Guide · African kitchens

African food in Cape Town: grills, home cooking and a drum dinner

African food in Cape Town means meat grilled over coals in the townships, Xhosa maize and bean dishes, and kitchens from across the continent. Here is where to taste it, guided or on your own.

Check availabilityfrom $62 · free to cancel

Editorial team, foodtourcapetown.comUpdated October 26, 2026Reading time about 6 minutes14 sources

On this topic: the tour Cape Town: African Dinner and Interactive Djembe Drumming 4.6 (711 reviews) 3.5 hours from$62per person Check availabilityFree cancellation up to 24 hrs before

Quick answer, by evening

01Most reviewed: An African dinner with djembe drumming, a 14-dish set menu, 711 reviews.
02Township grill: Shisa nyama: choose your meat at the butcher, then it goes on the coals.¹
03Daytime walk: Somali and West African meals on a 2 to 3 hour city walk.
04Cook it yourself: A 2.5-hour African cooking class for up to 10.
05Rule of thumb: Go with a guide the first time, and with an appetite every time.

More than one African kitchen

African food in Cape Town is not one cuisine. There is the braai culture shared by the whole country, the maize and bean cooking of the Xhosa people, the shisa nyama grills of the townships, and the newer kitchens of Somali, Malian and other communities from across the continent.² ³

South African Tourism describes the township style plainly: shisa nyama restaurants serve grilled meat, chakalaka and home-brewed beer, while African restaurants mix music, art and traditional face painting with a welcoming atmosphere.⁴ Both are worth an evening. A dinner with music and a grill on a Sunday are very different evenings, so try one of each if your stay allows it.

Visitors who stay between the Waterfront and the Bo-Kaap can easily miss this side of the city's food. This page shows where to find it: on a guided dinner, a walk, a class, or at a grill on a Sunday afternoon. The newer African kitchens of the city center are close to the museums and the Company's Garden, so a lunch there fits easily into a day of sightseeing.

The drum dinner, in order

An evening at the African dinner

Early evening

Pickup

Pickup is available; check the options when you book.
6:30 pm

The drumming begins

An interactive lesson on the djembe drum.
Through the night

14 dishes

A set menu of Cape Malay and African food.
After 3.5 hours

The end

The listing gives the evening 3.5 hours in all.

Shisa nyama: the township grill

Shisa nyama, South African Tourism says, literally means burnt meat in Zulu, and it is the township name for the places that make and serve braais.³ The menu usually holds boerewors, the spiced local sausage, mieliepap, a maize meal porridge, and chakalaka, a spicy relish of tomato, carrot and beans.⁵

The best-known in Cape Town is Mzoli's in Gugulethu. South African Tourism says you choose your meat at the butcher, it is marinated in a secret sauce and then grilled, and that every Sunday the street outside, NY115, fills with people carrying their drinks and plates.¹ ⁶

Mzoli's is not licensed, so guests bring their own drinks, and pap, similar to polenta, comes in large enamel bowls.⁷ ⁸ It is loud, smoky and sociable; go with a local or a guide the first time, and plan your transport there and back before you set off. Plates are piled high and meant for sharing, so come in a group and order less than you think you need.

Reviews

African food experiences by number of reviews

reviews

Totals as each listing displays them.

Side by side

Ways to eat African food in the city

Experience	Hours	Where	Price
Drum dinner	3.5	De Waterkant	from $62
African food walk	2 to 3	City center	from $112
Cooking class	2.5	Pahari restaurant	from $73
Langa street food	3	Langa	from $85
Township grill	Your pace	Gugulethu	Pay at the butcher

Tour rows restate each listing; prices are starting prices per guest, not quotes. The grill is as South African Tourism describes it.¹

Three evenings

Dinner, a walk, or the stove

Most reviewed

Drum dinner

14 dishes and a djembe

Hours: 3.5
Reviews: 711
Price: from $62

See the dates

African Food and Storytelling Tour in Cape Town City Centre

By day

African food walk

Somali and West African

Hours: 2 to 3
Group: Up to 10
Price: from $112

See the dates

Cape Town: Authentic African Cuisine Cooking Experience

Hands-on

African cooking class

Eat what you cook

Hours: 2.5
Group: Up to 10
Price: from $73

See the dates

Decision helper

Which African food experience suits you?

Choose by the kind of evening you want.

I want a big night out I want stories as well as food I want to cook I want a Sunday like a local I want to start with Cape Malay food

The drum dinner

14 dishes and a djembe lesson from 6:30 pm.

The food walk

Two warm meals and the history of the city center.

The cooking class

2.5 hours, then you eat with the hosts.

A township grill

Choose your meat at the butcher, then it is grilled.¹

A Bo-Kaap food walk

10+ tastings across four parts of the city.

The most famous maize dish in Xhosa cuisine is umngqusho. This dried maize and bean mélange has been compared to Italian risotto and is delicious when served with a meaty stew. It was also Nelson Mandela's favourite food.

South African TourismSource 2

Xhosa dishes to look for

The Xhosa kitchen is built on maize. South African Tourism calls umngqusho, dried maize and beans, the most famous maize dish of Xhosa cooking, compares it to risotto, and says it was Nelson Mandela's favourite food.² Served with a meaty stew, it is the dish to look for. If you see it on a menu, order it with whatever stew the kitchen is proud of that day.

Other Xhosa foods South African Tourism names include amasi, fermented milk, and rhabe, a wild spinach.⁹ Township cuisine more broadly, it says, features shisa nyama, chakalaka and mngqusho, crushed maize and beans.¹⁰ If a menu lists dishes you do not recognize, ask the cook, and you will usually get a short history with the plate.

Some city food walks include a stop for this food. The 4.5-hour walk compared on our food tours page visits an African food stop serving samp and beans, beef stew, dombolo, a steamed bread, and chakalaka. It is an easy first taste if a township visit is not in your plans.

Checklist

Before an African food night

Bring

Cash for grills and small vendors
Your own drinks to an unlicensed grill
A warm layer on winter evenings

Plan

Transport there and back, booked ahead
The drumming starts at 6:30 pm
Go with a guide or a local the first time

Price check

What an African food evening costs your group

Choose an experience and the number of guests.

Drum dinner3.5 hoursfrom $62 African food walk2 to 3 hoursfrom $112 Cooking class2.5 hoursfrom $73 Langa street food3 hoursfrom $85

People 2

Total from$124

from, per person $62

Check availabilityfree cancellation

Every line takes the cheapest fare per guest that Viator or GetYourGuide shows for that trip, times your number of guests, converted with the European Central Bank's reference rate. The seller's own checkout shows the exact total.

Video

African food in Langa

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The African restaurant in Cape Town with a drum lesson

If you want one African restaurant in Cape Town for a big night out, the one this page books is an African dinner with interactive djembe drumming. It is held at GOLD Restaurant, 15 Bennett Street in De Waterkant, and lasts 3.5 hours, with pickup available.

The meal is a 14-dish set menu of Cape Malay and African food, and the drumming starts at 6:30 pm. With 711 reviews and a rating of 4.64, it is a well-tested evening, and it costs from $62.

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before applies. Book it for an evening when you are hungry and in the mood to join in: the drum lesson is part of the show, so this is not a quiet dinner for two.

Walks and a class

For a daytime view of the city's African kitchens, the African food and storytelling walk meets at a statue on Church Square and shares two warm meals, Somali food with spiced tea and West African cooking from Mali, with Cape Malay bites on the way. It lasts 2 to 3 hours for up to 10 guests and includes lunch, snacks and soft drinks, from $112.

In Langa, a 3-hour street food tour starts at the Guga S'thebe cultural centre, with 105 minutes of guided walking and 70 minutes of food tasting, from $85. It has only 14 reviews, so read them before you book.

To cook rather than eat, a 2.5-hour African cooking class at Pahari African Restaurant takes up to 10 people, and you eat the meal you cook with the hosts, from $73. It is a good choice for a rainy afternoon. Ask the host about the dishes of their own family as you cook, because that is the knowledge no recipe card carries.

A braai restaurant, or a braai at home

A braai restaurant is the easy way to eat the country's favorite meal without lighting your own fire. South African Tourism says braai meat is eaten with pap and spicy chakalaka, and that boerewors, usually beef and pork spiced with coriander, nutmeg or cloves, is almost always on the grill.¹¹ ¹²

If you are staying in self-catering, buy boerewors from a butcher and try a braai yourself; potjiekos, a stew of layered meat and vegetables simmered for hours in a cast-iron pot over the coals, is the slow alternative.¹³ Ask the butcher how long to cook it. Keep the fire low and the meat moving, and do not rush it: a braai is as much about the hours around the fire as the food.

For a hosted version, a private class in a home in Grassy Park offers a South African braai class as an alternative to Cape Malay cooking, with a meal of what you cook and local wine, from $99.

Planning your African food evenings

Mix the formats. A walk by day gives you the stories and the newer kitchens, a drum dinner gives you a night out, and a Sunday at a township grill gives you the city at its most relaxed.⁶ Leave a free evening in between, because each of them is a big meal.

Dress casually and bring some cash for the grills and small vendors. In winter, evenings are cool, with July nights averaging 6.9 °C at the airport station, so bring a warm layer for the drive home.¹⁴

If you would rather start with the Cape Malay side of the city's food, the walking food tour this site books begins in the Bo-Kaap and moves on through three more areas, with 10+ tastings and pap and chakalaka named in its listing, from $141.

Book your afternoon