try the ton-kotsu ramen with pork belly chashu, pork bone broth, bean sprouts, spring onion, nori and toffee.
12) Maharajah South Indian Restaurant
Order a big range of dishes, starting with chili bites: perfectly sliced onion battered in spicy maize flour and deep fried. For mains, choices range from chicken, seafood and lamb to vegetarian curries. This is mainly best vegetarian restaurants Cape Town. The palam paneer is a tasty dish, with generously sized cubes of delicate paneer in a flavoursome North Indian-style. The chicken Korma is another tasty choice and the mango-and-lime pickle is a tangy addition to balance the spicy dishes. A highlight is the roti: Flavorful and Flaky, they are the best companion to all curries. There is also a small list of non-curry dishes, ranging from grilled masala to vegetarian to fish pastas. A little desert menu provides chocolate sauce and ice cream, vermicelli pudding or brownies.
13) Green House
Reached by a long winding road set against the Table Mountain eastern slope, the Cellars-Hohenort hotel is house to one of Cape Town timeless gems. As its title implies, Greenhouse is enclosed in a glass box to increase its wonderful garden setting, with view-through panels overhead creating the illusion of being outside. At the assured helm is head chef Chef Farrel Hirsch who has made a series of creative yet pared-back modern South African dishes.
14) The FoodBarn Restaurant
Globally renowned chef Frank Dangereux is largely recognised as one of the forerunners of the perfect dining scene in best restaurants Cape Town, having established the real La Colombe restaurant on Uitsig farm over twenty years ago. But at the Foodbarn fancy perfect dining is not what you are here for; Franks here there, done that. Here, diners are treated to decadent perfect dining cuisine is a family-friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Franks roots in southern France show his style, but it is the bonhomie of this converted barn, with its farm-inspired decoration, and the relaxed Noordhoex Village vibe that makes dining here a remarkable day out for the full clan.
15) Black Sheep Restaurant
This chill, contemporary service is where chef Jonathan Japha serves tasty dishes that change daily, so you could, theoretically, eat here every day of the week and never have the same thing. If you are in the mood for a tasty meal, grab a seat at the street-facing bar and best restaurant in Cape Town, and enjoy a sundowner with a naturally lit view of Table Mountain, or pop over the road to Dark horse, its sister place for a buzzy drink.
16) Col’cacchio’s
Col Cacchio status is built on its pizzas and pastas, although the salads and wraps are best too. Lasagne and Bolognese are tried and tested pasta choices or try pollo with mushrooms, chicken, sour cream and spring onions in a pomodoro sauce. The pizza bases are all rightly crisp and thin, with carb-conscious substitutes acessibel. The cosi verde boasts broccoli, spinach, basil pesto, edamame and spring onion, while the zucca is topped with roasted with beetroot, butternut, avocado, rocket and seeds.
17) Massimo
This is tasty and best Italian restaurants Cape Town with a range from which to pick. Begin with some spuntini (Italian tapas) the deep-fried baby artichokes are definitely Moorish, served with a creamy pesto dip. For mains, pick from one of the many wood-fired pizzas or home-made pastas from best restaurants Cape Town. All of the usual suspects spec, as well as some amazing choices like spicy chilli con carne. The rightly cheesy fior latte margherita will please.
18) Maria Greek Restaurant
This tasty eatery mezze is a game-changer: the hake is flaky and enrobed in a crisp stripped horse beer batter and dish up with an amazing home-made mayo. The Komesko comes with beer-battered aubergine and skordalia and zucchini (potato chip and garlic). The vegan platter for one bursts with taste: garlicky olives, dolmades, hummus, aubergine, garlic pita and komesko.
19) Hemelhujs
The menu is wonderfully designed and, like the decoration, changes with the seasons. Breakfast is served all day. Try the seasonal mealie meal porridge and poached fruit with honey and butter, and the potato rosti with poeached eggs, and hollandaise is excellence. The lunch menu is divided into parts of botanical plates – which are different interpretations of carpaccio using meat, fish, fruit and even veggies. The signature dish is slow-cooked frikkadels covered in cabbage leaves. End with a classic sweet tart.
20) Signal Restaurant
Based at the Cape Grace Hotel, Signal Restaurant is famous for tasty Cape Cuisine as prepared by executive chef Malika van Reenen. Pulling on the domestic heritage, the food is sourced from domestic farmers and suppliers to keep it fresh and is turned into charming dishes in the restaurant and this is one of the best restaurants in Cape Town with a view.
