2 Best Restaurants in City Centre, Cape Town

Super-chic Hemelhuijs is both a showcase for a range of exquisite and fanciful ceramics, and a centrally located restaurant serving equally fanciful and exquisite food. Though a little pricey for lunch, the owner-chef's inventive and sometimes quite daring seasonal dishes burst with freshness and flavor (think salads composed of beets, summer orange, and fresh dates, or a crispy pan-fried veal served with artichoke, lemon, and parsley) and are worth the splurge. On one of Cape Town's few pedestrian walkways (near the footbridge crossing busy Buitengracht Street), this tiny space serves food on dishes specifically made for the restaurant and is lit by chandeliers bedecked with beads, driftwood, and star-shaped seedpods; it's an eye-catching (and impossible to replicate) retreat from the bustle outside. Breakfasts, which are served all day, are also divine, making this perhaps the ultimate brunchtime indulgence.

The front door provides access to two distinct restaurants (one up, one down) both overseen by the same brilliant team and dreamed up by chef and restaurant empire-builder Liam Tomlin who began enthralling Capetonians with his shared tapas menu concept at his first Chefs Warehouse. Now, in another handsomely transformed historic building, three chefs are using their skills and knack for sharp flavors to create more of the same, with a twist—Chefs Warehouse & Canteen (downstairs) is shared tables and global tapas like flavorsome lamb dizi while the somewhat clubby Merchants Bar & Grill (upstairs) offers a choice of an a la carte or set menu, and seating is at individual tables. The food focus is nose-to-tail cooking and slow-prepared dishes, some of them made from ingredients that have spent time in the fermentation and preservation larder. Don't miss the scotch eggs, which you can even order at the bar.