First, there was Belly of the Beast, where chef-patrons Anouchka Horn and Neil Swart wowed Capetonians and tourists with their considered table d’hôte menu that drew heavily on local, seasonal produce. It quickly became one of the best restaurants in Cape Town.
In 2023 they followed that up with GALJOEN, in a space just a short walk down Buitenkant Street. Here their keen eye shifted to seafood fished only from local waters. Norwegian salmon or Patagonian squid? Forget it. Instead, think Cape bream, local mussels and coastal chokka.
And now 2025 brings SEEBAMBOES, an intimate new eatery set on the mezzanine level above GALJOEN. Here they’ve partnered with chef Adél Hughes and artist Liebet Jooste to create a tasting menu experience that’s being billed as gastronomic nostalgia riffing on ‘surf and turf’.
‘If ‘surf and turf’ has had a bad rap, it’s because it’s been badly executed in the past,’ says Swart. ‘It was always these obvious combinations, like steak and calamari, or steak and prawns, often quite unflatteringly prepared.’
It’s an issue Swart and Horn are only too happy to tackle in a bid to make South African ‘surf and turf’ a cuisine worth seeking out. And, as you’d expect from the culinary creatives behind ‘Belly’ and GALJOEN, there is no shortage of creativity coming to SEEBAMBOES.
For Horn the approach is not just about ‘a big piece of fish and a big piece of meat together on a plate. It might also be seaweed with meat, or a mix of seaweeds with land vegetables. Because vegetables are also turf, right?’
‘We’re coming in from the side and creating unanticipated flavours,’ adds Hughes, who will head up the kitchen day-to-day, while Jooste takes care of front-of-house. ‘We’re unlikely to do a straight steak and calamari, but at some stage, I do want to create a pairing of chokka and trinchado.’
Of course, ‘sea bamboo’, the kelp native to South Africa and a vital part of the Great African Seaforest around Cape Town, is sure to play a part on the menu too. Think kelp spaghetti with exotic mushrooms, thinly sliced wagyu brisket and a seaweed broth.
That surf and turf vibe continues in myriad plates across the ever-changing tasting menu: perhaps snoek mousse and biltong powder with dune spinach and tomato. Octopus with roasted ripe tomatoes. Venison tataki with veldkool. Shoestring fries with bokkom butter. Alongside a Wagyu rib-eye look forward to vegetables fire-roasted inside the kelp stipe (the trunk, to you and me).
‘The vegetables cook inside the kelp stipe, and then we’ll take that to the table and cut it open and you can eat the vegetables directly from the stipe,’ enthuses Hughes.
There’s no end of creativity on the SEEBAMBOES menu, served up in an eye-catching space filled with curiosities, collectibles and an aesthetic that subtly reflects the theme of land and sea. With counter-style seating for just 16 diners per service it’s set to be a wonderfully intimate an engaging dining experience.
But, you will have to wait a while for a taste.
Although bookings open on February 14, the first service is only on March 7, 2025. It’ll be dinner only (R1200pp) to start, with plans for lunch service in the future. Visit www.seebamboescpt.co.za for more info.
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