Cape Town eats like a port city that never picked one cuisine: Cape Malay spice out of Bo-Kaap, braai smoke from the townships, Dutch farm baking and Indian Ocean fish. Three days of markets, spice houses, harbour shacks and Constantia cellars.
Saturday farmers' market on the Granger Bay lawns, 08:15–14:00, with around 100 Western Cape growers: Karoo lamb pies, fynbos honey, biltong, sourdough and Saldanha oysters shucked at the stall. Card only, no cash.
Woodstock's Old Biscuit Mill fills every Saturday 09:00–14:00 with traders in a converted 1900s mill: bunny chow, Ethiopian injera, Cape Malay samoosas, raw-milk cheese and craft gin, eaten at shared trestle tables.
Steampunk roastery in a Victorian warehouse at 36 Buitenkant Street, all brass pipework around a 1940s Probat drum. Single-origin Ethiopian and Rwandan beans roasted on site; Mon–Fri 07:00–18:00, Saturday 08:00–15:00.
Friday-night market in a disused fish factory on Hout Bay harbour, 17:00–21:00, with live bands and around 100 stalls: snoek braaied over coals, crayfish rolls, koesisters and West Coast mussels steamed in white wine.
Bo-Kaap's spice house since 1946, at 94 Wale Street: open sacks of masala, barishap, dhania and its own Cape Malay curry blends weighed out by hand. The shop supplies most of the bobotie kitchens in the quarter.
Halaal food hall at 96 Longmarket Street where a dozen counters cook to order: Durban mutton curry, tandoori roti, dosa, shawarma and biryani served on steel trays under strip lights. Daily 09:00–22:00, no alcohol.
South Africa's oldest wine farm, planted in 1685 below the Constantiaberg. The tasting room pours Grand Constance, the sweet Muscat that Napoleon had shipped to Saint Helena, alongside cabernet and dry semillon.
Perched on Silvermist above Constantia Nek and a fixture on the World's 50 Best lists. The tasting menu runs from the tuna 'tin' with ponzu to Cape lobster; a glass-walled forest room seats twelve. Book weeks ahead.
Corrugated-iron shack on the Kalk Bay harbour wall serving whatever the trawlers landed that morning: hake and chips in paper, grilled snoek with apricot jam, calamari. Cash only, communal benches, daily 09:00–20:00.
Athlone takeaway credited with inventing the gatsby in 1976 — a foot-long roll packed with masala steak, slap chips and atchar, cut into four and shared between a table. Still built to the original order, open late.
Salt River taproom sitting directly above the brewhouse at 95 Durham Avenue, pouring King's Blockhouse IPA and the Woodhead amber straight off tank. Tank-side tours run hourly; the kitchen does brisket rolls and boerewors.
Bree Street bar built around Cape brandy, South Africa's potstill spirit, with more than sixty bottlings and flights poured by a resident brandy sommelier. Bar snacks run to bokkoms and koeksister-glazed pork ribs.