Cape Plates Food Tour with 15+ Tastings

Cape Town is a city where two oceans collide, mountains rise dramatically from the sea, and recipes arrive from every corner of the world. It's a place shaped by sailors, traders, settlers, enslaved peoples, and immigrants, all leaving behind flavours that continue to define the city today.

Our feasting tour of 15+ tastings explores the colourful streets of Bo-Kaap, the leafy avenues of Gardens, and the historic heart of Cape Town's CBD, uncovering these cuisines. Led by our team of professional foodie guides, we'll journey through four centuries of history.


Before we get started, our tour reflects the local cuisine and the limitations of eateries means we unfortunately cannot cater for every dietary restriction. Here's an honest appraisal for the tour so no-one is disappointed:


✔ Suitable for no pork diets, lactose intolerance, mild nut allergies and no seafood diets
✖️ Unsuitable for vegetarians, vegans, gluten intolerance and pescatarians

South Africans have never been shy when it comes to meat, and our first stop wastes no time proving it.
We'll dive straight into a feast of game meats that have sustained communities across southern Africa for centuries. Tender kudu and ostrich showcase two of the country's most celebrated meats, while sticky warthog ribs arrive smothered in smoky barbecue sauce. Alongside them sits a fragrant crocodile tagine, paired with cinnamon-spiced pumpkin mash and creamy spinach. It's a plate that tells the story of a nation where indigenous ingredients, colonial influences, and modern cooking traditions continue to collide.

Cape Town's food scene is constantly evolving, and our next stop highlights a new generation of chefs who are reimagining South African classics without losing sight of their roots. Expect vetkoek, the beloved fried bread found throughout the country, stuffed with savoury minced meat. Alongside it comes spicy chakalaka, a vegetable relish born in Johannesburg's townships, and rich peri-peri chicken livers served atop toast and egg. These dishes may have humble origins, but they've become staples of modern South African dining.
As we continue through CBD’s famous streets, we’ll try South Africa’s most famous food for travel: biltong. Air-dried, spice-cured meat has fuelled travellers, farmers, and adventurers for centuries.

Cape Town's story cannot be told through South African food alone. For generations, immigrants from across the African continent have enriched the city's culinary landscape. At a traditional Ethiopian café, we'll experience one of Africa's oldest and most important food rituals: the coffee ceremony. Green coffee beans are roasted by hand until smoky aromas fill the room before being brewed and served according to centuries-old tradition. Accompanied by popcorn, a customary pairing in Ethiopia, this isn't simply a coffee break. It's a celebration of hospitality and community.

No South African food tour would be complete without a boerewors roll. Often described as South Africa's answer to the hot dog, this beloved street food features a coiled beef sausage grilled over open flames and tucked into bread with mustard sauce and crispy onions. Found everywhere from rugby matches to roadside braais, it's one of the country's great comfort foods. The journey continues into the world of Cape Malay cuisine, one of Cape Town's most important culinary traditions. Developed by enslaved people and political exiles brought to the Cape from Southeast Asia, the cuisine combines African, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Dutch influences into something entirely unique. Here we'll sample bobotie, South Africa's national dish in all but name, alongside spinach fritters, bean rotis, fragrant samosas, and syrupy koesisters.

We finish the only way Cape Town knows how: with wine. South Africa's vineyards have been producing world-class wines for more than 350 years, making them among the oldest wine-producing regions outside Europe. We'll enjoy a flight of three carefully selected wines paired with a few cheeses and charcuterie as we reflect on the flavours, cultures, and stories encountered throughout the afternoon. There's more to this Cape Town food tour than the dishes themselves. It's a discovery and understanding of the communities, migrations, and traditions that transformed a remote trading post into one of the world's most dynamic food cities. Whilst it's possible to eat well in Cape Town alone, you'd be hard-pushed to uncover these stories, flavours, and local favourites without our tastemaker guides.