Cafe Caprice

The Atlantic Seaboard's Bar Benchmark

Victoria Road in Camps Bay does not ease you in gently. The mountain drops behind it, the Atlantic opens in front, and the strip itself runs at a particular pitch of glamour that few coastal bar scenes outside of the Mediterranean can match. Cafe Caprice sits at number 37, a position on that road that functions less like an address and more like a statement of intent. Before the first drink arrives, the physical context has already done substantial work: Table Mountain's Twelve Apostles buttress behind, the ocean flat and luminous ahead, and the late-afternoon light doing what Cape Town light does on a clear summer evening — turning everything amber and slightly cinematic.

That environmental advantage is real, but it has not been sufficient on its own for venues on this strip. Several have opened with better views and failed to hold the room. Cafe Caprice has held it, and for long enough that its 2010 placement at number 27 in the World's 50 Best Bars list reads less as a historical footnote and more as a calibration point. At the time of that ranking, very few African bars appeared on the list at all; placement in the top 30 globally positioned Camps Bay, briefly, alongside Ginza, Mayfair, and Lower Manhattan as a serious drinking destination rather than a scenic one.

What a 2010 Ranking Still Communicates in 2025

The World's 50 Best Bars methodology rewards a combination of bartender reputation, drink program depth, and peer industry recognition. A number 27 placement does not happen on atmosphere alone. In the early 2010s, that tier of recognition typically required a back bar with genuine range, bartenders operating at a technical level comparable to their London or New York counterparts, and a drink list that could hold up against international scrutiny. The award signals that Cafe Caprice, at its peak, was competing in a different category than the beach bars and hotel terraces that surrounded it geographically.

Cape Town's bar scene has continued to develop since then. Venues like Cause Effect Cocktail Kitchen have pushed the city's cocktail program into more technically driven territory, and Fable has developed a following built around narrative-driven drink formats. The broader Cape Town bar scene, which you can survey in our full Cape Town bars guide, now includes a range of drinking options from craft-focused neighbourhood spots to hotel bars positioned at the leading end of the market. Within that context, Cafe Caprice occupies a position shaped by both its location and its history rather than by continuous program innovation — which makes the 4.4 rating across more than 3,100 Google reviews a meaningful signal. Volume at that scale filters out anomalous enthusiasm; it suggests consistent execution over time.

The Back Bar and What It Signals

Atlantic seaboard bar settings in Cape Town tend toward one of two formats: the stripped-back beach club, where the wine list is limited and the focus is on cold beer and easy drinking, or the more structured operation where spirits depth and cocktail construction reflect a deliberate program. The World's 50 Best recognition places Cafe Caprice in the second category historically, and the address on Victoria Road, with its foot traffic profile and demographic, supports a back bar built for range rather than minimalism.

The editorial angle that matters here is what a serious back bar at a beach-adjacent venue actually requires. Spirit curation on a coastal strip faces pressure from both ends: the crowd in at six for sundowners wants accessibility and speed, while the later crowd, staying past nine, tends to want something with more depth. Balancing those two service windows without letting the back bar collapse into generic pouring is a persistent challenge for Atlantic seaboard venues. A top-30 World's 50 Best placement suggests that the curation, at least at the time of judging, was resolving that tension credibly.

For the drinks-focused visitor, the approach worth taking is to arrive with the sundowner crowd for the setting and the first drink, then stay into the evening when the pace changes and a more considered conversation with the bar team becomes possible. Camps Bay's proximity to the city centre, roughly 20 minutes by road from the V&A Waterfront depending on traffic, makes it a natural extension of a Cape Town evening rather than a standalone destination requiring a separate journey.

Placing Cafe Caprice in a Wider Drinking Context

South Africa's bar scene, when placed against the global map, occupies an interesting position. Sin + Tax in Johannesburg represents the Gauteng approach to premium drinking: interior-focused, spirits-led, deliberately removed from any scenic distraction. The contrast with Cafe Caprice is instructive. Both venues operate in the upper tier of their respective cities, but the Cape Town model has always integrated landscape into the proposition in a way that Johannesburg, being landlocked and elevation-flat in its bar district, cannot replicate.

Internationally, venues ranked in that 2010 top-30 tier , Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu and Jewel of the South in New Orleans offer useful comparisons , tend to share a characteristic: a specific sense of place that extends beyond the four walls of the room. Jewel of the South draws on New Orleans' cocktail history as its context; Bar Leather Apron uses Pacific island spirits and Japanese precision as its framework. Cafe Caprice, at its strongest, uses the Cape's position as its reference point.

Within Cape Town itself, the comparison set is instructive. Asoka operates in a different register, with its garden setting and Kloof Street location drawing a different crowd. Planet Bar, sitting inside the Mount Nelson, positions itself at the hotel bar end of the spectrum, where the room and the brand do as much work as the pour. Cafe Caprice sits between these poles: not a hotel bar, not a neighbourhood local, but a beach-strip venue with documented international credentials and a drink program that has, at moments, matched the setting's ambition.

Planning a Visit

Cafe Caprice is located at 37 Victoria Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town 8005. The venue draws strongly during Cape Town's summer season, running from November through March, when the Atlantic seaboard is at its most active and the light on the Twelve Apostles stays long into the evening. Arriving at the sundowner window, typically from around 5pm on a clear summer afternoon, gives access to the full environmental effect before the strip fills. The venue's Google rating of 4.4 from over 3,100 reviews suggests the experience holds across the seasonal variation, though the summer-evening window represents the most coherent version of what Camps Bay's beach strip offers. Visitors building a broader Cape Town itinerary can find further recommendations across the city's dining, accommodation, and activity options through our full Cape Town restaurants guide, our full Cape Town hotels guide, our full Cape Town wineries guide, and our full Cape Town experiences guide.