Restaurants & Cafés
Dining, takeaways, coffee shops, and eateries across East London.
Buccaneers Pub & Grill
Legendary beachfront pub and grill overlooking Nahoon Beach. Famous for seafood platters, cold draught beer, and spectacular ocean views. Live music on weekends.
Grazia Fine Food & Wine
Fine food and wine on the Upper Esplanade, on the beachfront. Open daily from midday to 10pm. Booking is essential rather than advisable — it is a small room in a busy stretch, and walk-ins are regularly turned away at weekends.
Areena Quays
Riverside restaurant and events venue on the Areena estate, open to the public rather than resort guests only. A la carte through the week, a Sunday lunch buffet, and a riverside bar. Also runs weddings, conferences and private events. Bookings are essential, and the kitchen keeps different hours each day of the weekend.
Ask for Luigi
Restaurant and coffee shop in the Kennaway Complex on the Esplanade, open midday until late seven days a week. Weekly specials give it a rhythm worth knowing: a pensioners menu on Mondays, any large pizza R130 on Tuesdays, kids eat free per eating adult on Wednesdays, and 1kg eisbein with chips and veg for R140 on Thursdays.
Bay Collective
Street food market at Spargs Mall, Beacon Bay, with a bar, live entertainment and an arcade and kids zone. Food vendors include burger, pizza, taco, shawarma and ice cream stalls.
Bootlegger Coffee Company — Vincent Park
Specialty coffee roastery and café at Vincent Park, open seven days a week for all-day breakfast, brunch and lunch. Opens at 7am on weekdays, which makes it one of the earlier options on the Devereux Avenue side for anyone starting work in Vincent.
Cafe Neo
Kitchen and cocktail bar doing authentic Mediterranean alongside local flavours. The menu runs from mezze and seafood through to grills, and the cocktail list is a proper part of the offering rather than an afterthought.
Grand Chesa
Chesa nyama with its own butchery attached, so the meat is bought at the counter and braaied on the premises. Covered outdoor seating behind railings on the street side, and a weekly special board at the gate. Orders go through WhatsApp on 065 922 2247, and specials are posted to their Facebook and Instagram rather than a website.
Grand Prix Fisheries
Fish and chips shop on Oxford Street trading under the line 'from the fish line to the finish line'. Fried fish, calamari and chips over the counter, with a black-and-white tiled shop and a display board of the combos at the door. Next door to Kivu Barber Shop Studio.
Jade Garden Take-Aways
Takeaway at 17 Pearce Street in Berea, marking a hundred years of trading. Orders by phone or WhatsApp. The centenary is being run as a competition giving away a hundred meals over a hundred weeks, with the draw set for 30 September 2026.
Latimer's Cruise & Café
Fully licensed cafe at Latimers Landing on the Buffalo River harbour, open daily from 8am. Breakfast and fish and chips are the mainstays, and the setting on the working harbour is the reason to go rather than the menu alone.
Li Shanghai Chinese Restaurant & Sushi Bar
Chinese restaurant and sushi bar located in Spargs Centre, Beacon Bay. It is open daily from 11am to 10pm for sit-down dining and takeaway.
Nahoon Fisheries
Fish and chips shop on Old Transkei Road, Nahoon. Hake, snoek and calamari, all of it fried or grilled to order, plus fish cakes, chicken strips and a burger list that runs from fish and calamari through to russian and scampi. Combos for one and larger feeds for two make it a practical takeaway stop rather than a sit-down.
Ocean Basket Beacon Bay
Popular seafood chain restaurant at Beacon Bay Crossing offering generous portions of calamari, prawns, sushi, and grilled fish. Family-friendly.
Premier Hotel El ICC
Hotel attached to the East London International Convention Centre, with Salmon Restaurant on site. The restaurant runs a buffet dinner every Saturday night from 18:30 to 21:30 at R325 per person, open to non-residents with a booking.
Sanook Asian Kitchen
Authentic Thai and Asian fusion cuisine in a relaxed setting. Known for their Pad Thai, green curry, and fresh spring rolls. Dine-in and takeaway available.
Slow Lounge
Street-front lounge bar trading on music, cocktails and what the fascia calls chill vibes. Live and DJ music rather than a sports-bar setup, and the cocktail list is the point rather than an add-on. Nothing to do with the airport lounge chain of the same name.
The Beach Break Café
Restaurant and coffee shop right at the entrance to Nahoon Beach, at the bottom of Beach Road. Open from 7am every day, which makes it the early option on that side of town for anyone walking the beach before work. The kitchen closes half an hour before the shop does — 2:30pm on weekdays and Saturdays, 2pm on Sundays — so go earlier than the closing time suggests if you want a meal.
The Kitchen Table
Fully licensed cafe on Pearce Street in Berea, listed among the Eat Out Neighbourhood Gems. Breakfast and lunch through the week from 07:00, closing at 15:00 on Mondays and 16:00 Tuesday to Friday, with a shorter Saturday morning to 13:00. Open for dinner one night a week only, every Wednesday from 17:00.
The Reef Café
Cafe in the old Footprints building inside Nahoon Point Nature Reserve, doing brunch and lunch and taking private events. Open 08:30 to 16:00 daily, closing earlier at 14:00 on Sundays and public holidays. Being inside the reserve means the boardwalks and the dune forest are on the doorstep, so it works as the stop either side of a walk rather than a destination on its own.
Windmill Roadhouse & Pizza
Roadhouse and pizzeria trading since 1946, which makes it one of the older food businesses still running in East London. Burgers, pizza and roadhouse standards, on call-and-collect or delivery.