Cape Town Vegan Food Guide

This blogpost is also available in German / auf Deutsch

Anyone who knows me and / or my blog knows that I visited Cape Town about 6 years ago (my boyfriend’s family is from South Africa). At that time I was already vegan, but I was only able to find one vegan restaurant. Other than that, though, I managed quite well (my tips for eating vegan out of town are here).

But now, after almost six years, the vegan scene in Cape Town has literally exploded and before our trip I had an eternally long list of restaurant tips!!! At the same time, we also traveled a lot with Jesse’s family, which meant that we always had to satisfy the different tastes (after all, I was once again on the road with “real” meat eaters, who really needed meat every single meal – exhausting… ). And we managed to do that every time!

Cape Town is simply a vegan paradise as my meals were always terrific even in non-Vegan restaurants! The cuisine in Cape Town is just really good.

Here is a list of my favorite restaurants. I also noted if the place was 100% vegan, or just “vegan-friendly”. I found almost every place really well priced. Disclaimer: The post contains links to the restaurants so you can inform yourself. These links are not sponsored or paid advertising. I paid for all the dishes myself. Since in Germany blogger’s are now being sued for everything, even if what they are writing if actually only information services and not paid advertising, I have to write such detailed disclaimers from now on. Sorry! But now the good stuff starts:

Scheckter’s RAW – Sea Point

Even though the store is called “Raw”, not everything is raw here. That’s important for me to emphasize since I’m not such a raw food fan and always like to have an alternative when I do not feel like eating super mega raw and healthy (you know, I like vegan soulfood!). This place is nearby Clifton where there is a great beach, so a trip to Scheckters Raw is definitely worth it. The food is very good and the service super friendly! 100% vegan!

Ohana Cafe – Kalk Bay

Our first stop in Cape Town and it was such a good one!!! We decided spontaneously for this café when we were walking in Kalk Bay (I can highly recommend it!!!) and I ordered the Falafel Bowl. The falafel were so delicious and somehow juicier than I am otherwise used to. A must when you are in Kalk Bay! Next door there are also lots of cute little shops! Not 100% vegan, but has a few but very good options.

Plant – City Center

Unfortunately, we were only there once, as we somehow discovered the restaurant only at the end of the trip… The place is 100% vegan and just reading the menu alone made me hungry. From breakfast burritos to crepes, croissants, tagliatelle carbonara, burgers, to Mac’n Cheese, you’ll just find real, vegan soulfood on the menu. We highly recommend it! I would like to have something like this in Berlin!

Hungry Herbivore – City Center

The restaurant is not very big, but due to the interior well suited for dinner reservations – very well decorated! Due to the water shortage, the food was unfortunately only served on paper plates. This was actually the case more often! I had a delicious pasta plate with creamy cashew sauce. So good!!!

Nourish’d Cafe and Juicery – Gardens

I saw this place so often on Instagram before our trip and received a recommendation from a friend to I had to give it a try. I had a Blueberry smoothie bowl for breakfast that did not blow me away, but I really liked the cafe! The owners are very committed to environmental protection and social impact (more info here) and it’s just a cute little cafe! You have to order at the counter.

Honest Chocolate Cafe – City Center

I had read a lot of good things about this place, but unfortunately my dessert was a failure. My chocolate brownie tasted like they forgot to add the sugar when baking it. But next time I would go back and give the café another chance, as I loved the interior and the café also turns into a gin bar in the evening. So cool!!!

Skinny Legs Luxury Cafe – City Center

Here we just had a rooibos latte, but there are also a few vegan dishes. But as I said, I did not get the chance to test these. But I love the cafe, it was nicely decorated with minimalist style and the atmosphere was also very quiet and relaxed.

Massimos Pizza – Hout Bay

I discovered this restaurant on Facebook. Jesse’s sister had shared it because the restaurant was very concerned with reducing its use of water (I already wrote about the water shortage here). It also supports animal shelters and offers a pay it forward program – AND there is a whole vegan menu, including vegan pizza!!!! So I really wanted to go there and I was not disappointed! Super nice staff, relaxed atmosphere and delicious, thin and crispy pizza with vegan cheese!

Ground Zero Marley Coffee – Observatory

We stumbled across this place by chance, as Jesse had read on a blog that they serve vegan French toast here. We did not spot it on the menu and asked our waitress for it. Seemingly a secret meal, but the staff immediately knew what we meant and were happy that word was spreading about it. The café has only started offering food recently. Everything is 100% vegetarian and almost 100% vegan and there are many gluten-free options! By the way, the vegan french toast was sooooo good!!! Super crispy and delicious! We definitely recommend this place!

Dolce Bakery – Observatory

I would have liked to go there more often, as they had great vegan options (for example pizza with cashew cheese, apple crumble, bagels and chocolate cake) and we were often in the area, but the cafe has quite funny hours (closed on Sundays , weekdays to 17 clock, Saturdays to 14 clock).

Ethiopian Timbuktu  – Observatory

Eating Ethiopian in Cape Town??? I can highly recommend, among other places, the Timbuktu restaurant. Order the Vegan Platter – so good !!! Ethiopian is eaten with the hands, just so you know!

Hidden Leaf Eatery – Woodstock

We chose this restaurant for Jesse’s birthday because we had to satisfy a lot of different tastes. Allergy sufferers, grumpy eaters, and me and Jesse as vegans / vegetarians. Unfortunately, 1-2 things were out when we arrived (although we had reserved and told them that there were 2 vegans in our group) and the mood was almost ruined, but luckily the vegan burgers were still available. They were almost the best I have ever eaten!!!! Super relaxed atmosphere and super nice staff! Everyone was happy with their dish 🙂

A Touch of Madness  – Observatory

On this day, Jesse and I were traveling alone, but the whole family would have liked this restaurant. Again, there was a dish suitable for every taste! A Touch of Madness is an old mansion, converted into a restaurant, so there is not one big room, but many different smaller ones, just like in a villa! We ate outside on the porch!

O’ways Teacafe – Claremont

Here, Jesse and I had a small food stop before meeting with the rest of the family. The food stop was not that small, as we ordered two really delicious and sumptuous dishes. I had a chickpea omelette, so good!! Also, our tea came in what felt 2 liter teapots! It took a while to drink this, haha 🙂

Babylonstoren (außerhalb Kapstadts)

After the tea-café mentioned above, the whole family went to the winery Babylonstoren. Highly recommended, as there is a lot to discover! In the garden you can also eat delicious food in a beautiful setting! For vegans, for example, there is a hummus sandwich and delicious salads.

Vegan Tea time im 12 Apostels Hotel

Jesse had researched this Vegan Tea Time online and then reserved it for both of us, as well as his sister and her boyfriend, since we wanted to treat them! The tea time was really good and although we were in a very chic hotel, we felt very comfortable in our relatively casual clothes! The staff was just super nice and welcoming to us. The vegan menu must be booked at least 24 hours in advance. Of course you pay a little more here! Unfortunately this one didn’t come anywhere close to the Vegan Tea Time in Paris.

Vegan Tea time im Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel

Then we had the idea to visit a tea time for Jesse’s mother’s birthday. This time we only ordered a vegan menu when we made the reservation and that was no problem! For everyone else there are as usual a few snacks on a tiered tray and many different desserts as a buffet. I received my very own tray with 100% vegan delicacies. The best was the vegan meringue and the lemon cake – so good!!! Again not super cheap, but for the right occasion, it’s worth it! And as I said, if you want vegan you have to book it in advance!

Blue Bird Garage Food & Goods Market – Muizenberg

There are many food markets in Cape Town, but my boyfriend’s sister lives near this one, so of course we stopped by! There are a lot of vegan options, so you can really stuff yourself here. In addition, you will not only find delicious food, but also handmade, craft beer and live music!

And here’s an example of some of the good, vegan food we received in non vegan places: Jesse’s mother wanted to go to the Vergenoegd Wine Estate for her birthday because every Saturday there is a duck run. We made the reservation and informed the restaurant that I am vegan 1-2 days before – they said it was no problem on the phone. On the market there were a few vegan options and the restaurant then served me this delicious salad with roasted cauliflower. So good!!! I doesn’t matter where you go in Cape Town as long as you give them enough notice they will present you a delicious vegan dish! I have found this to be the case with a lot of good restaurants, but especially so in Cape Town.

Foliage – Franschhoek

If you are traveling further outside of Cape Town and make your way Franschhoek and would like to be a little fancier (and therefore more expensive), I highly recommend the Foliage Restaurant! The restaurant mainly uses ingredients that the chef and his team gather daily in the wild.

Kauai Camps Bay 

I did not really find any cool places in Camps Bay. The area is worthwhile only if you want to visit the beautiful beach. If you get hungry on the spot then you can try the chain Kauai. Not a great option in my opinion (my smoothie bowl was very good, but there are not that many vegan options for such a “healthy” cafe), but I wanted to list it!

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I hope my list will help you on your next Cape Town trip. Personally, I was overwhelmed by the huge selection and did not even know which vegan restaurant we should start with! I did not even present all restaurants because I did not want to overwhelm you and really almost every other restaurant offered very good vegan options. Sometimes, when making the reservation, we told them that I ate vegan and then something extra was prepared for me.

Do you have any more tips? Have you ever been to South Africa or Cape Town?