Cape Town. Where the wine is cheaper than therapy and the scenery more seductive than your favourite linen shirt. If you’re heading down to the city with taste (and the audacity to flaunt it), here’s where to lunch, wine/dine, and sip like you’re plotting a career change to vineyard owner.
🍴 LUNCH – FOR SUN, SAND & SUBTLY SHOWING OFF
Cabo Beach Club
Basically Nikki Beach with an alluring South African accent (and a far superior wine list). Expect lots of linen, boat talk, and the kind of truffle fries that make regular fries inferior forever.
📍 Location: Dock Road, V&A Waterfront
💸 Price: R300–R500 pp (excluding the DJ’s invoice for your dignity)
💡 Pro Tip: Book a daybed. Order rosé by the bottle (Its economically better). Leave your bill-reading glasses at the door.
Grand Africa Café & Beach
Sand-between-your-toes dining and Ibiza-by-way-of-Camps-Bay vibes. Go for the oysters, stay because your shoes are too far away and you haven’t completed the food menu yet.
📍 Location: Haul Road, Granger Bay
💸 Price: R250–R400 pp
💡 Pro Tip: The beachside tables are strictly for those who know someone or tip like they do. Wear sunglasses that say “I summer in St Barts.”
The Bungalow, Clifton
Cape Town’s answer to St Tropez. Poolside sashimi, rosé by the magnum, and a view so pretty it looks like AI. One of my personal favourites.
📍 Location: Victoria Road, Clifton
💸 Price: R400–R600 pp
💡 Pro Tip: Sunset here is a whole performance. Arrive around 1pm, stay until your camera roll is full.
JAN Franschhoek
Ok Ok, this one’s a little off-piste – a lunch so elegant, complete with a soft-spoken sommelier in bespoke tailoring. JAN is French fine-dining meets farm fantasy, served in a historic homestead. Come for the tasting menu, stay for the existential awakening.
📍 Location: La Motte Wine Estate, Franschhoek
💸 Price: R1,250 tasting menu
💡 Pro Tip: Book very far in advance. Add the wine pairing unless you hate joy.
🍽️ DINNER – (…IF YOU CAN GET A TABLE)
Salon
From the same team who gave Cape Town its culinary crown jewels (RIP Test Kitchen), Salon is fine dining reimagined – part theatre, part dinner party, all unforgettable. Think intimate tables, story-driven menus. This isn’t dinner – it’s an edible novella.
📍 Location: The Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock
💸 Price: R1,800+ pp (tasting menu with wine pairings recommended if you like joy)
💡 Pro Tip: This is a two-hour immersive experience – arrive early, switch off your phone, and let the story unfold. Bonus points if you leave speaking in tasting notes.
The Pot Luck Club
Cool younger sibling energy with food that’s all flavour, no fluff. Perched at the top of an old silo, it’s the type of place where you’ll eat something pickled, fermented or smoked and wonder if this is how Gwyneth Paltrow feels every day.
📍 Location: Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock
💸 Price: R500–R800 pp
💡 Pro Tip: Request a window seat. Order everything with “umami” in the description. Cancel the rest of your dinner plans.
FYN
Sleek. Sharp. Suspiciously sexy. FYN is Japanese-African fusion in a Scandi-inspired lair. Come dressed like you’re on the cover of Monocle. Order the tasting menu. Pretend you understand the wine list.
📍 Location: Parliament Street, City Bowl
💸 Price: R1,200–R1,800 tasting menu
💡 Pro Tip: It’s a dark, moody space – wear black and let your jewellery do the talking.
Belly of the Beast
A no-menu, nose-to-tail dining experience that feels like being at a friend’s house – if your friend was a culinary genius and slightly obsessed with fire. It’s small, it’s intimate, and it’s one of the best meals you’ll have without needing to Google what’s on your plate.
📍 Location: Harrington Street, East City
💸 Price: R1,000 pp (fixed multi-course menu)
💡 Pro Tip: They don’t do walk-ins or fuss – just come hungry and curious. And don’t be late.
🍸 COCKTAILS – Because is it really sightseeing without a margarita?
Cause Effect Cocktail Kitchen
Cape Town’s wildest laboratory. This place distils local fynbos into liquid magic. Think clouds of dry ice, edible flowers, and bartenders with PhDs in botanicals. Order something dramatic. Bonus points if it arrives smoking.
📍 Location: V&A Waterfront & Camps Bay
💸 Price: R120–R180 per cocktail
💡 Pro Tip: Ask the bartenders to freestyle based on your mood. You’ll leave with a new favourite drink and possibly a plant-based existential crisis.
Fable
Storybook aesthetics with drinks that deserve their own Netflix “chefs table” series. Fable doesn’t just make cocktails, it produces them – in high resolution, with plot twists. The kind of place where you sip a negroni and say things like “This reminds me of a dream I had in Padua.”
📍 Location: Bree Street, CBD
💸 Price: R140–R190 per cocktail
💡 Pro Tip: It gets wildly vibey after 10pm. If your cocktail glows, don’t ask – just drink it.
Kloof Street Club
Moody, velvet-draped, and effortlessly good-looking – like an old-money ex who smells of Tom Ford and mild emotional damage. The drinks are strong, the lighting is forgiving, and the music makes you want to do bad things with good people.
📍 Location: Kloof Street, Gardens
💸 Price: R130–R170 per cocktail
💡 Pro Tip: Pre-book a booth and wear something with a collar. Bonus if you arrive by vintage car, or pretend you did.
Tjing Tjing
A Japanese rooftop bar in the middle of Cape Town? Absolutely. Think Tokyo meets Wabi-Sabi via a very curated playlist. The crowd is cooler than you, but the cocktails might make you forget that.
📍 Location: Longmarket Street, CBD
💸 Price: R120–R160 per cocktail
💡 Pro Tip: Start at the rooftop, but descend into the hidden bars below. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure with better lighting.
