Maybe a bit out of the way especially as Chapman's Peak drive has been closed indefinitely but Franck Dangereaux restaurant "The FoodBarn" in Noordhoek is wonderful. Dangereaux used to be the chef at La Colombe.

http://www.thefoodbarn.co.za/index.html

If you're going to come halfway around the world to Cape Town, PLEASE, before you go for Asian fusion, French or other global/regional cuisines you really ought to first indulge in our amazing regional distinctive cuisine unique to Cape Town - Cape Malay.

Noon Gun, Zorina's, Biesmiellah, Cape Colony (Mount Nelson Hotel) and The Showroom are all excellent options for Cape Malay food.

Also, there are notable African restaurants in town, from Pan-African to regional to very local. From Addis in Cape for Ethiopian to Moyo at Spier wine estate for eclectic Afro-fusion to Marimba at the CTICC for upscale, you're spoiled for choice. Personally, I'm not a fan of Mama Africa or African Cafe, but many visitors have great experiences at both.

More detailed background on Cape Malay cuisine at http://afrikatourism.blogspot.com/se...l/Cape%20Malay if you're interested.

FWIW, I find none of the V&A restaurants exceptional (Baia, Balthazar, Emily's), though most are reliably safe and good quality. IMNSHO, Ginja is overhyped and overrated. Haiku is pretentious and, while interesting food, not worth the coin. The Food Barn is exceptional. Aubergine and Jardine are wonderful, and I've yet to go to the Roundhouse, but I've had reliable reports that it is going to be the new new thing.

HTH

Kurt

Kurt, do you have any updates to your blog about Malay cooking and restaurants, cooking lessons etc. Definitely interested in trying thanks Pauline

Hi twotravel

The cooking lessons I went to with Zainie were less than a year ago, so I feel that's pretty current.

There is another Cape Malay cooking experience offered by Cape Fusion Tours that I haven't tried and don't have any direct feedback on, but it's with Cass Abrahams, who has written cookbooks on Cape Malay cooking and is the chef at De Leuwen Jagt restauraunt on the Seidelberg wine estate in Paarl. She used to be at De Waterblommetjie restaurant at The Castle until a few years ago. This could be a good option for those spending a few nights in the Winelands to combine cooking with eating and wine tasting!

There aren't any significant new Cape Malay restaurants in the city that I'm aware of.

By way of cookbooks, I use The Cape Malay Cookbook by Faldela Williams.

Finally, you can learn a lot about Cape Malay traditions, history and food by spending an hour having tea with Zainab "Patty" Davidson, curator of the Simon's Town Heritage Museum (Amlay House). She's one of my favourite people and its an interesting, informative and tasty time to spend on a drive to or from Cape Point and/or to see the penguins.

HTH

Kurt

Hi Kurt, Many thanks for the reply, we are staying in the winelands (haven't booked yet!) I think we visited Seidelberg a few years ago and loved it, we had lunch and a wine tasting, we had just been to Fairview and left as we weren't impressed. I'll check out the tour co. and check the website for Seidelberg.
Pauline.

'Maybe a bit out of the way especially as Chapman's Peak drive has been closed indefinitely'

Can someone confirm that this is true? I haven't seen any notice of this anywhere. We'll be in Gordon's Bay, just east of Cape Town in Jan/Feb, and don't take this drive too often, but since the Food Barn does look interesting, I'd like to know which route is open.

For a good family restaurant that has good food, lowish prices by American standards and fun to go to, I love the chain Primi Piatti. There is one in the Victoria Mall. Cerainly not gourmet, but for example, I was looking for peri peri prawns, and the sea food restaurants were all exorbitant. Primi had just what I wanted. I've had everything from breakfast, paninis, pasta, salads, burgers, pizza, and fantastic lamb chops there.

I discovered this chain when I lived in Durban and needed a local hang out for resonably priced food and one where local South Africans, as opposed to tourists would not gasp at the price. My American friends thought it was a steal, even New Yorkers.

We just returned from Cape Town and our meal at the Roundhouse was one of the best we'd ever had. Our booking for 7:30 was a bit too late to really enjoy the view but the service and food was phenomenal. The wine pairing / 5 course meal was incredibly reasonable compared to what we are used to in NYC.