Food and drink at Time Out Market Cape Town

Within days of Ramenhead opening in Cape Town in 2022 there were queues out the door, as hungry locals lined up for the best noodles in the city. That’s not surprising, as Peter Tempelhoff, Ashley Moss and Jennifer Hugé – the culinary creatives behind Ramenhead and award-winning Fyn Restaurant – scoured Tokyo and Osaka for time-honoured ramen recipes, returning with the first (and only) Yamato noodle machine in Africa. The trio brings that same passion and focus to Time Out Market Cape Town, with Ramenhead’s seaside outpost offering a compact list of Asian plates and slurpable ramen bowls.

It’s a burger bar, but not as you know it – and that’s thanks to the creativity of prolific restaurateur, chef and TV personality Bertus Basson. With a brace of popular restaurants across the Cape, Basson is passionate about celebrating homegrown South African flavours and culinary traditions. At De Vrije Burger you can count on having your hands full with his next-level burgers made with free-range beef and homemade buns.

Right now, you have to drive for an hour from Cape Town to the Elgin Valley to taste chef John Van Zyl’s cooking. Well, that’s about to change. And while his Elgin restaurant The Melting Pot will remain worth the trip for its concise menu of globally-inspired small plates, there’s a whole new take on the Melting Pot experience coming to Time Out Market Cape Town. Here, Van Zyl turns his focus to the Cape’s bountiful seafood while drawing plenty of inspiration from his own travels abroad. That’ll mean anything from tuna sashimi with fermented black bean dressing, coconut and mint, through to beer-battered hake sliders with smoked potato purée and (of course) a best-in-class tartar sauce.

This upscale take on Asian street food brings together the considerable talents of two of the city’s top chefs: Matt van den Berg and Carla Schulze. Fluffy bao buns are, unsurprisingly, the star of the show, but this creative duo also bring a decidedly Cape perspective to classic Asian bites. While their Woodstock outpost will continue to draw a hungry crowd, at Time Out Market Cape Town they’ll be plating up exclusive flavour combos such as crayfish bao infused with Cape Malay flavours and a coconut and curry furikake, or wagyu sando-bao with a chilli crunch mayo, tonkatsu and pickled cucumber.

Giorgio Nava is a household name in Cape Town, as beloved for his mellifluous Italian accent as his deft hand in the kitchen. A staple of the city’s restaurant scene for the past 20 years, Nava brings his trend-setting steak eatery CARNE to the Time Out Market Cape Town. Since opening in the city’s legal district in 2008, CARNE has set the bar for remarkable steak dishes served in a minimalist Italian tradition, with a field-to-table philosophy that’s focused firmly on provenance. Salt, pepper, olive oil and the finest quality free-range cuts… that’s all Nava needs to make a little Milanese magic.

Homegrown celebrity chef Siba Mtongana brings a sprinkle of proudly South African seasoning to the Market experience, with  The Siba Deli. Famous worldwide as the host of ‘Siba's Table’ on The Cooking Channel, Mtongana is also a multi-award-winning chef, television presenter, author and restaurateur.

While her eponymous restaurant in the V&A Waterfront offers an elevated take on South African cuisine, The Siba Deli dishes up a more relaxed culinary experience while retaining Siba’s focus on freshness and a subtle infusion of local flavours in everything from wholesome salads and delicious dips, to traditional sticky wings and spicy chakalaka sauce.

From a cult classic in the city to claiming a coveted spot at Time Out Market Cape Town, Eugene Smith’s YARD brings an inimitable approach to pizza. Atop their signature hand-stretched dough you’ll find four classic YARD flavours flying out of the ovens. Whether your poison is New York pepperoni, barbecue chicken, spicy Italian salami or the heady mix of blue cheese and caramelised onions, expect the generous pizzas from YARD to come standard with a side order of their (in)famously cheeky service.

Cape Malay cuisine – blending European and Asian culinary influences – speaks to the colourful history of the Cape, and few chefs offer an experience as unique as Anwar Abdullatief. Chef Anwar pioneered the Halaal fine-dining scene in Cape Town, and at Barakat he – together with his wife; TV star and celebrity chef Yolani Abrahams – flips Cape Malay cuisine on its head with a thoroughly contemporary take on traditional plates. From slow-braised osso buco to traditional tomato bredie, Barakat share the flavours and fables of the Cape’s home-grown cuisine.

Chef Peter Tempelhoff and chef Shin Takagi – owner of two-star Michelin restaurant Zeniya in Kanazawa, Japan – bring a unique collaboration to the Market with Sushiya. Billed as an upscale ‘sushi shop’ offering authentic yet contemporary Japanese sushi, Sushiya's menu at Time Out Market Cape Town will comprise a series of small dishes with classic pickled and preserved Japanese-style vegetables, a variety of modern nigiri platters, a platter of maki, and temaki and gunkan maki infused with local and classic Japanese flavours, among other delicacies available for diners to enjoy. Expect Tempelhoff and Takagi to equally showcase their dedication to sustainable sourcing, craftsmanship and tradition. Stand by for a shake-up of the city’s best sushi!

Stepping up from his current V&A location at the Makers Landing incubator hub is chef Hitesh Panchal who brings Kapoochka to Time Out Market Cape Town. Kapoochka – which Panchal runs with his two sons – dishes up a contemporary take on Indian street food with a creative focus on more-ish pani puri. Considered the king of street food across India, pani puri are crispy hollow balls of dough, deep-fried and filled with potato, lentils, three chutneys and a spiced water. At Kapoochka look forward to an array of savoury and sweet creations.