Inside South Africa’s two most exceptionally fabulous hotels
Cape Town and the surrounding winelands are a clever choice for a start of year escape. Whilst London languishes in grey drizzle, South Africa glows in late summer sunshine. While there are plenty of great restaurants and wineries to visit across the country, an alternative option is to bunker down in the best hotels: here are two of the Cape’s finest hotspots, so good you simply don’t want to leave!
One&Only Cape Town
My wife and I first visited the One&Only, around 15 years ago, long before we could afford to stay overnight, because it housed Nobu. This was that moment in time when the brand was at its most innovative, introducing the world to dishes that have since become global classics; black cod, rock shrimp tempura, yellow fin jalapeno.
Post-pandemic, the property needed updating to keep up with new openings such as The Silo, Babylonstoren and most recently, Belmond’s re-imagination of the Mount Nelson. A full refurbishment of both the restaurants and the hotel has re-established the One&Only as a benchmark of quality in terms of hospitality, facilities, room and restaurant design, and food and beverage offering.
The property has unprecedented views of Table Mountain (best seen from below, martini in hand, not worth the tiresome hike and cable car journey among the throngs of tourists) and also boasts the largest penthouse suite in the continent, a gym staffed by on-hand trainers and a health food hangout, a wine bar, cocktail lounge, the two signature restaurants and waterside suites on a collection of man-made islands. It all surrounds a glorious lagoon-style pool (which occasionally receives a visit from Simon, a naughty rogue otter) and home of another restaurant, Isola.
Isola is a place hotel guests can rock up in swimwear for cocktails and light bites. Perfect for lunch, the tuna crudo with cashew nut crumble is wonderful, white anchovy pizza is saline and divine and zucchini salad is a courgette basket spilling over with herbs, mint, pine nuts and feta.
The rooms and suites balance luxurious ‘island chic’ design with strong brand DNA that elegantly reflects the heritage and terroir of the country. Bathtubs offer magnificent vistas, as do the balconies. This is a place to stay, not leave.
An outstanding afternoon activity is to join the resorts’ head sommelier Luvo Ntezo’s for his wine tasting experiences. A leading voice in South Africa’s wine scene, Ntezo mixes fun with education, as he teaches you the ‘art of sabrage’ (as an ice-breaker), guides you through various tastings with native flights of wine and blends single estate varietals with you to create your own unique wine, which gets bottled and sent to your room.
The spa is an oasis of welcoming calm. The African Journey treatment is a 90-minute sensory experience involving dry body-brushing, exfoliation and the most glorious massage one can imagine. It ends with a tea ceremony in the relaxation room: a cornucopia of comfort, peace and relaxation offering a smorgasbord of life-enhancing potions and snacks. Also available to guests are high-tech saunas, steam-rooms and vitality pools featuring hydrotherapy jets and waterfalls.
The hotel’s restaurant Rooi, meaning red fire, is a worthy alternative to Nobu. The menu is about smoke and wood, with a magnificent wood burning oven sitting center stage. I enjoyed a tender kudu bresola carpaccio and Josper-smoked yellow tail. All the dishes sport what would usually be too many ingredients but here it’s a melting pot of spiced sauces and fermentations. King Clip, which I think of as a mean fish full of bones, was as soft as seabass with fantastic flavour. We finished our dinner with compressed melon, mint and lime granita.
South Africa’s best hotels: Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel
Created in 1899 by Sir Donald Currie, owner of the Union-Castle shipping line, the Mount Nelson has long stood as the grand dame of Cape Town. Famously painted pink to mark peace after the First World War and repainted in 2018, it remains one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, a resplendent Art Deco shrine with a hue so specific it can legitimately claim its own Pantone reference. It brings to mind the Beverly Hills Hotel, where I once stayed while attending the Oscars a decade or two ago – that same confident, slightly theatrical glamour, worn lightly.
The hotel is also a textbook expression of the Belmond ethos. Speak to the staff and stories of progression surface everywhere: the pool boy who became chief sommelier, the restaurant manager who began as a maid. Teamwork is omnipresent, a seamless ballet of young men and women balancing charm, knowledge and genuine warmth with impressive ease.
Facilities are generous and modern without ever feeling intrusive. There is a high-tech gym, tennis courts, a herb garden for wandering, DIY cocktail kits delivered to your suite, private screening rooms and two exceptional pools. They are ideal for people-watching, star-gazing and the noble pursuit of uninterrupted book reading.
Afternoon Tea at ‘The Nelly’ is reason enough for many to cross continents, and it is easy to see why. The tea list alone runs to 74 selections from around the world, arranged like loose-leaf chapters spanning South Africa, China, India and beyond. Black, gold, white, green and red teas are carefully matched to the work of pastry chef Vicky Gurovich. devilled eggs delight, sausage rolls shine and the coronation chicken sandwich is genuinely sublime. Resisting a refill may be your greatest challenge of the day.
Then comes the scone course. Scandalously good butter is offered, followed by the inevitable Cornwall versus Devon debate over jam and cream. petit fours arrive next, where Gurovich truly finds her sweet spot. Finally, a buffet of meringues, gateaux, choux buns, mousses and tartlets prepares you, perhaps unwisely, for a return to the pool.
The culinary centrepiece of the Mount Nelson is Amura, overseen by Angel León, the celebrated chef behind three Michelin stars at Aponiente in Cádiz. Known as the Chef of the Sea, León places sustainability at the heart of his cooking. We began with a paste made from fish offcuts, rich and savoury, served alongside excellent sourdough. yellowfin sashimi followed, dressed in a herb and cucumber escabeche with a pickled cucumber granita that drank like a green gazpacho, bright, precise and quietly thrilling.
At this point, head sommelier Lucian appeared with a Hemel-en-Aarde flight of Burgundian-style whites. Tesselaarsdal Chardonnay was set against the world-class Hamilton Russell, followed by a Chenin face-off between Ken Forrester’s FMC and a Raats bottling. King Ken, incidentally, won.
Back at the table, yellowfin tartare arrived in a steak tartare-style presentation, mustard, capers and chilli oil folded through tender tuna and served with sea kelp brioche. squid ink croquettes were an explosion of inky, glorious gunk. prawn toast followed and neatly divided opinion at our table – for me, it was the best version of the dish I’ve ever eaten. The tuna milanese was a revelation: perfectly pink, served with copper pots of caramelised onions, mustard coleslaw and a potato purée that could rival anything from the late Joël Robuchon.
In South Africa’s southern Cape, outstanding kitchens often trace their lineage to La Colombe, Fyn, The Pot Luck Club or Liam Tomlin’s Chefs Warehouse. The latter has created The Red Room at the Mount Nelson and it is well worth a visit. Start with a jalapeño margarita, cooled by coconut and cucumber. Coconut also appears in a standout small plate of tuna tartare and seared yellowfin with puffed rice. Elsewhere, a charred sweetcorn gyoza with miso crème impresses, as does a prawn and pork dumpling packed with kefir lime, lemongrass and red curry.
A jumbo prawn red curry closes proceedings and instantly recalls the best of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market, along with memories of my own long-closed Wok Wok Northcote Road, now occupied by Ole and Steen, possibly the world’s worst pastry offender.
Both the One&Only and the Mount Nelson are havens of hospitality, places where the noise of modern politics fades into the background and the daily churn of British governmental chaos feels reassuringly distant. At least until it is time to board a night flight home.
Read more: Why South African wine is the GOAT