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Restaurant Week kicks off on 25 September and runs through to 1 November, with set menus at over 200 restaurants around the city from R295 for three courses. It hasn’t started yet, but tables at the good places go fast, so we’re getting our picks in early.
We’re not food critics. We’re just a bunch of people at Juice who love eating well and love this city, and we’ve been lucky enough to try a lot of what Cape Town has to offer. These five are places we’ve been to ourselves, loved, and keep going back to, not because they’re new, but because the food is so flavourful, so well done, and honestly just clever, every single time. Restaurant Week is just a good excuse to book them.
Silk Asian Fusion
This one’s a bit of a hidden gem, tucked into an old building in the CBD that you’d walk past without a second look. Inside it’s dark, moody and honestly really romantic, the kind of spot for a date night or a catch-up that turns into three hours. The food is packed with flavour, properly clever with char, spice and layers you don’t expect, and we always leave having ordered way more small plates than we planned to.
La Boheme
We love La Boheme because it never feels like an occasion, it just feels like a good night out. Wine barrels out front, low lighting, the kind of cosy where you settle in without meaning to. The menu changes all the time so you never quite know what you’re getting, but it’s always delicious, thoughtfully put together, and the wine list makes it easy to stay for one more.
The Melting Pot
If you want big flavour without any of the fuss, this is it. It’s a fun, casual spot in De Waterkant with food from all over the world on one menu, made for sharing across the table with a group. Every dish is so tasty and clearly made with real skill, no dress code, no pretension, just genuinely delicious food and a good time.
Fyn
This is the one we book when we want to feel a bit spoiled. It’s up on the fifth floor with views over Table Mountain, an open kitchen you can watch the chefs work in, and a tasting menu that blends Japanese technique with local ingredients so cleverly it’s hard to describe until you’ve tasted it yourself. It’s special without being stiff, and it’s the kind of meal you talk about for days afterwards.
Dusk
Dusk completely blew us away. It’s dark, intimate, proper theatre from start to finish, and the tasting menu tells a bit of a story as it goes, expect a course or two that makes you laugh before it makes you go quiet because it’s so good. Every plate was mouth watering and so cleverly done, easily one of the best meals we’ve had in a long time.
A Juice tip
None of these are new. They’re just the places we keep coming back to, because the food is that good, and Restaurant Week makes it that much easier to say yes to trying them. Book early though, these tables don’t stay empty for long.
Credits: La Boheme photo via @labohemebistro on Instagram · Silk Asian Fusion photo via TripAdvisor · Melting Pot, Fyn and Dusk photos uncredited
The Juice Journal 