The Concierge Edit: Cape Town’s Top Eateries

A Curated Guide

The Silo Hotel’s Concierge team knows the city’s dining scene inside out. Here’s a curated list of their favourite restaurants – from easy-going eateries to fine dining.

Cemone Harrod (left) and Jessica Pohl (right) – two of The Silo Hotel’s concierges, both members of the prestigious Les Clefs d’Or concierge association.

Welcome to Cape Town, we promise you won’t go hungry. There are so many fantastic restaurants to choose from, so here are a few top choices from our team on the ground in the Mother City:

If you want to stay close to home and enjoy The Silo Hotel’s offerings, there are three options available. The Silo Rooftop offers the perfect alfresco dining experience for light lunches and inventive cocktails with incredible views and formidable sunsets. The Willaston Bar’s generous menu invites one to stay a little longer as the moments melt into hours around delicious plates meant to be shared. The Granary Café is the showstopper – a brasserie-style restaurant that showcases local, seasonal ingredients, beautifully curated by the effervescent Chef Veronica Canha-Hibbert and her team. Both lunch and dinner feature contemporary dishes and much-loved classics, accompanied by an extensive wine list and “art in a glass” cocktails.

Left: The Granary Café at The Silo Hotel; Right: Romantic moments in The Willaston Bar at The Silo Hotel

Casual Dining, but More

While Marble Restaurant made its mark in Johannesburg, the Cape Town version is just a stone’s throw from The Silo Hotel’s V&A Waterfront location. The restaurant showcases transcendent design and décor by Irene Kyriacou, with work from local artisans reflecting Cape Town’s natural elements – earth, wind, and sea. Co-founder and celebrity chef David Higgs is the vision behind the brand – with a menu that embraces fire at every turn, cooking on the open grill to enhance both flavour and experience.

Other V&A Waterfront recommendations include Baia (Portuguese-style seafood); Spyced (Cape Malay-inspired menu); The Knysna Oyster Company, Willoughby & Co, Coy, Nobu, Pier and Rooi (South African fare).

Oysters and Champagne on The Silo Rooftop

Street Smarts

Cape Town’s city centre offers a mix of dining options, Bree, Kloof and Long Streets are where it’s all happening. If you’re looking for something homey and slightly offbeat, the enchanting, Kloof Street House sits in the heart of the city – an eclectic Victorian gem filled with character. The sheltered courtyard is a favourite spot for lunches and warm summer evening dinners. The menu has delectable small plates, fresh salads, and brasserie-inspired dishes with a South African slant. Their all-day brunch menu is a win, and so is the live music on Sunday summer afternoons.

There are quite a few Japanese-inspired eateries in Cape Town, and our team recommends Nikkei in Bree Street, a Japanese-Peruvian culinary encounter. It’s a heady adventure that combines best of both worlds: the delicate precision of Japanese dishes with intense flavours of Peru. Think seared sesame tuna with guacamole, citrus ponzu and smoked jalapeño, fire-cooked chicken with black bean mole and tomatillo mole, pickled shimeji and shiso leaf. There are two set menus to choose from and you might want to try the Sake and/or Pisco cocktails, traditional with a twist.

Left: Chef David Higgs, Marble, Right: The Test Kitchen Fledgelings

A New Direction

The Cape Town food industry is always pushing to be more inclusive and innovative, and one of the best examples of this is The Test Kitchen (TTK) Fledgelings in Woodstock. A restaurant and training ground, TTK Fledgelings, is the vision of restaurateur Luke Dale Roberts and Chef Nathan Clarke, where candidates with no hospitality background are trained for food-industry careers through hands-on mentorship in a working kitchen. Their “Fully Fledged Tasting Menu” is a must, with six courses featuring dishes like tuna tartare with miso and black garlic, beef tataki with bone marrow, samp and octopus, and mains including South African-style lamb with chakalaka and pap – unfussy, delicious food shaping the next generation of chefs.

The tuna dish at La Colombe, a well-known favourite.

Exceeding All Expectations

La Colombe in the Constantia winelands flies the South African flag high globally – voted Best Restaurant in Africa by the World’s 50 Best (among many other awards), this iconic eatery is the gold standard in fine dining. Here art is food and food is art, and while every moment is elegantly crafted, there is a sense of ease and flow thanks to the incredible service. Under the direction of Executive Chef James Gaag, what makes La Colombe stand out is its flair for the dramatic – the execution of every dish is impeccable, including the signature tinned tuna “La Colombe,”, with its top-secret sauce (only Chef James knows what goes into it and he’s not saying).

Overlooking Cape Town’s bustling downtown, FYN blends open spaces with industrial lines and layered textures, but it’s the food that has everyone talking. Thanks to the talented team of Chef and Founder Peter Tempelhoff and Culinary Director Ashley Moss, an alternative culinary universe awaits. As the name suggests, the restaurant was inspired by fynbos vegetation (unique to the Western Cape) – with a leaning towards Japanese techniques and presentation (coined “Africanese”). Think Cape game fish such as tuna and yellowtail, springbok and ostrich, sea plants, kelp, wakame, waterblommetjies, bulbs, dune spinach, rooibos, orange, and yuzu. There are different menus, including pescetarian and plant-based, with a selection of wine pairings.

A carefully crafted dish at Fyn, where flavour and artistry meet.

Good to Know:

For a comprehensive list of restaurants put together by The Silo Hotel Concierge Team’s best restaurants, please download this document.

Please note that most restaurants take bookings, and it’s always a good idea to book in advance. For a highly sought-after restaurant, you need to book a few months in advance, especially during high season. Please talk to our team about how they can assist you in securing your seat at the table at the city’s wonderful restaurants.