I recently found myself far from the chilly Scottish shores, over in the South African sunshine, sampling the raw food delights of Cape Town.
Glasgow to Cape Town
After a 11.5 hour flight connecting at Heathrow (if you go, make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to connect – our flight from Glasgow to London was delayed so we had a mad dash and just made it by the skin of our teeth – which is more than can be said for our luggage!) we made it to our cute little Airbnb beach apartment at the beautiful seaside resort of Camps Bay.
Camps Bay – Cape Town beach
Camps Bay was a great base for us as it had plenty of cafes, a supermarket, fabulous sandy beaches, and a great healthy fast food place just around the corner!
Kauai healthy fast food
Kauai has salads, superfood smoothies, juices, and plenty of healthy meals. A lot of their dishes include meat; however you can ask them to veganise it for you, which transforms it into a tasty plant-based salad. It was by far my favourite place to eat (or in my case, drink, as I became addicted to their smoothies) as it was quick, easy, and just a stone’s throw from the beach.
There was also a juice bar out on the street with lovely friendly owners. They weren’t there everyday, but when they were they brightened up the place with their cheerful banter and lovely fresh juices.
Mango Heaven
The Camps Bay supermarket (and indeed the most common one around the Cape Town area it seems) is Pick n Pay. It has all the essentials you might expect, including boxes of 6 mangos for 400 Rand – that’s about £2.50 – WELL HELLO THERE – yep I lived off mangos while I was there.
Vegans take note – you’ll be glad to know that the Pick n Pay also stocks Violife vegan cheese. Another handy thing for vegans to bear in mind is that almond milk is offered as a dairy substitute in most of the coffee shops and restaurants.
Windy weather
In terms of weather – be warned! Camps Bay can get mighty windy (even by Scottish standards!) so if you want a more chilled beach experience head on down to the more sheltered, and very beautiful, Clifton Beaches, just down the road.
Sea Point
Further on down the road is the affluent area of Sea Point. You’re gonna love Sea Point! It has a fantastic big supermarket (The Spar, Regent St) with loads of fresh produce and plenty of other healthy options including gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian. It even has flax crackers and kale chips – hurrah!
Scheckters Raw Cafe
Keep going down Regent St and you’ll come to Scheckters Raw Cafe.
This gorgeous little place is crammed with raw goodies, including fresh cold-pressed juices, smoothies and smoothie bowls.
In the morning it has a varied breakfast menu with raw and vegan options.
After 12 it switches to a fab varied menu of healthy vegan meals such as falafels, wraps, and smashed avo on sprouted toast.
Don’t forget to leave room for desert though – how about raw vegan versions of snickers or twix? #yesplease
I had a snickers bar and a snickers shake. Overkill? Perhaps. But I was on my holidays. The snickers bar was the best one I’ve ever tasted. In fact I’m almost tempted to jump on another 11.5 hour flight just to get another one…
Regent St in Sea Point leads onto Main St, and more juice bars (you’ll never go thirsty at Sea Point), including One Juice and the Daily Press, which has lovely super-friendly staff.
Vegan & Veggies Sea Point
But my favourite raw vegan juice bar in Sea Point has to be Vegan & Veggies, a little juice bar and cafe on Main St run by the lovely Raphael Stone.
Raphael will happily chat to you for hours about natural health; it’s clear that he’s passionate about the healing properties of food, and he has big dreams about creating something really special in Cape Town. He’s on a quest to find the healing elixir of youth! So if you know it – stop by and share it with him 😉
V&A Waterfront
Heading along the coast to the V&A centre at the waterfront, you’ll find Dr Juice in the Food Court, with a wide array of raw juices and smoothies, plus some delicious raw vegan deserts and cheesecake.
There are also plenty of other juice bars around the V&A, and also a great place for Middle Eastern style vegan food and healthy salads (called Cooked, ironically). So grab a takeaway and eat it down at the harbour while you chill with the seals.
Boulder Bay – and Penguins!
You wouldn’t expect penguins to be hanging around the sunny shores of South Africa, but there they are! Loads of them! If you head off on an excursion to visit Cape Point and see the penguins at Boulders Beach you can re-hydrate at a cool little café along the way, in between the car park and the beach. I had a fresh watermelon juice that really hit the spot after a bit of penguin watching.
Cape Town – healthy quality food
I have to say, I was mega-impressed by the general standard of food around Cape Town. Everywhere was really excellent quality, at incredible value for money.
There are so many healthy cafes and restaurants around Cape Town, and I didn’t get to visit them all, sadly. But this website is a great resource for checking out some more raw and vegan-friendly places:
https://insideguide.co.za/cape-town/best-vegetarian-vegan-restaurants-cape-town/
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*Please note – cafes and juice bars open up and close down at a rapid rate, so please check directly with websites or Facebook pages before visiting, in order to avoid disappointment. And please comment below with any updates or additions you’d like to make.
Have you visited Cape Town? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.