Guide · Where to eat

The best restaurants in Cape Town, by the 2026 award list

Instead of another opinion, here are the best restaurants in Cape Town as South Africa's main restaurant awards rated them in 2026, grouped by the part of town you will be in.

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Editorial team, foodtourcapetown.comUpdated October 26, 2026Reading time about 6 minutes40 sources

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Quick answer, by area

01Top of the list: Fyn in the City Bowl was named Restaurant of the Year at the 2026 Eat Out awards.¹
02Three stars in town: Fyn, La Colombe, Pier and Salsify at the Roundhouse, all within Cape Town.² ³
03At the Waterfront: Pier holds three stars; Coy and The Waterside hold two.² ⁴ ⁵
04Cape Malay cooking: Look in the Bo-Kaap, where many of the most authentic Cape Malay restaurants are.⁶
05Rule of thumb: Book the starred rooms early and leave room in your days for the casual places.

Why this list follows the Eat Out awards

Every city has endless lists of its best restaurants, and most of them are somebody's favorites. This page takes a narrower route. It follows the Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant Awards, the scheme South African food writers use to star the country's restaurants, and it names only places that the 2026 results put on the list.⁷ That makes it a list of the best restaurants in Cape Town by one public yardstick, not by our taste.

The judging is thorough. Over eight months, seven anonymous judges visited restaurants across the country, scoring food and technique, service, ambience and value.⁸ A score over 90 out of 100 earns three stars, 80 to 89 two stars and 70 to 79 one star.⁹ The 2026 results were announced on 23 March, and the number of starred restaurants nationally grew to 66.⁷ ¹⁰

Two cautions before you book. An award list says nothing about price, and Michelin publishes no guide for South Africa, so any talk of Michelin stars in Cape Town is not about an official rating. And a list changes every year, so treat the names below as the 2026 picture.⁷ If a place has closed or moved since, the next edition will show it; a quick look at a restaurant's own site before you book saves a wasted trip across town.

How the latest list was made

From anonymous visits to the star list

Over eight months

Anonymous visits

Seven judges ate their way through restaurants across the country.⁸
Each meal

A score out of 100

Food, technique, service, ambience and value all count.⁸ ⁹
The cut-off

Stars by score

Over 90 for three stars, 80 to 89 for two, 70 to 79 for one.⁹
23 March 2026

The results

Fyn named Restaurant of the Year at the awards evening.⁷ ¹
After the evening

A bigger list

The number of starred restaurants nationally grew to 66.¹⁰

City Bowl and Gardens: where the stars cluster

The City Bowl, the old center beneath Table Mountain, is thick with starred tables on the 2026 list.⁷ Fyn, named Restaurant of the Year for its blend of Japanese technique and South African identity, holds three stars here.¹ ² Belly of the Beast and Ouzeri hold two stars each.⁴ ¹¹

One star in the City Bowl went to ëlgr, Galjoen, Merchant Bar & Grill, Seebamboes, The Red Room by Chefs Warehouse and Upper Union.¹² ¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ Ongetem in Gardens, just uphill, holds one star as well.¹⁸ That is a lot of choice within a short walk, and it means you can book a starred lunch in the center and still spend the afternoon on foot, between the museums, the Company's Garden and the coffee bars of the side streets.

If you want the neighborhood without the tasting menu, South African Tourism points visitors to the restaurant strips of Long Street, the CBD, Kloof Street and Gardens.¹⁹ The walking food tour this site books also spends an hour on Bree Street, where its listing places the city's most concentrated restaurant scene, and at Heritage Square.

The yardstick

The lowest score each Eat Out star level needs

points

Eat Out awards three stars for a score over 90 out of 100, two for 80 to 89 and one for 70 to 79.⁹

The current list in Cape Town

Starred restaurants by area

Restaurant	Area	Stars
Fyn	City Bowl	3
La Colombe	Constantia	3
Pier	V&A Waterfront	3
Salsify at the Roundhouse	Camps Bay	3
Belly of the Beast	City Bowl	2
Beyond	Constantia	2
Coy Restaurant	V&A Waterfront	2
Ouzeri	City Bowl	2
The Pot Luck Club	Woodstock	2
The Waterside Restaurant	V&A Waterfront	2

Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant Awards 2026, three- and two-star restaurants within Cape Town; one-star places are named in the text.² ³ ⁴ ¹¹ ²⁰ ⁵

Three areas

Pick a base for your big dinner

Walkable

City Bowl

Most starred tables

Three stars: 1
Two stars: 2
One star: 6

Plan the day

Wine country

Constantia

Among the vineyards

Three stars: 1
Two stars: 2
One star: 1

Plan the day

Easy parking

V&A Waterfront

By the working harbor

Three stars: 1
Two stars: 2
One star: 1

Plan the day

Decision helper

Which kind of table do you want?

Match your evening to a line below.

The country's top-rated dinner Lunch with a vineyard view Harbor views and an easy evening Cape Malay cooking Many small plates in one afternoon

Restaurant of the Year

The 2026 Eat Out awards named a City Bowl restaurant the best in the country.¹

Constantia

Three of its restaurants hold two or three stars in 2026.² ⁴

The Waterfront

Several starred kitchens and more than 7,500 parking bays.²¹ ²²

The Bo-Kaap

Still home to many of the most authentic Cape Malay restaurants.⁶

A guided food walk

10+ tastings across four parts of the center.

the Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant of the Year, awarded to Fyn for its seamless fusion of Japanese techniques with a South African identity.

Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant Awards 2026, announcement on BizcommunitySource 1

Fine dining in Cape Town beyond the center

Fine dining in Cape Town does not stop at the City Bowl. In Woodstock, the old industrial quarter east of the center, The Pot Luck Club Cape Town holds two stars and The Test Kitchen Fledgelings one.²⁰ ²³ South African Tourism describes the Pot Luck Club as built around the five flavor profiles, salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami, with plates meant for sharing.²⁴

Further around the city, Table Seven in Salt River and Reverie Social Table in Observatory hold one star each.²⁵ ²⁶ On the Atlantic side, Curate at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay and Chefs Warehouse at Tintswalo Atlantic in Hout Bay hold one star apiece.²⁷ ²⁸

Camps Bay has its own three-star room, Salsify at the Roundhouse.³ We cover the beachfront there on its own page, because most of Camps Bay is a sunset-and-sea-view kind of meal rather than an award-list one.

Checklist

Before you book a starred table

When you reserve

Book as soon as your dates are fixed
Check which days the kitchen is closed
Tell the restaurant about allergies
Read the menu and price on its own site

On the night

Plan a taxi for Constantia or Camps Bay
Leave room for a long tasting menu
Budget for a tip on top of the bill

Price check

What a guided tasting costs your group

Compare a food walk with a winelands lunch day.

Bo-Kaap food walk4 hoursfrom $141 Winelands with lunch9 hoursfrom $131 African dinner3.5 hoursfrom $62

People 2

Total from$282

from, per person $141

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Video

Fine dining rooms around Cape Town

Until you tap play, the video stays unloaded.

Restaurants in Constantia, among the vines

Restaurants in Constantia sit inside Cape Town's own wine region, which South African Tourism says can claim to be the oldest in the Southern Hemisphere, with nine farms on its official route.²⁹ That setting shows on the awards list: La Colombe holds three stars, and Beyond and Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia two each.² ⁴

Ember & Oak in Constantia adds one more star to the valley.¹³ For a less formal lunch, South African Tourism names Jonkershuis on the Groot Constantia estate, an eatery whose cooking reflects the Cape Malay heritage of its home.³⁰

Constantia is a short drive from the center but not a walk, so plan a taxi or a driver if you want wine with lunch. Our page on a Winelands food and wine day covers the larger wine towns further inland, where many of the country's other starred kitchens are.

The V&A Waterfront and the harbor

The V&A Waterfront holds a cluster of its own. Pier holds three stars, Coy Restaurant and The Waterside Restaurant two each, and Terrarium one.² ⁴ ⁵ ²¹ Terrarium also took the Emerging Green Star, one of three Green Stars that Eat Out gave for the first time in 2026.³¹

Between those tables, the Waterfront is also where the city eats casually. Time Out Market Cape Town, the first of its kind in Africa, holds 13 kitchens under one roof.³² ³³ Our Waterfront page goes through it in detail, with the farm market that moved to a new Waterfront site in December 2025.³⁴

If you are staying near the harbor, this is the easiest area for a starred dinner without a long taxi ride. The Waterfront has more than 7,500 parking bays, which also makes it the simplest area to drive to.²²

Cape Malay and local kitchens worth a table

An award list leaves out a whole kind of eating that defines Cape Town. Cape Malay cooking, the cuisine of the Muslim community whose ancestors came to the Cape from the 17th century, is best eaten in the Bo-Kaap, which South African Tourism says is still home to many of its most authentic restaurants.³⁵ ³⁶ ⁶

South African Tourism suggests trying a bredie, a slow lamb and vegetable stew, at Biesmiellah, and names Bo-Kaap Kombuis for its platters of small savory bites.³⁷ ³⁸ Almost all Cape Malay restaurants are strictly halaal, so no alcohol is allowed on the premises.³⁹ Bring a thirst for rooibos or a soft drink instead.

For African cooking, the shisa nyama grills of the townships and an African dinner with drumming are covered on their own page. They will not appear on a fine dining list, and they are some of the most memorable meals you can have in the city. A plate of grilled meat with pap and chakalaka, eaten at a long shared table, tells you as much about Cape Town as any tasting menu does.

Booking, budgets and timing

Starred tables book out, so reserve as soon as your dates are fixed, and check each restaurant's own site for its menus and prices; we do not list prices for restaurants, because no official source states them. Many kitchens close on one or more days a week, which the award lists do not show.

Spread the big meals over your stay. A tasting menu at lunch and another at dinner is a lot of food, and Cape Town's best value is often a set lunch, a market grazing session, or a long afternoon on a guided walk. The walking tour this site books covers 10+ tastings with every drink at its drink stops, from $141.

Think about the season too. The city's wettest month is June, with 88 mm of rain at the airport station, while February averages a high of 28.2 °C.⁴⁰ Summer terraces and winter fireside rooms are different meals, and both are worth booking.

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You ask,we answer.

Which is the best restaurant in Cape Town in 2026?

Fyn, by the Eat Out awards. Fyn in the City Bowl was named Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant of the Year 2026 for its fusion of Japanese technique and South African identity.¹

Does Cape Town have Michelin-starred restaurants?

No official ones. Michelin publishes no guide for South Africa. The country's own star system is the Eat Out awards, which gave three stars to Fyn, La Colombe, Pier and Salsify at the Roundhouse in 2026.² ³

How are Eat Out stars awarded?

By score, out of 100. Over 90 earns three stars, 80 to 89 two and 70 to 79 one, after visits by seven anonymous judges over eight months.⁹ ⁸

Where can I eat Cape Malay food?

In the Bo-Kaap. South African Tourism says the Bo-Kaap still holds many of the most authentic Cape Malay restaurants and names Biesmiellah and Bo-Kaap Kombuis.⁶ ³⁷ ³⁸

Can I drink wine at a Cape Malay restaurant?

Usually not. South African Tourism says almost all Cape Malay restaurants in the city are strictly halaal, so no alcohol is allowed on the premises.³⁹

Which starred restaurants are at the V&A Waterfront?

Pier, Coy, The Waterside and Terrarium. Pier holds three stars, Coy Restaurant and The Waterside Restaurant two, and Terrarium one.² ⁴ ⁵ ²¹

Is there a starred restaurant in Camps Bay?

Yes, one with three stars. Salsify at the Roundhouse in Camps Bay holds three Eat Out stars in 2026.³

Sources