Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers in Cape Town
Three restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards. Belthazar in Schotschekloof has the Best of Award of Excellence and pours up to 250 Cape wines by the glass with steak and seafood. Salsify at the Roundhouse in Clifton and Karibu Restaurant in Schotschekloof hold Awards of Excellence. Aubergine in City Bowl, also on the list, keeps an exceptional sommelier-led cellar of over 600 selections.
Further programmes sit with specific kitchens. Fyn in City Bowl and La Colombe in Witteboomen are exceptional and sommelier-led. Grub & Vine in Bo-Kaap pairs seasonal bistro cooking by Chef Matt Manning with Star Wine List awards. Curate and OneEighty, both in Bantry Bay, hold Relais Chateaux awards with exceptional lists. Beyond in Steenberg holds the Wine Enthusiast Best Winery Restaurant title and sits on the Buitenverwachting estate.
How this list is chosen: Restaurants with a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award or a deep wine list, listed alphabetically. Updated October 8, 2026.
Amura at Mount Nelson
Deep wine list
Amura at Mount Nelson puts seafood inside Cape Town’s hotel-dining tradition, where coastal supply and polished service matter more than spectacle. The appeal is clearest for travellers who want a seafood-led meal in the city without turning dinner into a destination chase across the peninsula.
Aubergine
Deep wine list
A long-standing fixture in Cape Town's Gardens neighbourhood, Aubergine has accumulated more Star Wine List top rankings than any other restaurant in the city, including the number-one position in both 2022, 2024, and 2026. The kitchen works in a European classical register with South African ingredients, producing a style of fine dining that prioritises depth of cellar over spectacle of service.
Belthazar
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Deep wine list
Positioned on the V&A Waterfront at Shop 153, 19 Breakwater Boulevard, Belthazar is Cape Town's reference point for prime South African beef, earning the Star Wine List number one ranking in 2023. The menu draws from both grass-fed and grain-fed sources, and the wine program operates at a depth that few steakhouses on the continent can match. Book ahead, particularly for weekend sittings when the waterfront crowd competes for the same tables.
Beluga
Deep wine list
Beluga occupies a first-floor position inside Cape Town's V&A Waterfront Cruise Terminal, placing it among the harbour-facing dining options that define the precinct's more established tier. The address puts it squarely in the city's most-visited dining corridor, where waterfront proximity and a reliable booking window make advance planning the sensible default for visitors and locals alike.
Beyond
Deep wine list
Set on the historic Buitenverwachting wine estate in Constantia, Beyond brings South African ingredient sourcing to the foreground across a menu that draws from the Cape's farms, coastline, and valleys.
Bistro Sixteen82
Deep wine list
Set within the Steenberg Estate in Tokai, Bistro Sixteen82 draws a loyal Cape Town following for its relaxed wine-country dining and proximity to one of the Cape's oldest vineyards. The format sits between a neighbourhood regular and a destination restaurant, attracting both Southern Suburbs residents and visitors exploring the Cape Winelands corridor south of the city.
Curate
Deep wine list
Curate brings South African produce and contemporary tasting-menu cooking into the Wine Gallery setting in Bantry Bay. The appeal is not scale or celebrity-chef theatre, but a controlled dinner format that treats regional ingredients, cultural memory, and polished plating as the main event.
Fyn
Deep wine list
Fyn Cape Town pioneers a revolutionary cuisine that weaves South African fynbos ingredients through Japanese kaiseki techniques, earning five consecutive years on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Chef Peter Tempelhoff's twelve-course tasting menu unfolds on the fifth floor overlooking Table Mountain, where dishes like Mozambican crab with indigenous seaweed and tableside-finished prawns over binchotan coals represent Africa's most internationally acclaimed restaurant.
Grub & Vine
Deep wine list
On Bree Street, the artery that anchored Cape Town's dining shift over the past decade, Grub & Vine has accumulated more Star Wine List recognition than any other address in South Africa, including the number-one position in 2023, 2024, and 2026. Chef Matt Manning's seasonal, ingredient-driven cooking sits in the bistro register rather than the fine-dining tier, which makes the wine program's ambition all the more striking.
Karibu Restaurant
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Karibu Restaurant occupies a prime position at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town's most visited dining precinct, and carries a Star Wine List White Star accreditation alongside a World of Fine Wine 2-Star recognition, signals that place its wine program well above the casual harbour-view category. For visitors weighing a waterfront dinner, those credentials matter when setting expectations.
La Colombe
Deep wine list
La Colombe Cape Town elevates fine dining to theatrical art within its treehouse-like setting atop Silvermist Wine Estate, where Chef James Gaag's French-Asian fusion cuisine has earned recognition as Africa's Best Restaurant and 49th on The World's 50 Best Restaurants.
OneEighty
Deep wine list
OneEighty occupies a clifftop position on Kloof Road in Bantry Bay, where the Atlantic horizon becomes as much a part of the experience as what arrives at the table. Under Christophe Moret, the kitchen holds an Expression of the Terroir designation, placing it among the Cape Town restaurants that treat South African produce as a formal argument rather than a backdrop. The menu's architecture reflects that commitment across every course.
Salon
Deep wine list
Salon occupies the first floor of the Silo Building at Woodstock's Old Biscuit Mill, where chef Carla Schulze applies a South African lens to seasonal, produce-led cooking. Consecutive La Liste Top Restaurants entries, 76.5 points in 2025, 77 in 2026, confirm its position in Cape Town's upper tier of contemporary dining. Planning ahead is essential: this is not a walk-in proposition.
Salsify at the Roundhouse
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence · Deep wine list
Salsify at the Roundhouse occupies a historic building in Camps Bay, where chef Ryan Cole's contemporary South African cooking draws on local produce with a clear vegetable-forward instinct. The setting frames the food: a nineteenth-century structure that gives the kitchen's precise, minimalist plates something substantial to work against.
The Roundhouse
Deep wine list
Set in a restored 18th-century hunting lodge above Camps Bay, The Roundhouse occupies one of Cape Town's most architecturally significant dining settings. The building's age and position, with Atlantic views across the bay, make it a default destination for milestone occasions. For context on what Cape Town's fine-dining tier currently offers, it belongs in the same conversation as La Colombe and Salsify at the Roundhouse.
Planning restaurants for wine lovers in Cape Town
- Which restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards?
- Three restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards. Belthazar in Schotschekloof holds the Best of Award of Excellence and pours up to 250 Cape wines by the glass with steak and seafood. Salsify at the Roundhouse in Clifton holds an Award of Excellence beside a sommelier-led list and modern South African fine dining. Karibu Restaurant in Schotschekloof holds an Award of Excellence with a list and South African cooking, including game.
- Which neighbourhoods hold the awarded wine restaurants on this list?
- Schotschekloof, Clifton, City Bowl, Bo-Kaap, Bantry Bay and Steenberg all hold awarded wine restaurants on this list. Belthazar and Karibu Restaurant are in Schotschekloof, and Salsify at the Roundhouse is in Clifton. Aubergine and Fyn are in City Bowl. Grub & Vine is in Bo-Kaap. Curate and OneEighty, both with Relais Chateaux awards, are in Bantry Bay. Beyond, with a Wine Enthusiast winery-restaurant title, is in Steenberg.
- What wine-list styles appear on this list?
- By-the-glass Cape wine, large selections and sommelier-led cellars all appear. Belthazar in Schotschekloof offers up to 250 Cape wines by the glass. Aubergine in City Bowl lists over 600 selections. Fyn in City Bowl, La Colombe in Witteboomen, Salsify at the Roundhouse in Clifton and Grub & Vine in Bo-Kaap have exceptional, sommelier-led programmes and extensive lists.
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