Chef Ollie Swart’s Little Black Book of Cape Town

With a laugh that fills the room and a personality to match, Ollie Swart – also known as Chef Ollie (on Instagram) – isn’t here to follow recipes; he’s here to rewrite them. Food, for him, is a celebration of authenticity and creativity, all served hot with a side of attitude. Known for his love of “real food for real people”, Ollie’s style is fresh and honest – as is his love for the city and country he calls home. We sat down with the freestyle chef to find out where he likes to dine, date and enjoy a little downtime in and around Cape Town.

Dining out

Aegir Project in Noordhoek is owned by Rory Lancellas, who studied in Scotland and is one of the best beermakers in Cape Town. He makes many kinds of homemade beer, but I stick to chilled ones like the Cali Common. He also makes one of the best burgers in Cape Town – for sure. Order the double smash burger and ask for their homemade hot sauce (if it’s not already on your table). Then pour that all over the burger, so it’s got that spicy, cheesy vibe. It’s so good… and it’s naughty. It ends you (especially after drinking all the beer!).

Vasco da Gama Taverna in Green Point is another place I really like going – just because of the history and because it’s like a classic. There’s only one thing I eat there, and that’s the fillet of beef espetada. But the trick is you have to ask them for a fried egg on top of the chips. Then they come and flame the garlic butter, and it drips over the steak, onto the egg and over your chips. It’s insane. You just eat it with Portuguese rolls, peri-peri sauce… Big vibe.

Bao Down is a really cool spot that’s popular with the locals in Green Point. I love that. They do beautiful homemade baos… and don’t miss the egg-fried rice. I also recommend Mano’s for a casual dinner vibe on Green Point Main Road, where the food is as simple and honest as it gets. Their fillet prego is delicious and their ribs are so good; they often sell out. It’s an absolute classic. If you don’t want to get dressed up, just go to Mano’s and chill on the balcony, watching life go by.

The Melting Pot (previously at Time Out Market) will be opening a new restaurant in Cape Town soon. I just love John van Zyl’s style of cooking; it’s super-honest and very much my style. He travels a lot, and he’ll come back and fixate on making something that he discovered on his travels. For example, he went to Sri Lanka and fixated on making the best Sri Lankan dahl… and now he makes a breakfast dahl. I love that he always tries to recreate the original and doesn’t alter it.

I love, love, love Belly of the Beast – and I know I’m not the only one who put them in their Little Black Book. I think those guys are really killing it… and what I really like is that they’re celebrating South African flavours – braai oils and so on. They’re gewone about it, and I love that. I went there for lunch and was blown away; the menu is always changing, but whatever you get will be world-class.

Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia is the ultimate date night. Book a table at the window for the view, and be sure to order oysters and the bread course. I love the setting, the incredible wines and the thought that’s gone into the food. I mean, if you had to go to Beau Constantia overseas, your bank would be broken. Even here, it’s a little more pricey than the other places I’ve mentioned – but it is worth it. I can’t believe all the stuff [chef and co-owner] Ivor Jones comes up with. I mean, he’s the Chef’s Chef for a reason.

Visit The Mussel Monger and Dashi at Riverlands Mall for the freshest oysters in Cape Town and some incredible Asian tapas. It’s all in one place – so you can order from both bars – and it literally just opened. I would book the window seat and go there in the early evening, when the sun is setting. It’s such a beautiful view and it seems very bougie and cool.

If you’re having a lonely day and you just need a hug, go to Ramenhead on Parliament Street and have a tonkotsu ramen. I also love eating good sushi at Obi Restaurant on Long Street; it’s owned by Ben Bettendorf and an older Japanese guy known as Papa San [Hatsushiro Muraoka] – and they are the funniest combo of partners. Papa San is the OG sushi guy and Ben has learned from him, but it’s hilarious how different they are and I absolutely love them on Instagram.

Tomson is really cool for Asian small plates – it’s opposite Clarke’s on Bree Street, right next to Leo’s Wine Bar (which has the same owners and is perfect for pre-dinner drinks). You sit outside on plastic chairs and they serve mixed Asian tapas. I love the spring rolls; chef Andrew Kai makes those see-through rice-paper ones, and then fries them crispy. Ah! Those are good. He’s always changing the fillings, so order whatever he’s making at the moment.

Publik Wine Bar is a hidden gem on the left of The Power and the Glory in Tamboerskloof. It’s a wine bar, but I go there for a secret date-night dinner. No one really goes there for food, but the chef, Andrew [Ashley Muchero] is incredible – he’s literally obsessed with cooking. And he makes a little sundried-tomato pasta I love. If you go, tell Andrew I say hi.

If you’re looking for great Greek tapas, Kiki’s recently opened in Sea Point. All their stuff is so well done… and their crispy fish is just abnormal. I don’t know how they do that. Ouzeri also serves authentic Cypriot-Greek flavours, and it’s such an incredible place to eat. Nic Charalambous was at chef school with me and he has done so amazingly well. They even made it onto the World’s 50 Best Discovery list earlier this year. Unbelievable.

The Foodbarn in Noordhoek is always a classic. Owner and chef Franck Dangereux is a living legend. I mean, he started La Colombe and took it to one of the top restaurants in the world. For someone to do that takes serious talent… and you can literally still go to a restaurant that he owns. And he’s French, so I would eat all the French dishes. The menu always changes, but he does some old classics that I’m obsessed with. I don’t know if he still does it, but I loved the prawn tian, which includes prawn fritters and an avocado confit. It’s just banging. And don’t think of Foodbarn as something fancy or only for special occasions; it’s a casual village eatery and you can literally go there for lunch or a quick bite.

You’ll find the best pizza and cocktail vibes at Pizza Shed and Aperitif Bar, which are two doors down from each other on Bree Street (and owned by the same people). Start with a cocktail and snacks at Aperitif, then go across to Pizza Shed and get yourself a pizza. They are all so good – it’s all about the pizza dough itself – so order whatever you feel like on the day. Or you can take my word for it and get the Guanciale. Guanciale is what they use for carbonara, and they put it all over the pizza, with black pepper and pecorino. So good!

You can get a full-on sandwich at Hartlief Deli, a little hidden secret in Contantia, for only R45. You can sit there, drink half a beer and enjoy your sandwich, which comes with roast beef or ham, cheese, pickle, mustard, mayo, lettuce… it’s so simple. But anything in that deli is just so cool, because it’s like an old, authentic German butcher. And it’s in Constantia. I mean, who can sit in Constantia and eat anything for R45?

Wine farms

I recommend Muratie Wine Estate for wine-tasting. I love going there because there’s so much tradition and history. There are literally cobwebs in the wine shop – they left them there deliberately, so you go in and it feels like you’re stepping into the oldest wine shop in the whole world. Muratie is famous for its incredible reds – their Mr May Grenache Noir is a classic – but they also have a great white blend called Laurens Campher. It’s basically 85% chenin with a small amount of sauvignon blanc, and it’s well priced at R250 a bottle.

Look out for the latest wines from Reyneke Wines, which are coming out at the moment. Barbara Melck just won Best New Young Winemaker in South Africa at a huge competition, where judges did a blind tasting of all the best young winemakers’ wines. And Barbara didn’t even hand in her best; you had to have a certain quantity of the wine in order to enter it, so she only handed in the two that she had. And they came first and second in the blind tasting. She’s insane. Her grandfather was famous for his incredible palate; he could tell what was in a wine. A winemaker once gave him a sauvignon blanc and he said, “There’s chardonnay in this sauvignon blanc”. The winemaker insisted that there wasn’t… and then they found out a few months later that there were two rows of chardonnay in the field. Insane.

If you’re looking for great, high-quality butcheries, visit Ryan Boon in Newlands or Frankie Fennner in Woodstock. I always say that when it comes to food, you should buy the best that you can afford. If you’re choosing an olive oil, just buy the best one and it’s going to make your food taste insane. Buy quality food and you won’t have to do much to it; just put it on a plate and people will go mad.

Wild Sprout is an epic grocery store that recently opened in Sea Point (towards Green Point). It’s a one-stop shop for a lot of things, and it’s packed in tight – but that’s cool because you can weave around and find a lot of stuff. It’s owned by Candice [Coles] and brother, Dean, and the produce is very health-driven and organic. They’ve done so well; the first branch was in Kenilworth, then they opened up in Constantia Village, and then they opened up in Sea Point. They’ve got one in Constantia, they’ve got one in Kenilworth. I mean, for someone to grow that quickly, they must be doing something right. Go there for a quick smoothie or coffee and a little snack or brekkie, then get whatever you need at the grocery store.

Olive Branch Deli in Gardens is an absolute banger. It’s got absolutely everything you could ever imagine – and it looks like a Harry Potter store, with troves of different spices. I also love Bennetts Deli in the old Constantia Village. They make a mean smash burger – but the trick is to ask for it in the focaccia bread – next level. While we’re discussing delis, Lello’s is an incredible Italian deli in De Waterkant, run by a brother and sister team [Chiara and Danilo Turilli] who always do everything super-authentically.

Weekend getaways

I love staying at GlenDonald Cottages in the Cederberg. You can kloof, you can hike, you can swim in the dam, you can fly fish… It’s world-class. There are a few different cottages to choose from, and it’s a vibe – and it takes a lot of people, so the price isn’t crazy. And if you do end up staying at GlenDonald’s original cottage, you literally won’t want to move until you leave. You get there on this hectic road (so you’ll need a car that can handle it), and once you go down that road, you don’t want to come up again. You’re literally stuck – and it’s a good place to be stuck in.

I would do a trip out to Yzerfontein just for Rosemead Bakery. Brett [Nortjé] is one of the best bakers in South Africa. He’s a chilled surfer, and he is a legend. He makes the best sourdough, and his pasteis de nata are hectic… it’s like a toss-up between the Vadas, Hoghouse and Rosemead Bakery. While you’re in the area, I recommend a meal at Strandkombuis. It’s like a slightly more high-end version of the Strandloper in Langebaan, but it’s still very chilled and real. The tannies do crayfish, fish on the fire, prawns and a very gluttonous soup to start. So you can eat at Strandkombuis and then you can even stay over – it’s very simple and well-priced. It is the West Coast, so you’ve got all your necessities and that’s it.

My family has a holiday house in Stilbaai and I love it there. It’s a nice place to escape because it has everything: great surf spots, great river activities and a scattering of incredible experiences. You can go up the river to see beautiful olive farms like Kleinbergskloof (where you can get olives and olive oils), you can visit Inveroche gin distillery, and you can have an incredible breakfast or lunch at Pain Africain. It’s owned by Fritz Schoon – the guy who started Schoon and has always been obsessed with proper artisanal bread – who sold it to Checkers when it got too big and moved to Stilbaai. He basically makes different things from one bread dough, and he’s such a good oke. I just love going there for breakfast; I have scrambled eggs, his incredible sourdough… and he does these butterkuchen, where he puts hazelnuts and chocolate inside the bread, and he serves it with a Chantilly cream. OMG!

Closer to home, I just love going to Kommetjie Long Beach for a long sunset walk or a picnic. If you’re with mates, just make the best picnic you can and go there in the early evening. When the sun’s setting, it’s the most insane, world-class experience – but do your research first to make sure there’s no kelp on the beach, because that can stink. I’m also a surfer, so I obviously surf there, too. So my best is: surf, then picnic… Vibes.

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