The Vue’s soft-core aesthetic is pleasant, polished, and purposeful to the menu – The result? A dining experience where the only flaw so far, is that I cannot enjoy Sunday Lunch there (yet?).
Welcome to The Vue on Shortmarket Street
In some eateries with more name clout heft from their vagabonding chefs-in-residence, than menu sense or even restaurant feng shui, what undercuts any merit is overthinking the simple pleasure of good food, great drinks, and sensational views.
The Vue team don’t flounder on their mandate.
This is a restaurant founded on a straightforward approach to being tasteful – in flavour, fabric, furniture, and finishes. And based on reviews since its opening – with barely any teething period woes to speak of – The Vue is set to charm all!
THE LOOK
If you tire of the minimalist aesthetic – fear not! The Vue is the colour-tinged sibling glimmering with warmer and textured detailing too.
The climb to the rooftop runs through some of the most sensational local designs at home in the Always Welcome design collective space, by the way, including Houtlander’s Hlabisa bench woven by master Zulu basket weavers, which is on the ground floor, and the Studio Ananta beaded lightings done in collaboration with the non-profit Monkeybiz Cape Town.
It’s a nice way to introduce visitors to amazing local decor finds AND makes your restaurant synonymous with breathtaking, award-winning design.
Anyway, the actual restaurant pivots into chic cafe-style choices with their combination of cosy ivory-hued boucle accent chairs, to start, as well as the natural rattan and dark wood dining chairs.
The restaurant’s true character shows itself in the entryway’s feathered fan print wall mural set off beautifully with the light wood-framed modern art prints, and the lush green plant life leading to the lavatories very far from where food is made.
Reflecting off the postmodern mounted artwork is the Vue’s glittering bar – light wood curving around shelves of high-quality spirits and beverage essentials, and lit up with soft round pendant lighting.
Soft curves are a recurring theme at the Vue.
Instilling a sense of continuity and inviting eyes and people to touch, linger, and explore further, the curves around bar counters, along seating, on mini vases and mugs, and towards the rooftop terrace (where everyone can see Table Mountain, Signal Hill and Lion’s Head in all their glory), are a welcome reprieve from many other restaurants’ severe straight lines and the formalities that can come with that sharpness.
THE EATS
In tune with the palate of the season, the plating most beloved, and the TikTok and Instagram aesthetic trends driving foodies and ‘grammers to destinations, The Vue takes the familiar and delivers it with unfussed flair.
Through the eye of someone who’s had a taste of the world, seasonal ingredients are transformed into recipes from the repertory of global dining – lending a heady hand in making the meals here stand out more than if they had been wholly ‘Kaapse’ (Cape).
The menu changes, and will continue to change with the times and crowds, but when I visited, it was a winner of menu picks you can start gorging on early and keep enjoying until your sundowners are down to a few drops.
Small Plate sensibility is how to approach ordering – whether it’s a Prosciutto snack, or the delectable Mushroom Faux Gras with marinated Shitake Starter.
The Confit Yellowtail accompanied by ginger beurre blanc, seaweed & chive oil, is a stand-out Main – but here’s the thing: NEVER discount what quality salt and pepper can do to a dish! I nearly proceeded with relative indifference after my first bite, but my friend recommended the raw salt and pepper provided and WOW! I’m not one for salt, post-cooking, so this was actually a palate education; The flavours opened up for me, and I dug in with passion.
Oysters immeasurable popularity means your craving can be easily sated at Vue with their freshly sourced and stunningly garnished oyster trios (Dashi Beurre Blanc, Crispy Serano, Ginger Gel, and Caviar, anyone?!), though the Yellowtail Ceviche was what immediately drew my eye.
The restaurant really just wants you to fill up with a flavour adventure.
You could be alone or with a hoard of people, and picking a different menu option will mean an journey, regardless. Lemon Thyme, Parmesan Cracker, Saffron Risotto, Potatoes Dauphinois, Vegan Walnut Mayonnaise, and the list goes on…
If we feast with the eyes as well as the stomach, then this culinary Vue is fit to be savoured before being devoured with gusto.
Put simply: the food is worth your money!
A BEVVIE?
The Vue is born from the team behind The Drinkery (including the meticulous co-owner Günter Boisits), meaning beverages here are a cut above the rest you’ve sipped on at other watering holes.
Begin a visit with a crisp glass of the ‘house champagne’, Piaff Champagne – a relatively new French champagne house.
The truth of their brand is simply clear in their Brut NV bubbles, which are a combination of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes. Surprisingly, it’s less brutal than an everyday Brut (thank you persistent mousse), and not as sweet as the bottle’s tasting notes would otherwise suggest.
Serving by glass/bottle — R150 / R900
If champagne is not your drink of choice, you remain spoiled for choice: The menu contains organic tequilas, Cap Classiques, and the kind of fine whiskies a bar cannot do without. Brandies, curated wines, vermouths and spirits perfect for a Martini, also line the bar.
However, one of the secrets of the Vue: The mixologist is a cheeky mastermind able to make bespoke cocktails off your most specific drink-craving notes.
The proof: My friend and I’s respective cocktails – Mine, a sweetened and vanilla-tinged Peach Cosmo, and my friend’s New York Sour, which received a masterful South African twist.
Using the best of botanicals, incredible instincts, fresh & clean ice (it matters!), and more bar magic, I highly doubt anybody could be disappointed with a drink here – coffee or non-alcoholic picks included!
VERDICT?
It’s delicious. It’s understandable. It’s still somewhat unique.
And even when another eatery inevitably makes its way into another Cape Town space, The Vue will still make the go-to list for locals and the travellers who happen by it through word-of-mouth, glossy travel magazines, an Influencers feed, or through going walkabout in one of Southern Africa’s coolest districts.
By My Recommendation: VUE SHORTMARKET
108 Shortmarket St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
info@vue-shortmarket.co.za | +27 21 569 7090
