7 Best Restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa

Across the road from the world’s first hemp high-rise building, chef Isca Stoltz heads up South Africa’s first upmarket restaurant dedicated to local, sustainable seafood. It's a strange reality that, in a city built around a harbor, local seafood is often elusive, which is why the core tenet here is refusing anything imported and using only ethical local suppliers and artisanal fishers. The result is a more adventurous approach to cooking, with diners getting introduced to seldom-heard-of fish—like katonkel and Cape bream—cooked over coals, served sashimi-style, or even poached in its own liquid. It's not fine dining so much as smart thinking about how best to create honest, authentic-tasting dishes, none of which you'll likely find anywhere else on Earth. The restaurant’s namesake galjoen, by the way, is South Africa's national fish, and though it's an endangered species (and thus never to be fished), the restaurant's name is intended to spark conversation about maritime conservation. Galjoen is also committed to minimizing food wastage by utilizing as much of the animal as possible.

It may be laid-back, shabby, and a bit out of the way, but this locally beloved eatery in a former fishing village enjoys views overlooking a stretch of pristine beach and extremely fresh line-caught seafood. There are salads, burgers, and toasted sandwiches on the menu, but the seafood combos and baskets—which combine fish with calamari, shrimp, mussels, or chicken—are the most popular items. At R439, the seafood platter for two is probably the best bargain of its kind. Don't be tempted to order a garlic-and-cheese roll; you need to save space for what's to come. Service is friendly but can be slow.

One of Camps Bay's long-standing institutions, this is still considered the place for seafood. Rather than bothering with the menu, guests head to a display of fresh seafood on ice, where, with the help of a waiter, you select everything from fish to shellfish in the quantities and style of your choosing (it's charged by weight). Possible selections include calamari grilled Cajun-style; kabeljou, yellowtail, or bluenose grilled and served with a choice of sauces; or Mozambican langoustines. All orders come with side dishes of stir-fried vegetables, rice, or fries. A conveyor belt of sushi is also on offer, and there are non-fishy and even vegetarian and vegan options, too. Although it is set back from Camps Bay's typical sea views, there are mountain views from an outdoor terrace. The food here is pricey but immaculately cooked (rather than lavishly plated), and always fresh.

Sister restaurant to the original Harbour House in Kalk Bay, the V&A location serves the same fresh and tasty seafood menu from an enviable spot overlooking the harbor. Fresh fish of the day—grilled—is always a good bet, but there are a variety of options including seafood risotto, seafood pasta, and platters with a bit of everything on the (expensive and extensive) plate. Sushi and cocktails are served upstairs, from which vantage you can also get views of the mountain and sunset.

Serving locally and sustainably caught seafood, this bright and breezy restaurant has become the Bree Street go-to spot for oysters, cocktails, and fish and crustaceans prepared in a variety of ways. Bringing a contemporary take to traditional seafood dishes, expect to find things like line-caught hake and chips, Cape Malay seafood curry, game fish nicoise, fish pie, prawns and mussels in fish ink tagliatelle, and grilled whole fish. On warmer days, you can sit outside in the sunshine and watch the back and forth of pedestrians. 

Though unfortunately inside the mall, this buzzing hive of activity consistently churns out what many (but not all) say is the city's best sushi along with an array of other Japanese dishes and various seafood favorites like English-style fish-and-chips and prawn pasta. There will almost inevitably be a line during dinner hours (you'll be seated quicker if you ask to sit at the sushi bar, which is the place to be), which can create a fast-turnaround feel instead of a relaxing meal vibe.

In this raw-timber structure in the heart of the docks, about three miles north of other V&A venues, the music is loud, the tables are crowded, and the decor is nonexistent, but tourists come in droves to gorge on fresh seafood. Expect to pay through the nose for a kilogram for local crayfish (similar to lobster) or scarce and endangered wild abalone, which is being poached nearly to extinction. Large prawns are also pricey. There is plenty of less expensive seafood, and daily specials such as baby squid and local line-caught fish are competitively priced. Lunch specials are more reasonable, but this is still more of a tourist destination than a destination restaurant.