Heritage Day without the braai? Scary, we know…Here are Five Cape Town restaurants serving South African soul on a plate.
Heritage Day, celebrated every 24 September, is a tribute to South Africa’s rich cultural mosaic. While the sizzle of a braai is the default soundtrack to the day, not everyone wants to – or can – fire up the coals. For those seeking heritage through plated finesse rather than their own flames, Cape Town offers a feast of restaurants that honour tradition with bold, evocative dishes.
Here are five options for when you want to taste South Africa’s story – without the effort of a braai.
Marble Cape Town
Salted snoek pâté paired with soft, yeasty amagwinya (vetkoek)
Snoek is a staple of South African coastal cuisine – especially beloved in Cape Town, where it’s been smoked, grilled, and curried for generations. Paired with amagwinya, a township-born comfort food, this dish bridges sea and street in one bite.
Marble’s Cape Town outpost brings its fire-driven philosophy to the historic Union Castle building at the V&A Waterfront – a site once central to maritime trade and the spice route. The menu is a love letter to Cape Town’s layered food culture, with nods to masala, mebos, and the city’s multicultural palate.
For a view of Table Bay and a taste of the Mother City’s culinary DNA – refined but never removed from its roots.
Eike
Chocolate, coffee & toasted marshmallow
Desserts are the final word in any South African feast, and few evoke memory quite like s’mores around a campfire. As Bertus Basson puts it, “…this is that memory.”
This dish channels childhood, firelight, and sweetness into a plated tribute that’s both playful and profound. Burnt meringue, toasted marshmallow ice cream, white chocolate coffee and caramel ganache, set atop a chocolate bar
For a dessert that tastes like memory, and a menu that reads like a love letter to South Africa’s edible past. With a menu that draws deeply from nostalgic food memories, Eike is where storytelling meets substance, and every bite is an ode to South African heritage.
COY
Mielie samp with slow-cooked beef shin, served with chakalaka and a whisper of Aromat
Samp is a humble hero of South African kitchens – nutty, toothsome, and deeply nourishing. Paired with beef shin and chakalaka, it evokes Sunday lunch, school plate memories, and ancestral kitchens. The dash of Aromat? A wink to the pantry staple that’s seasoned generations of South African tables.
Nestled between the marina and harbour at the V&A, COY offers a quiet, contemplative space to taste heritage with elegance and intention. It offers a culinary journey along southern Africa’s shoreline, tracing often-overlooked ingredients.
Head chef’s Teenola Govender and Geoffrey Abrahams have created a menu that is a sensory map of the continent, and this dish anchors it in South African soil.
Upper Union
45-day dry-aged Wild Kalahari tomahawk, served with smoky Moroccan taktouka and mafé peanut sauce
Taktouka – a North African pepper-and-tomato relish – echoes the spirit of chakalaka: spicy, communal, and endlessly adaptable. Scooped onto a plate with a 45-day dry-aged Wild Kalahari tomahawk and some and mafé peanut sauce, it’s generous enough for the hungriest belly.
Located in a heritage building in Cape Town’s Kloof Street neighbourhood, Upper Union is all about the perfect bite. Chef Amori Burger’s menu is rebellious, rooted, and richly layered – like our country itself.
It’s a great option for a shared table, bold flavours, and a celebration of South African heritage that’s both familiar and refreshingly new.
The Restaurant at De Grendel
Beef fillet with pumpkin, potatoes, beetroot and corn
De Grendel Restaurant’s beef fillet with kuri pumpkin, new potato, beetroot ketchup, baby corn, bone marrow butter, brussels sprouts and milk stout jus – is reminiscent of a traditional South African seven colours meal. (Pair it with the De Grendel Merlot 2022 for extra points.)
Located on the De Grendel Wine Estate, the restaurant offers contemporary South African dishes with locally sourced ingredients – think game meats, seasonal vegetables, and heritage-inspired flavours – all paired with sweeping views of Table Mountain and the Atlantic.
De Grendel’s award-winning wines – especially its Op Die Berg Chardonnay and Rubaiyat Bordeaux blend – offer a polished, terroir-driven finish to any heritage-inspired meal.
Wherever you choose to spend your Heritage Day – whether braaiing at home or eating out-and-about – make sure it’s with friends, family and just the right quantity of gees.
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