Wulfstan

Ok after getting some tips on seafood restaurants in CPT (thanks!), I'd like to hear recommendations from people about their favorite restaurants. Food type does not matter. Just tell me why you liked it and why my wife and I should head there....the ambiance, the food, the service, entertainment,location etc. Thanks in advance.

Dottie

We loved the Africa Cafe. Great food,you can sample food from all over Africa. Good service and some pretty good entertainment thrown in there.

thit_cho

I like Biesmelah (sp?) on Wale Street because its located in the Muslim section, which is very colorful and different from the rest of Cape Town, and the food is great and inexpensive. Its only a short walk from Long Street. The food is Cape Malay, which is unlike food I've had elsewhere. No ambience, great food and service, no entertainment and great location. Also not a lot of tourists the two times I visited (once on each trip to Cape Town).

Kavey

Came across this today when searching my travel bookmarks for SA tips and info.

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/news/st...125137,00.html

Can anyone recommend any places to avoid, places which have followed the path outlined in the article?

Selwyn_Davidowitz

Kavey and everyone else

I have eaten at Tank (as per the web site you sent us to Kavey) on 2 occasions and I must tell you that the restaurant is excellent when it comes to food however it is just to hip and trendy for my personal needs. The restaurant also is VERY EXPENSIVE by SA standards.

On the first occasion that I visited the restaurant I was accompanied by another tourguide and we visited the venue with the expressed purpose of doing a recognisance for our touring visitors. The other tourguide like me is also a sushi fan (we both make our own sushi) and when we sat down we told the staff that if they do not turn down the blaring music we (as potential tour operators who could bring them future business) were about to leave. They turned the music down immediately. We were both impressed by Arata as a sushi chef and make no error his food preparation is fantastic. We both felt that the venue was expensive and we would only recommend it to specialist sushi lover visitors to SA.

I returned to the venue on another day when celebrating my wife's birthday and once again the food really was great. In the future I would only regard the venue as a special occasion place. (as long as they turn the music down)

Would I recommend the venue to FODORITES. The answer is no as there are much better deals when it comes to sushi in Cape Town such as Kotebuki,Fujiyama and Minato. With that said I have to ask why would someone come to Cape Town to eat sushi when there are so many other real local cuisine foods to eat such as at Biesmiellah which Tit Cho has feel very correctly applauded.

PS Dottie is spot on with the Africa Cafe as it is a must do event in Cape Town imho. To her great suggestion add Moyo in Stellenbosch. Both these venues will result in a night that you wont forget to easily.

PSS.

This is a cut and paste (with addendums) from a past mail I wrote on this board.

I have always been reluctant to pass on the information that I am going to write about in this mail as some of the restaurants that I am going to mention are totally unknown to most and I have always frequented these establishments as special eating places for my own visitors to Cape Town. My main reason for changing my mind and now mentioning these establishments in this mail is because I have changed my thinking with regard to the secrecy of these special places in that they certainly deserve clientele and I don?t believe that publishing this information on Fodors will change the secretive atmosphere that my visitors enjoy when we visit some of the below mentioned venues.

If you are looking for a fish restaurant my suggestions would be:

Willoughby?s in the Waterfront (no pre-booking at this restaurant

The big hidden secret fish place in Cape Town is Tangos (7126631) This is a venue that locals seem to have kept to themselves. You will hardly ever see tourists at this local family type fish venue. It is rather far out of the city centre (25 minutes away in Kendall Road) but imho this is the very best fish restaurant in Cape Town. When you are in this restaurant you soon realise that fresh fish is being brought through the door minutes after being caught in the local Kalk Bay harbour. Furthermore if you want to find great varieties of local fish Tangos is the place to eat. My favourite fish that I generally eat at this venue is musslecracker. You will have to go hunting all over Cape Town for to find in another local restaurant serving this delicious fish variety.


Spicy foods could land you up in many places:

Biesmiellah is a great Cape curry restaurant

Zoerienas for lunch (Loop Street) is a fantastic VERY LOCAL place to eat samoosas and roetie which are all part typical Cape Malay cooking.

Wangthai is a Thai restaurant that serves very spicy foods.

The big secret for wonderful spicy food is Bibis (7618635). This is the restaurant I would recommend most of all. Fabulous Indian cooking. Once again this venue is about 25 minutes out of the city centre and is situated in lower Kenilworth This is where our local Hindu community eat and the food is simply out of this world. Fair warning ? No alcohol is served or allowed in this establishment.

Make no error there are many other wonderful restaurants in Cape Town that are well worth visiting. The above restaurants are NOT the normal run of the mill recommendations that will be made in most ?eat out book? recommendations. Willoughbys could well come in for mentioning in some of the above books or possibly by others writing to this page. The restaurants mentioned in my list are the ones that locals frequent and my advice always remains ?when in Cape Town do eat what the Capetonians eat?.

Enjoy our great city when you visit us next week.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa.












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