Guide · What to eat

Cape Town food: the dishes to try, and the kitchens behind them

Cape Town food is several cuisines sharing one table: Cape Malay curries and stews, Afrikaans sausages and rusks, township grills and a sandwich the size of your forearm. Here is what to order.

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Editorial team, foodtourcapetown.comUpdated October 26, 2026Reading time about 6 minutes29 sources

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Quick answer, dish by dish

01Start with: Bobotie: spiced mince with raisins under a baked egg custard.¹
02Slow food: A bredie, vegetables and meat, usually lamb, stewed for a long time.²
03Street icon: The Gatsby, a foot-long sandwich with hot chips and sauce.³
04Something sweet: A Cape Malay koeksister, lighter syrup, coconut and spice.⁴
05Taste many at once: A walking tour with 10+ tastings, the listing naming bobotie and koeksisters.

A city of many kitchens

Ask what Cape Town food is and you will get several answers, all true. There is the Cape Malay cooking of the Bo-Kaap, born in the kitchens of people brought to the Cape as slaves and exiles; the Afrikaans food of farms and long road trips; the grills and maize dishes of the townships; and the Indian curries that came down from Durban.⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸

South African Tourism says these iconic foods have their roots in the indigenous, colonial and immigrant societies that made this part of the world home.⁶ On a plate, that history shows up as sweet next to sour, a curry eaten with bread, and a sausage spiced with coriander. The influences sit side by side without fuss, and nobody expects you to pick one.

The good news for a visitor is that you do not need a reservation to try most of it. The best food in Cape Town is often the cheapest: a koeksister from a table on a Bo-Kaap sidewalk, a Gatsby to share, a plate from a township grill. The award-list restaurants are worth a night, but they are not where the city's character lives.

A day of eating

From morning tea to a late Gatsby

Morning

Rooibos

Sweet and earthy, with lemon and honey.⁹
Mid-morning

A hot koeksister

From a sidewalk table in the Bo-Kaap.¹⁰
Lunch

Bredie or bobotie

Slow-cooked Cape Malay food on the hill.² ¹
Afternoon

A braai plate

Grilled meat with pap and chakalaka.¹¹
Evening

A Gatsby to share

A foot-long sandwich with hot chips and sauce.³

The Cape Malay table

Bobotie is the dish to start with. South African Tourism says Malay cooks who arrived at the Cape as slaves from the mid-17th century created it, a spiced mince dish with raisins, topped with an egg custard and baked, and calls it one of the country's most popular meat dishes.¹ If you want bobotie in Cape Town, the Bo-Kaap kitchens are the place, and the walking food tour this site books names it among its tastings.

A bredie is the other pillar. The word is of Malaysian origin, and the dish is vegetables and meat, usually lamb, stewed for a long time, typically with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon around a single vegetable; tomato, cabbage and green bean bredies are among the most popular.² ¹²

Look out too for denningvleis, braised lamb with cloves, nutmeg and vinegar, and for yellow rice with raisins beside a fish curry soured with tamarind.¹³ ¹⁴ South African Tourism lists masala, bobotie, Malay curry and roti as the flavors South Africans mean when they say traditional Cape Malay food.¹⁵

The dishes

What to order, and where it comes from

Dish	What it is	Roots
Bobotie	Spiced mince, egg custard	Cape Malay
Bredie	Slow stew, usually lamb	Cape Malay
Koeksister	Syrup-soaked fried dough	Cape Malay & Afrikaans
Gatsby	Long roll, chips & sauce	Cape Town
Bunny chow	Loaf filled with curry	Durban
Boerewors	Coiled spiced sausage	Afrikaans
Biltong	Dried beef	Afrikaans settlers
Smoorsnoek	Spicy snoek kedgeree	Western Cape
Umngqusho	Maize & beans	Xhosa

Descriptions as South African Tourism gives them.¹ ² ⁴ ³ ⁸ ¹⁶ ⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸

Three plates

If you try only three dishes

Cape Malay

Bobotie

Baked, with raisins

Base: Spiced mince
Topping: Egg custard
Eat it: In the Bo-Kaap

Plan your tasting

Sweet

Koeksister

Coconut and spice

Base: Fried dough
Finish: Syrup and coconut
Eat it: Hot, at a sidewalk table

Plan your tasting

Shared

Braai plate

With pap and chakalaka

Base: Meat over coals
Sides: Pap, chakalaka
Eat it: At a shisa nyama

Plan your tasting

Decision helper

What should you order first?

Follow your cravings down the list.

I like warm, sweet spice I want a slow, comforting stew I am very hungry and not alone I want something sweet I want to try everything

Bobotie

Spiced mince with raisins and a baked custard top.¹

A bredie

Lamb and a single vegetable, stewed for a long time.² ¹²

A Gatsby

A foot-long sandwich with hot chips, made to share.³

A koeksister

Choose the coconut-spiced Cape Malay kind.⁴

A food walk

10+ tastings, the listing naming bobotie and koeksisters.

The word bredie is of Malaysian origin and the form of cooking was introduced by the slaves. It involves a type of vegetable and meat (usually lamb) stewed for a long time.

South African TourismSource 2

Sweet things and what to drink

There are two koeksisters, and it is worth trying both. South African Tourism describes the Dutch and Afrikaans version as plaited twists of dough soaked in syrup with a crisp, golden crust, and the Cape Malay one as lighter in syrup, sprinkled with coconut and spiced with cinnamon and cardamom.⁴ It names Wembley House in Cape Town for the Cape Malay kind.¹⁹

In the Bo-Kaap, locals sometimes set up tables on the sidewalk and sell koeksisters made fresh and served hot, next to small salt and pepper steak pies.¹⁰ ²⁰ For dessert in a restaurant, look for malva pudding, which South African Tourism lists among Afrikaner specialities alongside vetkoek and boerewors.²¹

To drink, there is rooibos, a tea South African Tourism describes as sweet and earthy, often taken with lemon and honey.⁹ For wine, the country's signature red is pinotage, a cross bred at Stellenbosch University in 1925 from pinot noir and cinsaut.²² ²³

Checklist

Eating like a local

Order

A bredie or bobotie at a Bo-Kaap kitchen
A braai plate with pap and chakalaka
A koeksister of each kind, side by side
Rooibos with lemon and honey

Remember

Most Cape Malay places serve no alcohol
A Gatsby is for sharing
Small notes for sidewalk snacks

Price check

What a guided tasting costs your group

Choose a tasting and the number of guests.

Bo-Kaap food walk4 hoursfrom $141 Private walk3 hoursfrom $102 Cooking class2.5 hoursfrom $49

People 2

Total from$282

from, per person $141

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

Tasting the dishes Cape Town is known for

Until you tap play, the video stays unloaded.

Street food: the Gatsby and the bunny chow

The Gatsby is Cape Town's own. South African Tourism describes it as a foot-long sandwich with hot chips, dripping with sauce and crammed with everything but the kitchen sink, an icon of the city's fast-food outlets.³ It is made to share; ordering one for yourself is a decision you will feel for hours.

For a Cape Malay take on takeaway, South African Tourism points to Mariam's Kitchen in the city center, a halaal fast-food place, for a masala steak sandwich, a mince curry rolled in roti, or a Gatsby.²⁴ The roti wrap is a lighter lunch than the sandwich, and just as local.

The bunny chow belongs to Durban but travels well: a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with homemade curry, usually with beans and lamb or chicken.⁸ For one in Cape Town, South African Tourism names The Burner at Canal Walk, Food Inn India in Sea Point and the Eastern Food Bazaar in the city.²⁵ The walking tour this site books lists bunny chow among its tastings too.

Braai, boerewors and biltong

A braai, cooking meat over coals, is the country's shared ritual. South African Tourism says braai meat is eaten with pap, a stiff maize meal porridge, and a spicy chakalaka relish.¹¹ Boerewors, a coiled sausage usually of beef and pork spiced with coriander, nutmeg or cloves, is almost always on the grill.¹⁶

In the townships, the braai becomes the shisa nyama, which South African Tourism says literally means burnt meat in Zulu, with boerewors, mieliepap and chakalaka on most menus.²⁶ ²⁷ Our page on African food in the city covers where to go and the dishes of Xhosa cooking, such as umngqusho.¹⁸

Biltong, a kind of dried beef jerky, and beskuit, dried rusks, go back to Afrikaans-speaking settlers who needed food that kept on long journeys.⁶ You will find biltong in butcheries and supermarkets everywhere; it was made for long journeys, and it is a good one to take home.

Dishes of the Western Cape

Some dishes belong to this province in particular. South African Tourism names the Western Cape as the place to try smoorsnoek, a spicy kedgeree made from snoek, a line fish common in Cape waters.¹⁷ It is the kind of home dish that turns up on a lunch menu rather than in a tourist brochure, so ask for it.

Waterblommetjiebredie is a stew of lamb and the flower buds of an indigenous pondweed, and South African Tourism lists it among Western Cape dishes.²⁸ Potjiekos, a stew of layered meat and vegetables simmered in a cast-iron pot over the coals for hours, is cooked outdoors over the fire.²⁹

This is the traditional food in Cape Town that rarely makes the lists, because it is cooked at home far more than in restaurants. A good guide or a home cooking class is the easiest way to taste them, and the best reason to ask your host what they eat on a Sunday.

How to eat your way through it

Plan the big flavors around your days. Mornings suit rooibos and something sweet; a Bo-Kaap lunch suits a curry or a bredie; a long afternoon suits a braai or a market; and a Gatsby is best saved for a hungry evening with friends. Leave room in your plans for the unexpected, too: a stall you pass by chance often becomes the meal you remember.

If you have only a day or two, a guided tasting does the work for you. The walking tour this site books covers 4 food stops and 4 drink stops with 10+ tastings, and its listing names koeksisters, Cape Malay bobotie, bunny chow, pap and chakalaka, with rooibos tea, from $141.

A private walk with 10 tastings, the listing naming a koeksister and biltong, is the alternative for your own group, from $102. And if you would rather learn one cuisine properly, a Cape Malay cooking class in the Bo-Kaap teaches the spices behind half the dishes on this page.

Book your afternoon

Four neighborhoods, one long tasting lunch.

Up to 12 guests, 10+ tastings with drinks, and a full refund up to 24 hours ahead.

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You ask,we answer.

Which dishes is Cape Town known for?

Cape Malay dishes, above all. Bobotie, bredie and koeksisters lead, alongside the Gatsby, braai with pap and chakalaka, and biltong.¹ ² ³ ¹¹

What is bobotie?

Spiced mince under an egg custard. South African Tourism describes a spiced mince dish with raisins, topped with an egg custard and baked.¹

What is a Gatsby?

A foot-long sandwich with hot chips. South African Tourism calls it a Cape Town favourite, dripping with sauce, and an icon of the city's fast-food outlets.³

Is bunny chow from Cape Town?

No, from Durban. It is a hollowed-out loaf filled with curry; South African Tourism names places to eat one in Cape Town.⁸ ²⁵

What is the difference between the two koeksisters?

Plaited and syrupy, or spiced with coconut. The Afrikaans one is a plaited twist with a crisp crust; the Cape Malay one has lighter syrup, coconut, cinnamon and cardamom.⁴

What is a typical drink?

Rooibos tea, or a pinotage. Rooibos is sweet and earthy; pinotage is the country's signature red, bred in 1925.⁹ ²³

Where can I taste many dishes in one go?

On a guided food walk. The walking tour this site books has 10+ tastings across 4 food and 4 drink stops.

Sources