Category Archives: Restaurants Cape
Salt, Ambassador Hotel, Cape Town
Still a knock-out setting, it takes you by surprise every visit, hanging as it does over the rocks and sea – and this day I had a good chance to soak it in as I arrived without a reservation for lunch to meet a friend and was asked to sit at the lounge area while [...]
Eight, Spier, Stellenbosch
“Ingredients either grown on farm or sourced from local farms” is the departure point for this lunchtime bistro on Spier, one of the Cape’s leading wine farms in terms of all-round visitor experience (and with very good wine, I might add). Eight represents the number of abundance, on its side it becomes infinity and the [...]
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Ginja, Cape Town
Now housed in the ex-Nova, ex-Relish building, the famed Ginja occupies all three floors. Ground level is the cosiest and the most ornate, a room with patterned white walls and modern touches. The next mezzanine level’s a bar with a balcony that suggests the first mountain views, but it is on the third where Table [...]
Chandani, Woodstock
An old wood-floored Woodstock house is home to this low-key Indian with its vegetarian leanings. Evenings are when it comes into its own, the dark “moonlight” decor in its purples and silvers (and the somewhat worn interior) respond best to the night. But there is a great authenticity to the interior’s cosy fittings, and it’s [...]
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Mano’s, Greenpoint
This evergreen still has a freshness based on simplicity of white- clothed tables with brown paper overlays, friendly young waitresses and it’s central position in the ever-busier Greenpoint area where the World Cup is soon to have an epicentre. Bonanza time for the restaurants that have maintained over the “unfashionable” years in this precinct’s history.
But [...]
Buitenverwachting, Constantia
This winelands stalwart has seen a make-over; the interior is now lighter and fresher and certainly fresher, while retaining a sedate personality (it’s popular with an elderly international clientele). Changes also in the staff, with a new and experienced floor manager team, while chef Edgar Osojnik has for many years been a steady hand at [...]
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Capelands, Somerset West
Rather unusual place this. Not even sure about its name, could be “Mangiare & Dormire” (per website: www.capelands.com) but I’m not sure if there are rooms, or whether you sleep at the table post meal. Anyhow, the dining is in an unadorned, chintzy house with Cape Dutch gabling; the floors and fittings in light stained [...]
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The Grand, Granger Bay
Sister to the Camps Bay operation and I think related to Plettenberg Bay’s, this Grand is quite superb in its vision: take a huge tin boatshed, truck in mountains of beachsand and turn it into a chi-chi bo-ho eaterie on the “beach”. The big industrial doors slide open onto views of the sea, deck areas [...]
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Kuzina, Cape Quarter Extension, Green Point
Johannesburg’s Design Quarter has its Mythos, Cape Town now has Kuzina. Both are nominally Greek restaurants in the piazza settings of modern open-air retail; and if this were a toe-to-toe shoot-out, Jozi wins hands-down. Both Mythos and Kuzina update the Greek restaurant with modern fittings and a breezy Med look, both have extensive menus. But [...]
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Christophe’s, Stellenbosch