g2g

Need suggestion as to the best options for dinner. Price not an issue

Selwyn_Davidowitz

g2g


I am cutting and pasting part of a past mail that I sent to Fodors with regard to Cape Town restaurants into this thread. Many of the restaurants that I am going to mention in this mail are totally unknown to most so dont be surprised to see some names that you have probably never heard of before. As a Capetonian I have always frequented these establishments as and have regarded them as special eating places for my own visitors to Cape Town.

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

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

Another great place to eat fish at is Baia in the Waterfront however do expect o have the experience dent your pocket even though you dont seem to worry about this too much relative to your request. 4210935

Panama Jacks in the harbour is as per a previous suggestion in this thread sort of worth going to but I would not run too quickly to eat at this venue as there are much better in town when it comes to fish. 4473992

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.

If you have a lunchtime restaurant opportunity may I suggest that you stop at Kalkies in the Kalk Bay harbour. Now heres a real typical Cape Town experience to want to savour with fresh fish being served that was caught on the day in the Kalk Bay harbour. Furthermore you wont find tourists at this venue as it seems to be too downmarket from the outside so what you finds is that all the locals eat there because it is such a treasure. Try and enjoy this great culinary expereince when in our city.

Btw when it comes to eating fish most establishments will serve you local fish in the form of Cob (Kabeljou,
Kingklip (Local to Cape Town, Cape salmon, Yellowtail and if you are lucky
Musslecracker. When it comes to the shelled variety of fish you will be able
to find crayfish (smaller than American lobster but definitely more
substance to the meat and sweeter), prawns (Shrimp in the USA) and maybe
giant prawns (prawns in the USA). All in all when it comes to shelled fish I
say again be forewarned against being ripped off and DONT think in Dollar
terms when ordering, think in Rand terms relative to what you will have
already learnt as far a local values are concerned. I am telling you all of the above so as to help you when it comes to eating fish in our city but also because amongst others Panama Jacks have been found horrificaly guilty with overcharging and ripping visitors off by some local newspapers in Cape Town

Spicy foods in Cape Town could land you up in many places:

Biesmiellah is a great Cape curry restaurant

Wangthai is a Thai restaurant that serves an excellent meal when it comes to very spicy foods.

Tonight I will be eating at a brand new venue in Cape Town that claims it serves the best Cape Malay type food in the city called De Waterblommetjie. This venue is located in the old historic Castle so it should be an interesting experience overall. Will report on this establishment later in the week.

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.

In my opinion some other top places to dine at in my city would be:

95 Keerom Street. Varied cuisine that is stylishly presented representing good value for money. (4220765)

The Africa Cafe - Fabulous African eating expereince with wonderful entertainment and magnificent, very typical African decor thrown into the deal. I believe this is a MUST DO eating event in Cape Town for any visitor to our city. (Tel 4220221)

For a classy dining out experiunce The Blue Danube takes a lot of beating in my city. Very classy and pricey too however worth the money. 4233624

g2g I imagine that you will be reading of the normal run of the mill restaurants in answers from others to your question. Make no error there are many other wonderful restaurants in Cape Town that are well worth visiting. Some of the the above restaurants are NOT the normal run of the mill recommendations that will be made in most "eat out book" recommendations. Africa Cafe, 95 Keerom, Baia, Willoughbys and Panama Jacks 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".

Last tip. In all restaurants if ordering water you will be given the option of "sparkling or still". In response ask for a jug of tap water. You might obtain a raided brwo ofrom the waiter but dont worry about this. Bottled water is a rip off in Cape Town in that you can drink any water out of any tap (faucet) anywhere in the city or the whole of the Westren Cape for that matter. In Cape Town locals ask for tap while visitors get ripped off purchasing bottled water. Rather join the local club and save some money and in the process you will be drinking better water anyway.

Enjoy our great city when you visit us .

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

johan_belgium

I'll give you some of my favourites:

La Colombe (Constantia Uitsig)
Buitenverwachting (near Klein Constantia)
Aubergine (Gardens - Capetown)
Tokara (near Thelema wine estate)(Stellenbosch)
Le Quartier Francais (Franschhoek)

Brit

The best meal we had in Cape Town was at Miller's Thumb in the Garden district. Wonderful fish. I know Selwyn also recommends it.

Selwyn_Davidowitz

g2g

Brit is correct. I do think that Millers Thumb is a great place to eat. Great value for money and MOST IMPORTANT you will be one of very few visitors to Cape Town in the restaurant as it is heavily frequented by locals. That in its own should tell you something.

Have just come back from De Waterblommetjie and it gets a two thumbs down from me. :'( Not even worth discussing unfortunately.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

jck4

Africa Cafe, Bukhara (fantastic Indian) and Constantia Uitsig. Didn't like the restaurant at the Cape Grace, One Waterfront.

Roly

Hi everyone!

I agree with all the amazing restaurants that were already mentioned, but I have to throw something very "South African" in here... try a typical South African "braai" (Barbecue) at the Cape Courtyard restaurant in Hout Bay to sample the local "madness" of cooking meals on the fire.. They serve traditional food that the locals eat in their backyards almost every weekend in the summer. For visitors, this is an excellent introduction to our local cuisine.

Here is a typical braai menu:

Home-made clay oven "Boerebrood" with preserves
Saldanha black mussels and white wine potjie
Peri-peri prawn kebabs with an avocado, cashew and roasted corn salsa
Fresh Hout Bay linefish with apricot "smoor"
Grabouw Boerewors
Butterflied leg of lamb with a lemon and green olive crust, hot smoked over rosemary stem coals
Whole, clay oven roasted chicken with scrub herbs
Pap 'n Sous
Curried pumpkin and sultana potjie
Corn-on-the-cob & roasted sweet potato
Koeksisters

I have always had great food & service at this restaurant, and although the location is a little hidden away, you will be glad you tried it!

Selwyn_Davidowitz

Roly,

WOW! The Cape Courtyard is a place that I have never been to however but rest assured with that type of typical SA menu I am going to be at their door pretty soon.

Thanks for the mail as this seems like a great tip.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

g2g

How far is Hout Bay from Camps Bay?

Selwyn_Davidowitz

g2g

Hout Bay to Camps Bay by car = 15-20 minutes.

<b>IF</b> the Cape Courtyard is as good as Roly makes it sound then it is my opinion that the time that it takes visitors to my city to drive to Hout Bay from Camps Bay would be well spent so as to enjoy REAL local food as opposed to the tourist type menus on the Camps Bay restaurant rip-off strip.

Just my twopence worth.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Roly

Selwyn &amp; g2g,

You won't regret it! Also, try the chocolate dessert with roasted nuts... it's real &quot;death by chocolate&quot;! I can't resist it, and although I can never finish it, I always HAVE to have it - especially if someone at another table ordered it as the smell of roasted nuts drives your senses wild!

Enjoy!

fanelli

Just back from Cape Town...loved Bukharra (excellent Indian)...went once for dinner and again for luch it was so good...though Le Quartier Francais in Franschoek was way overrated

MF

Selwyn_Davidowitz

I thought I might as well tell you about a restaurant that is suddenly top of the pops in Cape Town but should in my opinion be bottom of the pops. :'(

In Cape Town we have the restaurant Bukarra that has had good reviews on this board. Let me just mention tat as good as Bukarra is there are better Indian type food restaurants in Cape Town in my opinion. One example is the little known of restaurant in Kenilworth Bibi’s. Bukarra's latest innovation to the Cape Town scene is a restaurant called Hiaku. Unfortunately at this stage there is not much that you can find out about Hiaku on the net as it is relatively new to the Cape Town scene.

http://www.eatout.co.za/EatOut/Eat_Reviews/

Hiaku really got its name on the Cape Town restaurant list when it was given high awards by the Johnnie Walker restaurant awards 3 weeks ago.

I should have known better trusting these restaurant awards lists but did not follow my gut feelings and decided to visit the restaurant last week. One of my main reasons for going to this restaurant was because as a tourguide/operator in Cape Town I would never pass out advice on a restaurant unless I have experienced it and with all the hype that Hiaku has been attaining in Cape Town I felt that questions about Hiaku would come from my visitors to my city and I had better be forearmed to answer them.

Hiaku is a restaurant that works on a two sitting basis. The sitting are at 18h30-19h00 and 21h00 onwards. If you visit the restaurant on an early sitting reservation you have to have your table cleared by 21h00 for the next sitting to take over. I detest this system and when I told a man by name of Graham this on the phone when I made my reservation his answer was exactly as follows, &quot;Sir, that’s the way it is, take it or leave it&quot;. This answer already put me on the wrong footing with the restaurant before I even entered it.

We elected to go to the restaurant for the 21h00 sitting and our booking was made for 21h15 as this was the earliest slot available after 21h00. We arrived at the restaurant at 21h15 and had to wait for 5 minutes to be seated.

The restaurant is totally black inside with no decorations on walls etc meaning that the sound from all tables simply carried over the restaurant and the noise from the crowd was absolutely unbearable. To aggravate matters the restaurant insists on playing loud music in the so called background and when asked to have the music turned down management obliged for 3 minutes after which someone simply came and turned it up full blast again.

While in the restaurant as a foursome sitting at our table we could not hear one another speak. When we wanted to say something to one another we did not have to shout, we had to scream. When our waiter arrived on the scene we simply could not hear him and he had to shout at us telling us what the rules of the restaurant were. We certainly had to hear him because this restaurant is different in its way of doing things. The food is Asian based and comes out of 4 different kitchens in the restaurant. Each kitchen specialises in its own style of cooking. This means that everyones starters do not arrive simultaneously. One is warned about this by the restaurant staff and one is encouraged to eat on a communal basis which is fine if everybody likes the same kind of food. This was not the case in our party so everybody was eating different sectors of lets say the starter courses at different times. As a matter of fact my wife and I had completed our main courses when the couple with us found their main courses arrive.

Haiku have an unusual way of charging for food. There are no prices on the menu. Everything is rated in stars with a star representing R30 in value. What one does not know until you arrive at the restaurant is that one has to complete a minimum of a 4 star meal meaning a minimum charge of R120. This is not too bad but it certainly cuts the person out who just wants to have lets say two starters as a meal.

The food at Haiku is absolutely fantastic. It is different, flavoursome and certainly makes for a different food evening. The problem is that with the loud atmosphere as well as high handish attitude of staff no good or different food in the world can be enjoyed. With that said we actually rushed to the door to make an exit from the venue straight after our main courses. To be perfectly honest we felt that the evening was a frenetic event and we felt totally relieved to get out of the front door of the establishment.

Haiku is getting similar reviews to the one that I am posting on the this page in our local newspapers. The two sitting concept has been the subject of talk shows in Cape Town and the general public are very negative about this all as it just does not fit into the Cape Town laid back way of life. Presently due to all the hype of awards and all the negative publicity (remember any news is good news for somebody trying to publicise a product) the restaurant is full house every night. Right now it is the place “to be seen” however the type of restaurant goers who fall into this category generally are very fickle and move on when the next “to be seen place” opens. Thus at the end of the day Hiaku is going to in my opinion fall back, like many Cape Town restaurants do on tourism. It is for this very reason that I am giving you all a heads up on this establishment because believe me you are going to hear of it if you intend visiting Cape Town.

I want to end by mentioning that the above is my opinion however I have quite a number of friends who share my tale of woe with this establishment and what is more is that those who phoned into the local radio talk show felt even more strongly than I do about all the negatives that the restaurant offers. I want to also add that through all these problems the food at Hiaku is fantastic. This plus point cant be taken away from the establishment but my feelings are that I dont need to go through a nervous breakdown to enjoy good food

Just my two dim-sum worth

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Roly

Thanks for that Selwyn! I was considering taking a visitor there, but since we have a lot of catching up to do, we'll definitely skip it! I also don't think that the 2-sitting system will work for very long in the Cape, and am certainly not a supporter.

Roly

Mischka

Anyone have updates on Cape Town restaurants?

skibumette

We totally enjoyed our dinner at Ginja -- very creative, delicious and reasonably priced.

Dined the next night at Baia: don't! We had a great table overlooking the waterfront (private guide made the reservation) but our kingklip dinners were mediocre. Our waiter was impatient with us, especially once he realized we were not going to order the huge &quot;market price&quot; seafood platter he recommended. Soup/salad were good but then we waited over 1/2 hour between courses...with waiter nowhere to be seen. Then he dumped plates on table and disappeared. Manager later asked how we liked our dinner -- well, he asked so we told him. He mentioned problems in the kitchen and offered free dessert, but we were tired and just wanted to go back to hotel by then. There's too many other good places to eat, IMHO, to bother with this one.

ekscrunchy

Here are my restaurant reports from fall, 2007:



http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35088021

peyton18

Mama Africa in Cape Town &amp; La Petite Ferme in Franschoek were a couple of my favorites Enjoy!

LAleslie

We had the exact same experience as skibumette. Ginja was fun, creative, delicious, could stand up to any of the best cosmopolitan places of the world. Baia was mediocre food and service, at best, plus touristy and huge--way too big for any chef to really excel. Real production line quality.

ctlocal

We absolutely love Cape to Cuba in Kalk Bay. It's funky and full of atmosphere, (especially at night) and we love the food.

It's miles from the trendy Atlantic Seaboard (thank goodness) and a great Cape Town place to hang out before dinner and enjoy cigars after dinner.

There are a some photos and more details here:
http://www.cape-town-family-holiday-...ts-unique.html

Theo's on the Promenade in Mouille Point is great for a steak.

Tobagos at the Radisson (near the Waterfront) is great for the view and the food, just don't expect fast service, even though it is 5 star.