Where to eat in Swellendam restaurants

By Roxanne Reid
You’re spoiled for choice when it comes to restaurants in Swellendam in the Overberg, about 200km east of Cape Town. This South African town has more than 35 restaurants where you can get anything from pastries to pizzas, toasted sarmies to bobotie, even a fine dining experience. Here are some ideas about where to eat in Swellendam restaurants.

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Field & Fork

Photo: Field & Fork

Field & Fork Swellendam is housed in a historic building adjoining part of the museum. It’s one of the town’s fine dining establishments. Wooden floors and tables create a warm ambience inside and service is both friendly and polished. It’s not cheap, but we were lucky to visit in August when they were running a winter special of a three-course meal for a 40% discount on their normal prices.

My caramelised onion, beetroot and goats cheese in phyllo tart was scrumptious, the other starter of salmon and cream cheese roulade understandably less piquant. My husband ordered a main of fillet of Black Angus beef with beans, cauliflower puree and shiitake mushrooms with a cabernet jus that was cooked medium rare and tender, just the way he likes it. I had duck breast with spiced cabbage, baby spinach and toasted almonds that was also tender and tasty.

For dessert we chose double cream vanilla ice cream with toffee sauce and toasted almonds, and an Amarula crème brûlée with Madagascan vanilla bean, just the right texture. I highly recommend this restaurant, especially if you visit when the winter special is running to make it more affordable.

The Conservatory at Schoone Oordt

Photo: Schoone Oordt

The five-star Schoone Oordt Country House, built in 1853 and lovingly restored, has a conservatory restaurant that’s elegant but relaxed rather than stuffily formal. The menu is definitely in the fine dining category with items like risotto, crème of cauliflower soup with cumin, Kudu loin with roasted winter vegetables, and honey panacotta with ginger sorbet and poached pear.

If you’re lucky enough to be staying at the guest house, you’ll find that the kitchen staff continue the gourmet theme at breakfast, with a spread that includes fresh fruit salad, creamy yoghurt, home-made granola, muffins, scones, cheeses – and that's just the first course. Second course might be flapjacks with berry coulis, followed by a delicious tower of mushroom, tomato, bacon and egg – a novel and attractive twist on the same-old, same-old hot breakfast.

Note that the Conservatory is only open for dinner in summer (closed from May to September).

Powell House

This restaurant used to be the home of a chap called Powell and if you have an interest in rugby and cricket from the Danie Craven era, you can read a bit about him on the wall in the front room. Three rooms make up Powell House Swellendam and by far the nicest is the sunny one at the back where you can hear the tinkling fountain outside. You can also sit on the outside porch in front.

​We enjoyed our lunch, the sort of tasty home cooking we’d been looking for. My ostrich bobotie with rice and sambals was good, a filling meal. Our other choice was chicken schnitzel, which came with two veg and some mushroom sauce. Although the sauce was good (nothing like the floury mess that masquerades as mushroom sauce in many restaurants), we thought the dish was a bit pricey at R145. (Note that when I checked the prices listed on the website’s online menu in October 2019, they appeared not to have been updated in a while and were lower than what we paid. For instance, the chicken schnitzel was still listed as R110.)

Other menu options for lunch include gourmet burgers, toasted sarmies and salads. The dinner menu has things like bobotie, steak, curries, fish and prawns, but no burgers.

Ikigai Artisan Coffee Bar & Deli

You know you’ve found somewhere good when you return for more of the same the next day. The Ikigai Artisan Coffee Bar & Deli has a nice clean look and vibe, with tables outside and inside, as well as sofas where you can enjoy your cuppa. Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means ‘a reason for being’ or the things that make your life worthwhile. And most people would agree that good coffee definitely makes life worthwhile.

Having enjoyed really good flat whites made using Origin coffee beans by a barista passionate about her coffee the day before, we returned for brunch the next day and discovered the food was good too. Choose from croissants with scrambled egg and bacon, quiche, tarts, muffins and open sarmies. My Greek lamb on wholewheat sandwich was delicious, tender lamb topped with tsatziki. My husband enjoyed his chicken and avo on ciabatta. Between us we polished off multiple cups of flat white, they were that good.

​Hot tip: there's also an Ikigai in Riversdale.

The Old Gaol on Church Square 

The day we lunched at the Old Gaol on Church Square was cold and everyone else had scuttled inside where a fire was burning. We sat outside on the wooden deck under the trees to enjoy the view of the Dutch Reformed church opposite and the Langeberg mountains in the distance.

Service got off to a slow start, but when our food arrived it was good. I’d been disappointed that the signature bobotie wasn’t on the menu that day, but hubby’s chicken wrap and lemon meringue pie were tasty, as was my spicy butternut soup which came with freshly made roosterkoek. These traditional breads are baked daily in a wood-burning oven behind the restaurant and it may be the first time I’ve had such a perfect one, light and airy. Kudos to the roosterkoek baker.

Regulars on the menu include Cape curry, lamb shank, oxtail and traditional melktert. The Old Gaol is one of few restaurants in Swellendam open for lunch on Sundays and makes a perfect place to take the family because there’s a play area out back and a special kiddies menu.

Tredici 

You can see Tredici from the N2 between Cape Town and Knysna on the Garden Route; it’s worth making a stop, either for a meal or some high-class padkos. The architecture would seem more at home in Florence than Swellendam, but it’s a welcome addition to the foodie scene here nonetheless. It’s a deli, patisserie, bakery and restaurant rolled into one, and it’s full of savoury and sweet treats.

​We enjoyed a sophisticated breakfast of mushrooms on wholewheat ciabatta with oven-roasted baby tomatoes and rocket, and bacon and scrambled egg on ciabatta. For a light lunch, there are salads and sandwiches with ingredients like Gruyere, caramelised onions and ricotta – yum.

For more about this place, see Tredici in Swellendam: a taste of Europe.

La Belle Alliance 

Picturesquely situated on the banks of the Koornlands River, La Belle Alliance family restaurant is very popular for outdoor eating on the patio and deck – especially for Sunday lunch when few other eateries in Swellendam are open. The setting is perfect: a canopy of stinkwood trees for dappled shade and a view overlooking the river if you’re lucky enough to get one of the tables on the deck extension.

The building that houses the restaurant used to be a Masonic Lodge and you can still see the Masonic symbol on the gable.

The menu is a mix of traditional dishes like bobotie and lasagne with lighter options like sandwiches, as well as hearty breakfasts. I enjoyed a toasted chicken sarmie, while hubby had a burger and a yummy lemon meringue pie. Service was prompt and friendly, but we didn’t feel rushed. We’d have liked to linger longer, but there were still so many things to do in Swellendam!

Other Swellendam restaurants we didn’t get to experience for ourselves but locals recommended include: La Sosta (historic Cape Dutch building housing a fine dining Italian restaurant that closes in winter), fine dining establishments Drosdty Restaurant, the restaurant at the Rotterdam Boutique Hotel and Koornlands, and the perennially popular Woodpecker Pizzadeli (for affordable, family-friendly pizzas, pasta and burgers).

We’ll be back soon to try some of these.

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Paternoster restaurants worth visiting
​20 things to do in Swellendam in the Overberg
​Why to visit Totties Farm Kitchen near Knysna

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