3 Best Restaurants in V&A Waterfront, Cape Town

Chef Nolu Dube-Cele has created one of Cape Town's absolute must-try restaurants, a place where you can enjoy many of the country's diverse traditional dishes that haven't yet made their way from the home kitchens to restaurant menus (although this is steadily changing). At this lovely spot by the canal that runs through Battery Park, you can tuck into a variety of dishes like chicken sosaties (skewered meat), meat potjie (stew), tripe, and the crowd-pleasing "roadrunner," a free-range chicken cooked slowly in its own juices. There's a great selection of vegan dishes, too, including salads made using healthy grains such as sorghum, as well as "roosterkoek" breakfast buns and sandwich buns stuffed with mince and chakalaka. It's everything necessary to get you properly acquainted with the real-deal gastronomy of this country. The eponymous "seven colours" is a nickname for meals traditionally served at special gatherings, when there's an assortment of differently colored foods on the plate: yellow rice, orange pumpkin, green spinach or beans, red beetroot, and brown meat. 

Located at the V&A's cruise terminal, Makers Landing is a collection of food stalls, casual sit-down restaurants, and even a culinary school. The initial aim was to showcase a diversity of local food, and even though a fast-food vibe has set in, you can get a proper taste of South Africa at Pitso's Kitchen, taste a unique range of spirits at the Pienaar & Son distillery, or satisfy your sweet tooth with some of the best chocolate at Afrikoa.

Almost entirely comprised of outposts of the Cape's most popular restaurants, this food hall has more than a dozen different kitchens and four bars (one that's wine-focused). For immaculate sushi, try Sushiya, where Cape Town’s lauded chef Peter Tempelhoff has collaborated with a Michelin-star chef from Japan, or visit Barakat for a contemporary take on Cape Malay cuisine (order the bobotie, a curried beef mince dish, followed by a couple of donut-like koesisters) or maybe stop by Milo for sish’nyama—aka braai or barbecued food created by one of the country’s most exciting young chefs, Vusi Ndlovu. Plus there's Asian street food from How Bao Now; simply delicious cooking at celebrity chef Siba Mtongana's Siba Deli; and the best ice cream in town from Unframed. Most stalls get going at 11 am—Nosh opens for breakfast at 8 am—and the market stays open well into the night with occasional parties and live music.