Description: Karibu bills itself as a traditional South African restaurant and is situated in Cape Town in the V & A Waterfront complex. Whilst browsing the somewhere to eat one Sunday evening we picked this one as it had the most interesting and varied menu on the waterfront. The restaurants on the front are all large and quite contemporary; there are spaces outside to dine if you are so inclined. Most establishments will have staff members trying to encourage you to come in and eat there.

As it was winter we ate inside and in no time at all they had rustled up a table for nine in a little annexe room. Whilst the restaurant may claim to be ‘traditional’, the décor inside leans towards the contemporary with lots of dark wood and clean lines. The lavatories continued the theme, and were impeccably clean and tidy.

At the time of writing the rate of exchange was 11.5 rand to one British pound, or 7.50 to the US Dollar.

The menu is broad and whilst none of our party went for starters this evening they do have an interesting selection, especially for the meat eaters. There are dishes like prawn cocktail (R69), duo of deep friend cheeses (R89), Oysters (R119) Springbok Carpaccio (R89) and pickled fish (R59) as well as soups and salads. Like most South African restaurants there is a good range of steaks available as well as other grilled meats and seafood: Braai (South African BBQ mixed grill) starts at R135, local trout was R 155, but there were always cheaper choices available. They really love their meat here and meat eaters will be in heaven with the variety of meat dishes. One popular one with our group was a traditional bobotie (R109) which is a mildly spiced baked mince dish. Quite a few of our party tried this and thought it excellent. However, later in the trip we got to try some home made bobotie and they thought that better than the one they had here. So whilst it is was deemed a good dish on the night, perhaps this is not the best place to have it – it popped up on menus throughout the Western Cape so there would be plenty of other opportunity to try it. Someone else had the lamb shank and they were also disappointed as it didn’t come off the bone as easily as they would have liked. Again this is something we discovered elsewhere throughout the region with the same comments. Either it is how they cook it in South Africa or we were always unlucky. The lamb stew and the chicken curry were also given the thumbs up.

I went for the Malay Vegetable Feast (R 98) which was wonderfully presented (as all dishes were) with layers of pulses and beans on aubergine served with rustic bread and a chutney type sauce. I was really pleased with my choice, finding it both filling and tasty. Others had a vegetable wrap which was with a tikka curry sauce (R86) and a Baked Butternut which was a half butternut scooped out and re-filled with a mid curry and rice (R79). All vegetarian dishes were a resounding hit.

The restaurant offer plenty of side dishes, one of my companions went for the baked butternut (R21) which he really enjoyed. In addition they offer breads, salads and other vegetables on the side. The portion was a good size, so you can easily share.

Quite a few of us went for desserts and the traditional Malva Pudding (a sponge cake often served with custard) at R 58 was popular. I went for the ice cream and hot chocolate sauce (R52) which was lovely but the sauce was very sweet as they added caramel to it. They have an extremely extensive wine list (perhaps it should be called a wine book), all South African (and rightly so, when you consider how nice their wines are) but it was tough to choose, although their selections were on the pricey side. In the end we plumped for a Chenin Blanc (they were only eight different ones of these) for R125 which was the cheaper end of the spectrum. I am not sure what the red wine drinkers had, but I think they were equally taken with their choice.

This won’t be the cheapest restaurant you eat at whilst in the Cape Town area, but I thought that for the standard of food and presentation it was worth it. The main waterfront area where Karibu is situated is more for ‘special’ restaurants than everyday ones (although these are around also) and the price no doubt reflects that. However for two courses, shared wine and service I was happy with the price I paid.


Close