Cape Town Fish Market — Restaurant in V&A Waterfront

Visited in December 2024. South Africa. Capetown.

This Waterfront restaurant boasts ample seating, including a sprawling veranda offering breathtaking views. We opted for a table inside, directly overlooking the open kitchen. While this provided a fascinating glimpse into the culinary process, it also meant contending with the aroma of sizzling oil and escaping smoke – a double-edged sword.

Food:

The menu presents a delightful fusion of Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine, with a clear emphasis on seafood. We began with two appetizers and ordered langoustines as our main course; our initial crayfish choice proved unavailable. Given the restaurant's considerable occupancy, appetizers took approximately 35 minutes to arrive, with the main course following a further 50-minute wait.

The shrimp tacos, two to a serving, featured delicate, crispy tortillas. The tempura shrimp were juicy and crunchy, though the mayonnaise-based sauce rendered them overly rich and heavy. The mini calamari, however, stole the show. Tender and succulent, their garlic dressing was the perfect complement; a testament to the chef's skill in achieving the delicate balance needed to cook calamari to perfection.

Our langoustines, while well-cooked, were somewhat on the small side and presented a minor aesthetic issue. Some were inadequately cleaned, requiring us to remove their stomachs ourselves – a detail that detracted from the overall presentation.

Service:

Service, though friendly and efficient, suffered slightly from the restaurant's evident busyness. Our waiter, however, was a standout, demonstrating excellent product knowledge and providing impeccable service. In conclusion:

This is an excellent Mediterranean seafood restaurant. Overlooking minor flaws, such as the imperfectly cleaned langoustines, I would highly recommend it, particularly for its seafood offerings. The ambiance is unpretentious, making it ideal for a casual...

The other half just wanted to eat out and we didn’t want to have something too heavy so we opted for seafood and saw CTFM was recommended. Made our way down at 8pm and got seated almost immediately. Server was Siya, and we proceeded with our order as soon we were ready. Remember me saying that we didn’t want to have anything heavy so we opted for 4 pcs of fresh oyster and mussels for the starters. We also opted for Executive Surf and Turf since my missus wouldn’t mind some meat. And I thought a bit of prawns and squids should complement the whole dinning experience. When the starters were finished, and came the main, we were shocked. A big platter was staring at us. “I” contemplated a while and I thought I should ask Siya if I had ordered surf and turf or platter. He told me platter. It occurred to me that he did mention that the main doesn’t come with crayfish like the illustration in the menu which I acknowledged, however I did not expect my surf to have evolved to a platter. He did ask if we wanted fries, onion rings or veg beside the rice. We said onion rings. And I did not see any onion rings. And why would I have ordered mussels for starters when the platter has a portion of it. I was also thinking why wasn’t I asked about how would I like the steak to be done? If you were to ask me, CTFM is overpriced compared to Ocean Basket and OB tasted so much better. And of course when it came to the billing part, I just opted to round up the bill instead of a customary 10-15% tips I supposed. I got a cold shoulder from my server. LOL. Any probable diners, do double check the orders with your server before he heads back to the kitchen for your order. Lousy dinning experience and the take aways are sitting in the fridge now as I’m typing this. I hope the hotel can heat it up for me in...

We visited the Fish Market Cape Town twice during our trip — first on Sunday 25th of May, and then again today. On our first visit, we were thoroughly impressed. We enjoyed delicious calamari, tempura prawns, sushi, Corona beer with passion fruit. Everything was fresh, flavorful, and perfectly served, which made us excited to return.

Unfortunately, our second visit was very disappointing. We ordered marinated olives, focaccia, oysters, crab cheese spring rolls, calamari, mussels, tempura prawns, halloumi edamame salad, sushi, peach iced tea, and cucumber rose gin & tonic. This time, the food was served cold, and despite trying to get the attention of the waitstaff multiple times, no one responded. We were hungry and ended up eating part of the food before I had to walk to the bar to voice our concerns. Only then did the manager come over. He was kind and offered to have everything recooked, but by then we were nearly full and didn’t have the time to wait.

What added to the disappointment was being asked to pay a 10% service charge — even after we had clearly expressed our dissatisfaction. While we paid it, hoping to avoid bad energy or unfairness towards others, the experience left us feeling quite let down.

We were looking forward to another great experience, but instead felt that our time and money were not respected. Sadly, we could have used this opportunity to explore another restaurant and try something new.

We hope this feedback helps improve service consistency...