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The African Voyager

Cape Town, South Africa

9 new restaurant openings in Cape Town to watch in 2026

Southern Africa • Eat & drink • 9 new restaurant openings in Cape Town to watch in 2026

Cape Town’s 2026 restaurant story is less about another wave of tasting menus than established names going smaller, looser and more local. Across South Africa’s Western Cape capital, openings are clustering in Sea Point, Gardens, Newlands, Constantia and the East City, where neighbourhood restaurants and focused concepts are driving momentum.

Not sure where to begin in Cape Town? Start with our Cape Town city guide.

14/8

Maison Grace

Cape Town, South Africa

Maison Grace treats the private members’ club as a platform for contemporary African culture, not simply somewhere to disappear behind closed doors. Backed by hospitality investor Kasada beside Cape Grace at the V&A Waterfront, it brings together work, dining, talks, performances and private entertaining. Southern Guild curated an art collection spanning Zanele Muholi, Nandipha Mntambo, Chuma Maweni and Kamyar Bineshtarigh, with works integrated into the interiors and available to buy. Paris Society Consulting developed the food and drink around South African produce and wine. Membership is limited and by referral, making this a scene marker rather than a conventional visitor recommendation.

Maison Grace

10 W Quay Road
V&A Waterfront
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Maison Grace

14/8

Kleinsky’s

Cape Town, South Africa

Hand-rolled bagels, hot pastrami and babka are now made in full view at Kleinsky’s first V&A Waterfront deli. Brothers Adam and Joel Klein founded the Cape Town brand in Sea Point in 2014, taking their cues from the Jewish delis of New York rather than treating bagels as a café sideline. The Waterfront branch sharpens that idea with an open bakery where dough is boiled, seeded and baked behind glass, plus around ten flavoured cream cheeses and harbour-facing seating. The menu is deliberately tighter than at larger branches, concentrating on the bagels, deli sandwiches, rugelach and Russian honey cake that built its following.

Kleinsky’s

Shop 6160B, Ground Level
Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre
V&A Waterfront
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Kleinsky’s

6/8

Culture Newlands

Cape Town, South Africa

Matt Manning has translated central Cape Town’s wine-bar culture into a proper neighbourhood local at Culture Newlands. The chef and restaurateur behind Grub & Vine and the original Culture Wine Bar on Bree Street built this branch around repeat visits, with no reservations and service running from daytime into evening. South African wine remains the anchor, joined by tapas, local cheeses and Richard Bosman charcuterie, while weekend brunch broadens the format. Its position in Newlands Village makes sense: this leafy southern suburb has plenty of restaurants but less of the city-centre wine-bar energy that Manning has made his speciality.

Culture Newlands

Shop 1, Kildare Centre
Corner Kildare Road and Main Street
Newlands
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Culture Newlands

4/8

Buri

Cape Town, South Africa

The boerewors roll – a soft bun filled with coarse, spiced South African sausage – gets restaurant-level attention at Buri, the Cape Town counter from Neil Swart and Anouchka Horn of Belly Restaurant Group. After Belly of the Beast, Galjoen and Seebamboes, the pair have gone deliberately casual, building the menu around one of the country’s most familiar braai foods. Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants developed Buri’s house boerewors, served with fried onions, tomato-and-onion smoor or chilli chutney. Loaded fries, mini doughnuts and an adults-only soda fountain keep things playful.

Buri

Shop 1, 99 Harrington Street
CBD
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Buri

7/7

Óra

Cape Town, South Africa

An all-day Mediterranean café with its own bakery and in-house produce gives Sea Point a softer alternative to the neighbourhood’s brunch-heavy café scene. Restaurateur Ricky Simon, also behind Three Wise Monkeys and Una Más, created Óra around seasonal cooking rather than one country’s cuisine, with chef Dian Botes moving from crab omelettes and smoked-salmon flatbread at breakfast to fish crudo, steak frites and sourdough sandwiches later in the day. Pastries and bread are made on site. The calm, detail-focused interior matches the food’s restraint, while the Main Road location puts it several blocks inland from Sea Point’s busy Atlantic promenade.

Óra

140 Main Road
Sea Point
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Óra

20/4

Fishmonger Newlands

Cape Town, South Africa

Fresh line fish from the counter, Mediterranean seafood cooking and old-school service define Fishmonger’s first Cape Town restaurant. The brand is well established in Gauteng, but owner Aki Hadjipetros chose Newlands for its Western Cape debut after four decades in the restaurant business. Daily fish can be ordered grilled, while smoked snoek samoosas, sardines, chilli-salt squid, prawns and shellfish widen the menu beyond the familiar fish-and-chips brief. The polished timber, leather banquettes and white tablecloths give it more occasion than the name suggests. Newlands itself is a leafy residential district below Table Mountain with a growing cluster of independent restaurants.

Fishmonger Newlands

37 Dean Street
Newlands
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Fishmonger Newlands

25/5

Kleinsky’s

Cape Town, South Africa

Constantia does not need another place asking you to behave beautifully over lunch. Kleinsky’s gives the suburb a better everyday move: bagels, breakfasts, noshes and New York-style deli classics from the Cape Town brand started by brothers Adam and Joel Klein in Sea Point in 2014. The formula still does the work because the details hold up: bagels rolled, slow-fermented, boiled in malted water and baked, pastrami brined, spice-coated and braised for hours, breads and pastries made in-house. Go for bagels, deli breakfasts, catering runs, coffee and a casual stop before Groot Constantia gets all postcard about itself.

Kleinsky’s

1 Groot Constantia Main Road
Constantia
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Kleinsky’s

1/2

Little Fox

Cape Town, South Africa

At Constantia Nek, Little Fox gives the La Colombe Group a relaxed, à la carte room for lunch, dinner and a post-hike bite. It sits in the historic Nek buildings, first opened as a tearoom in 1929, with mountain air and traffic hum outside. Chef-proprietor Glen Foxcroft Williams runs it with head chef Keanen Jaftha. The menu focuses on flavour-driven small plates designed for sharing rather than theatre. It follows the group’s small-plate lineage, keeps the mood casual and turns the Constantia Nek landmark into a regular stop.

Little Fox

Constantia Nek
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Little Fox

1/2

Foxcroft

Cape Town, South Africa

High Constantia was the warm-up. Foxcroft has moved to Constantia Nek, taking chef-proprietor Glen Williams’ small-plates discipline into a southern suburbs landmark with valley views. La Colombe Restaurant Group holds two Eat Out Awards stars (2025) and runs tasting-style menus built on tight flavours and clean technique. Expect herbed-salt bread with jersey butter, truffled cauliflower and roasted yeast, yellowtail ssam and tomato kimchi with Namibian crab and perilla. Later courses lean bolder: crayfish with mushroom, jollof and berbere, cannon of lamb with turnip and denningvleis, then chestnut, mascarpone and burnt vanilla. Petit fours land at the end, as they should.

Foxcroft

Constantia Nek
Constantia
Cape Town
South Africa

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Photography courtesy of Foxcroft