Wes Anderson has never set a film in Cape Town. He didn’t need to – Loop Street beat him to it!
Walk into The Wes Bistro & Bar, and the instinct to reach for your camera arrives before the simple act of sitting down. By design, this is a tempting cathedral meant to sate eyes and appetites – built around an aesthetic so recognisable its fans transcend predictable genre frameworks.
Whether your camera is rolling or not, served on a platter here is an experience built around flavourful, well-plated food that makes every diner feel like a main character directed to indulge.
WELCOME TO THE WES BISTRO & BAR
A Wes Anderson world is one of precision – every prop with a purpose, and every colour considered – and precision, it turns out, is just as useful in a kitchen as it is on a film set.
Side-stepping the restaurant gimmick trap, The Wes team prioritized substanced enough in their kitchen to never be accused of being a one-dimensional eatery selling vibes more than value.
Yes, the bistro room performs. The crockery, the palette, and the servers’ particular formality are a true nod toward Anderson’s world without tipping into pastiche (which is a harder trick than it looks).
But the reason to come as you are, or to return, isn’t the backdrop. It’s what arrives on it.
THE SETTING
The Wes runs the full day, breakfast through to dinner, which makes it one of the more genuinely useful addresses in the City Centre; Take it from a Digital Nomad, this is the sort of place you can start with oatmeal and emails, work several hours and delight in one long lunch (the French onion soup, nuff said!), and find yourself still there, with several punchy cocktails tried & tested, wondering where the afternoon went.
You don’t need an occasion. Sometimes the occasion is simply that it’s cold outside and their Parisian Hot Chocolate is what will warm you up.
None of which quite explains why you’ll reach for your phone before your fork – but that’s the Wes Anderson effect, and it’s a trend with more pedigree than you’d think.
Photographer Wally Koval, alongside his wife Amanda, turned Accidentally Wes Anderson into an Instagram community 2 million strong, and he’s been upfront about what the project actually is: not a copy of Anderson’s films, but a way of looking at the real world through that same eye for order and intention.
The Wes gets the difference. It’s borrowed the discipline, not just the décor!
THE WINTER MENU
Cape Town’s chilly seasons make a compelling case for carbohydrates, cream, and butter, and The Wes‘s Winter Set Menu – two starters, three mains, two desserts, R495 per person – answers without apology.
The French Onion Soup doesn’t attempt reinvention, and it shouldn’t: onions cooked down slowly in beef stock, deglazed with wine, finished under gratineed white cheddar. The pleasure is entirely in the fundamentals done properly – from the sweetness drawn out over time, a stock with real backbone, and acidity holding the richness in check. This one can be as much a starter as a main though!
The Chicken Liver Parfait is the sharper choice for those deep foodies, and I do find it the more interesting pick. Toast and pickles aren’t garnish here; they’re structural – cutting through a parfait rich enough to need the interruption. This starter makes an impression.
Of the mains, the Wild Mushroom Medley is the most technically interesting, and it’s the meat-free one I really want to go back to the bistro to try: earthy mushroom against a pea purée, courgette I can test the freshness of, and hopefully getting potato-heavy comfort from their truffled pommes boulangère.
The Pan-Seared Duck Breast is classical in the best sense, of course, and I enjoyed this particularly as the consummate Duck fan among anyone I know. The Wes serves up theirs nearly just right, and with celeriac mash, and as a result the intelligent pairing is not competing for attention. The flavour impression is made most emphatically by the sauce poivrade’s peppery, wine-forward edge, which keeps things from tipping into mere richness in such a generously portioned main.
Then, Steak Frites – the dish with nowhere to hide. A 200g entrecôte with Café de Paris butter, hand-cut frites; Here, there are just the fundamentals of bistro cooking executed with confidence – enough to ask for nothing but thanks to be sent to the chef.
To finish: a Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with a faintly floral edge that keeps the custard from tipping sweet, or the divine Wes Profiteroles – choux, vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate sauce – which don’t need explaining and wouldn’t welcome one.
SOMETHING TO DRINK
The wine list is broad and well-chosen, with a strong focus on local estates and interesting international picks, but the real personality lives in the cocktail menu, where the Anderson references get their wittiest.
Cpt. Steve Zissou’s Revenge (R135) – Stolichnaya, Campari, blue curaçao, lemon, cranberry, a dash of soda – is built with the same brash confidence as the character it’s named for. Mr Fox’s Sly Bourbon (R160) takes Woodford Reserve, brown butter, aromatic bitters, orange, lemon, and cherry, and turns it into something genuinely mischievous rather than merely themed.
And The Grand Budapest (R145) – Hendrick’s, lavender, rosemary, fresh lemon, egg white – is the most elegant of the three; silky rather than sweet, which is exactly what a drink named after that particular hotel ought to be!
And then there’s the Parisian Hot Chocolate, for which The Wes has quietly earned a reputation: chocolate and cream, slowly melted, finished with whipped cream and homemade marshmallows. It’s the drink so tempting I’d risk my lactose intolerance for!
AFTERNOON TEA, BUT MAKE IT THE WES
I always have my eye on the quality Afternoon Teas worth mentioning in the Cape. They may seem aplenty, but not all teas are created equal!
Launched to mark Women’s Month, The Wes Afternoon Tea takes the format and gives it the same deliberate playfulness as everything else here. Savoury: Smoked Salmon Blini, Chicken Liver Toast, Wild Mushroom Arancini, a gourmet Mini Beef Burger. Sweet: Strawberry and Cream Pavlova, a freshly baked scone, Pistachio Cheesecake, Mini Crème Brûlée – a proper feast I think is best spent savoured over an entire afternoon rather than squeezed into a lunch break.
From R375 per person, served daily, 2pm to 5pm, three ways in:
- The classic Wes Afternoon Tea, with premium teas and coffees = R375 per person
- Paired with a Hendrick’s Gin & Tonic = R495 per person
- Paired with a flute of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial = R525 per person
The last is the one I’d reserve for an afternoon when indulging & languishing isn’t merely permitted but actively encouraged.
THE VERDICT?
The Wes knows its audience will arrive for the room and the photograph – and it does not stop pleasing just there. The cooking gives the concept substance, and the cocktail list has the wit to match the theme without wholly relying on it.
The Wes knows its audience will arrive for the room and the photograph - and it does not stop pleasing just there. The cooking gives the concept substance, and the cocktail list has the wit to match the theme without wholly relying on it.
The service, should you arrive ideally well before closing time, encourages lingering over turning tables. Lunch becomes an afternoon here. An afternoon becomes drinks. Drinks become dinner on its later-closing days.
For Wes Anderson devotees, this is an obvious stop. For solo diners, often like myself, there’s enough happening in the room that eating alone never once feels like waiting for company. For travellers traipsing the City Centre, it slots into a day without requiring an elaborate excuse – perhaps the pick for breakfast before sightseeing, a cocktail before dinner, or a long evening once the weather has properly turned.
By My Recommendation: THE WES BISTRO & BAR
55 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town, 8000
#capetown #wesanderson #accidentallywesanderson #foodporn #foodie LVMH MOET & CHANDON
