The best bars and nightlife in Cape Town

Telegraph

21-02-2025

There are a few nightlife hubs in Cape Town that offer a clustered mix of options that are close enough to stroll between if you just feel like browsing for fun; herewith a brief overview of these.
Victoria Road in Camps Bay, aka the 'sunset strip', is where you toast the setting sun (preferably in a comfortable armchair on the rooftop at Chinchilla Rooftop, or grab a pavement table at vibey Cafe Caprice).
But for the widest selection of options within walking distance of each other, head to Kloof Street: Mount Nelson's Planet Bar, Blondie, Yours Truly, Publik, One Park, The Power & The Glory and Rita's are all within a 15-minute walk. This strip is also very close (10 minutes on foot) to Upper Bree Street which becomes pedestrianised on the first Thursday of every month and has a cluster of restaurant-bars with pavement tables.
Further along Bree, near Heritage Square, is another collection of bars and restaurants, such as The Tiki Tomb (anyone for a 'Painkiller' served in parrot mug?) and Blue Room, arguably the city's best jazz venue (though do check out what's on at The Athletic Social Club), with good grub and cocktails.
Worth a mention is the nascent East City scene, from the Wild-West saloon Dust and Dynamite to the cool Tommy's Chop Shop (best burgers but only on Wednesdays) or velvet banquettes and East City views from Harrington's Lounge bar.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best restaurants in Cape Town. Find out more below or see our guides to Cape Town's best hotels, restaurants, and things to do, plus how to spend a weekend in the city. For further inspiration, read our expert's ultimate two-week holiday in South Africa.
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City Bowl
Gigi Rooftop Bar
Gorgeous George is a member of Design Hotels, 'a global collection of independent, design-driven hotels that function as social hubs', and Gigi, the sixth-floor rooftop of this repurposed heritage building, sure functions as that. It's the heart of the hotel: a chic and cosy library-lounge-bar-restaurant that spills out onto the rooftop terrace, where the glass-panelled plunge pool provides eye candy, backdropped by an architecturally textured cityscape. Gigi is open from 7am for breakfast till late. Most evenings you'll find some low-key, well-chosen live musician on the sofa; on Fridays and Saturdays there's a DJ. Vibe-wise this is the closest Cape Town gets to a SoHo house, without any pesky membership issues, and attracting a very cool, friendly mix of local and international guests. Booking is essential.
Planet Bar
Located in the venerable Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, this small, elegant bar opens onto a plant-fringed glass-enclosed veranda, with more doors opening onto an outside terrace overlooking the gardens. With great staff and good nibbles, this is a much beloved after-work gathering place for Capetonians old enough to pay more for the perfectly mixed tipple. In summer there's also The Fountain by Planet Bar, with tables under cheerful umbrellas arranged around the fountain and delectable sharing plates cooked in the open-air kitchen. Planet Bar cocktails are excellent and there are plenty of them; the wine list is also stellar (and well-trained sommeliers on hand to provide guidance) albeit rather pricey by South African standards. It's very close to the city centre (across the road from the Company's Garden), but the quickest access on foot is through the entrance on Kloof Street.
Asoka
The unprepossessing exterior of what was once a residential house on Kloof street hides this intimate candle-lit courtyard around a fairy-lit 150-year-old olive tree. A Cape Town stalwart, this is a restaurant but functions more as a lounge-bar in which to have a pre- or post-dinner drink. Expect a schmoozy place attracting a slightly older crowd, where the music played by respected in-house DJs is usually deep house with occasional electronic evenings and live jazz on Tuesday nights; Sunday's livesessions kicking off at 8.30pm with jazz, electro jazz, funk bands and classic vocalists.
Leo's
At 5pm the neon sign 'Leo's' flickers on above what is by day Max Bagels, and regulars drift in for post-work decompression, trying out whatever small-batch wines owner Matthew Freemantle has decided to offer. Leo's is small and intimate, and you can sample any of the wines before committing to a glass. Worth knowing that Freemantle is very good mates with Andrew Kai who owns neighbouring Tomsons, and you are welcome to order his excellent value Cantonese-style street food and enjoy it at Leo's, or grab a table at Tomson's and order wine from Leo's – a lovely urban symbiosis in buzzy Bree Street.
Publik Wine Bar
A top choice if you want to broaden your Cape wine knowledge, with a commitment to smaller, independent producers and limited volume labels. Sit down, see what's on the chalk board, talk through the kind of wine you like, enjoy a few sip-sized samples before deciding on the glass to order, all the while understanding why and what makes the particular wine you're sampling great. A menu of locally produced spirits, similarly small batch and artisanal, is also available, as well as simple meals (often augmented by pop up chefs). Publik operates as a wholesaler too, so you can take home a bottle of what you like best. What's not to love? (Note that it is extremely popular, and takes no reservations, so get here fairly early to get a seat, or take your chances.)
Contact: publik.co.za
Price: £
Up Yours at Yours Truly
There are now a few branches of the popular bar Yours Truly, all in the centre city and easily identified by the preponderance of plants growing in each venue, but Kloof Street is still the biggest and best. Early Friday evening, the upstairs balcony, dubbed Up Yours, is the place to watch hip, young, creative Capetonians of all persuasions at play. A DJ keeps the atmosphere upbeat and the cool crowd moving their heads – but it's a bar not a dance floor – with a cheap drinks menu (G&T is just about the only cocktail) pulling in students and backpackers (meaning great people-watching). It takes no reservations so get there early over weekends, or be prepared to queue.
Rita's Cocktail Club
For a city known for its incredible vantages there are surprisingly few bars that make the most of this, so Rita's, located directly above Hudson's on Kloof, is a welcome change. The bar design is great: stretching into an outdoor terrace, allowing for easy access to bartenders on either side, and – depending on where you seat yourself – a great view of Table Mountain. The atmosphere is intimate and comfortable, with an eclectic crowd. It's a tequila bar, so you can work your way through a long list of tequila or mezcal-based cocktails (the mojito is darn fine too) and every day from 5pm to 7pm Margaritas are half price; after this DJs crank up the vibe from Thursday to Saturday.
Blue Room
For great nosh (sharing plates or set menu, all from the popular bistro Grub & Vine upstairs), a fabulous wine list and cocktails, and carefully curated show list (events listed online) this atmospheric speak easy is currently the best venue in the city for live jazz and soul. It's romantic and convivial, with mirrors and plush leather banquettes; intimate enough for convivial strangers to strike up a conversation. Make the most of it and arrive for happy hour, from 4 to 6pm; Tuesdays is when emerging talent is showcased. Book online to avoid disappointment.
Culture Wine Bar
Considered by pundits to be the best wine bar in Cape Town; certainly the biggest, with comfortable seating in leather banquette booths, and a relatively extensive and excellently curated list of wines by the glass. It's a lovely venue, warmed with yellow-wood floors, candles in wax-crusted bottles and light spilling in from the large arched window overlooking the buzziest part of Bree Street. Adjacent is Grub & Vine, combining good bistro fare with another excellent wine list. Both fall under the auspices of chef Matt Manning, renowned for the work he puts into promoting up-and-coming talents and providing easy access to cult classics. Below is his Blue Room, one of the best places in the city for live jazz. If you're here on a Wednesday arrive by 5.30pm to ensure you have a table – it's Vine Night, when a selected winemaker comes round to every table pouring a complimentary flight from 6 to 8pm.
The Piano Bar
In the middle of De Waterkant's social hub, this cosy New York-styled jazz and cocktail club has been around for more than a decade. It's a live music venue serving up a daily show and covering a wide gamut of musical styles, from jazz and blues to classical piano, show tunes to indie pop. The daily line up is available online: predominantly solo artists, with bigger bands sometimes picking up the tempo Fridays and Saturdays. It's happy hour from 3pm to 6pm, and the wine list is short but reasonable, with tapas and meals served on their wraparound veranda and views of De Waterkant stretching all the way to Table Bay.
Tjing Tjing
Located in a 200-year-old heritage building on Longmarket Street in the Cape Town city centre, Japanese-themed Tjing Tjing comprises several spaces – head straight up to the renovated attic space that opens onto a small outside terrace. The curved timber beam ceiling structure and indigo wallpaper creates a cosy atmosphere, the red lacquer bar adds glossy colour and the cocktails are pretty good. I'd suggest ordering the signature lychee martini. Great tunes – new indie and electronic tracks, with playlists available on Soundcloud and Spotify – attract a cool local post-work clientele and tourists staying in nearby hotels. If it's too full, decamp downstairs to Momiji's intimate bar-lounge on the middle floor (same hours as the upstairs bar); Tjing Tjing Torii, located at street level, serves Japanese street food.
Anthm Cocktail Bar & Restaurant
Cape Town has long been a magnet for artists, and locals are glad artist-mixologist Tetsuo Hasegawa made the move. The Tokyo art-school graduate spent two decades making art and cocktails in New York City before relocating to Cape Town to create this cosy inner-city haven. An exercise in patience, Hasegawa meticulously crafts each of his unique cocktails (try the Little Red Rooster, made with sake, vodka, dehydrated tomato, clarified tomato water, cabernet sauvignon and salt), serving them in vintage glasses in between picking out the next jazz record, the distinctive crackle of vinyl adding to the ambience. There is also an intriguing menu of small sharing plates, such as pork belly, turnip and spring onion bao bun or the potato salad toasted sandwich (more delicious than it sounds).
The Power and The Glory
What founder Adam always envisaged as a kind of extension of his home is still one of the best places to spot the Cape Town hipsters sprawling out onto the pavement clutching handcrafted beers and interesting shooters while watching the traffic crawl up towards Kloofnek. It has a good, simple breakfast menu and great sandwiches. At 5pm the tiny attached bar-room, called The Black Ram, opens up, to fit a few more of the regulars and newbies who drift in off the street. Trendy but unpretentious and very welcoming; very popular.
Contact: 00 87 897 9749
Opening times: Mon-Sat, 8am-10pm; The Black Ram, 5pm till late
Price: £
Gin Bar
In a creative reinvention of what was once a city mortuary, Gin Bar is hidden behind the local chocolatier Honest Chocolate (incidentally a very fine chocolatier). It's a lovely courtyard, with a playful cocktail menu of 'quack' medicinal remedies, and over 100 gins on the menu – of which 80 are local. Inside you'll also find the Bubbly Bar, set up in what was apparently the Embalming Room, it showcases the Cape's best sparkling wines from Wednesday to Saturday. Above is Bodega, the charming ramen restaurant much loved by locals.
Athletic Club & Social
This is generally agreed to be the cosiest, coolest restaurant-bar in Cape Town, and is one of my favourites. The three-storey Victorian building was for many years the pharmacy of sports fanatic Herbert Tothill, and owner Athos Euripidou pays homage to this with his collection of sports memorabilia. Persian carpets on herringbone wooden floors, tasselled velvet chairs and leather banquettes, walls painted red or papered in arresting patterns, pools of warm light cast by fringed lamps – it's sophisticated, fun and very popular. The underground Trophy Room hosts music events, like live jazz on Thursday evenings from 9pm, or head to the upstairs bar with its the wrought-iron balcony. The restaurant is excellent too. (Insider tip: If you like Athletic it's worth checking out Euripidou's new social club, La Trip, located off Buitengracht Street).
Atlantic Seaboard
Chinchilla Rooftop Café and Bar
Chinchilla, the more informal option located on the rooftop directly above Bilboa, is the most comfortable place to watch the sunset in Camps Bay. It's an adults-only cocktail lounge with comfortable sofas and armchairs for those who are here for the cocktails and the view (which is, of course, fabulous), and a few dining tables in between. There's a small classic café menu that includes beef carpaccio, prawn cocktail, grilled steak bearnaise, crayfish, pan-roasted baby squid, beef burger – familiar dishes, well executed.
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V&A waterfront
Bascule Bar
Hands down the best whisky bar (with more than 400 on offer at last count) located in the heart of the Waterfront. Inside it's an intimate, elegant cellar-like atmosphere, with a great contemporary art on the walls. The cocktails aren't too shabby either – try the signature Rooibos Whisky Sour, made with a South African bourbon cask whisky, or the Garden Martini, a refreshing blend of vodka, basil, lemon grass, lemon juice and elderflower liqueur. On Fridays the after work crowd spills out onto tables set up on the edge of the marina, with yachts parked below and a great view of Table Mountain. It's part of the Cape Grace, but feels completely separate from the hotel.
Grand Africa Café and Beach
Sit with your toes curled in the sand while sipping a cocktail and watching the ships chug in and out of the harbour. There's nothing grand about what is essentially a warehouse overlooking a man-made beach adjoining the Waterfront in Granger Bay, but the views are sublime. The venue can seat up to 1,000 people, and when it's full, expect service to be slow. There's a good food menu (pizzas particularly), but it's definitely more of a cocktail vibe, although the wine list is also excellent.
If you prefer sipping cocktails on a lounger around the pool by day, followed by dancing, Cabo Beach Club – located on the other side of the Waterfront in the real industrial part of the harbour – is another artificial beach, and serious contender for the Instagram crowd. Check out the DJ line up on the website.
Willaston Bar
The massive pillowed windows and rooftop of the Waterfront's repurposed silo offer some of the best views in the city, backdropped by the full majesty of Table Mountain. While the vertigo-inducing views from the rooftop are admittedly a showstopper, I prefer settling into the sumptuous, laid-back glamour of the Willaston, the hotel's sixth-floor bar. Tuck into one of the comfortable semi-circular sofas, angled to make the most of the view, or perch on one of the plush blue barstools, the bar counter romantically lit by brass art nouveau-style mushroom lamps. Service is professional and warm, exactly what you want from a bar. There is a small plates menu that garners mixed reviews; I'd stick to cocktails, and aim to arrive just before sunset.
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Winelands
The Wine Glass
Serving more than 130 wines produced in Stellenbosch by the glass, this is the most efficient way to sample some of the best-known producers from what is generally considered South Africa's premier wine region. Horizontal tasting flights – each comprising six wines – are arranged according to varietal, with a choice of two price points. Stellenbosch is renowned for cabernet and you can taste 12 completely different types, getting to know what you like and why, in a single sitting. With the exception of the Apex Red flight, most wines are from the better-known producers. It's a little impersonal but well-organised. There is a food menu if you want to line your stomach (bobotie spring rolls are good and there are oysters on tap in summer) but there are better restaurants in Stellenbosch. If you're travelling to Hermanus pop into the original Wine Glass, offering 96 wines from the cool-climate Walker Bay region.
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How we choose
Every bar, venue or experience in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets and styles, from casual pubs to exquisite cocktail bars – to best suit every type of traveller – and consider the service, drinks, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest openings and provide up to date recommendations.
About our expert
Pippa de Bruyn, Telegraph Travel's South Africa destination expert and head judge for Africa in the inaugural Telegraph Travel Hotel Awards, has been researching and writing about Southern and East Africa since 1998.