PLUGGING INTO CAPE TOWN
Central venue connects to, and shows off, vibrant history of the Mother City
● Cape Town has a spring in its step. Restaurants are buzzing and you’ll need a bit of luck finding an available car to rent.
Tourists are flooding to the Waterfront, the winelands and the beaches and indulging in the culinary delights. But it also marks a rejuvenation in interest in the city itself.
With so many hotels in the city centre, the incumbents have had to up their game to compete. One of them is the
Taj, in the cultural heart of
Cape Town and part of the Indian-owned Taj group, with hotels in 11 countries.
Together with the adjacent Mandela Rhodes Place building and St George’s Cathedral, the Taj is the major component of a precinct linking St George’s
Mall with the historic Company Gardens, St George’s Cathedral, the old Slave Lodge, the houses of parliament, the Groote Kerk and the city hall.
Immediately opposite is St George’s Cathedral, known as the “People’s Cathedral” and the oldest in Southern Africa. It is famously associated with archbishop Desmond Tutu, who coined the phrase “the rainbow nation”. Tutu’s words are displayed on the windows of the building next door, including “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”.
The company gardens — the oldest in SA — date back to the 1650s. Usually, you’ll find buskers strumming guitars, children on school outings or office workers munching lunch. Right now, though, there’s work being done on the gardens themselves, which are adjacent to the SA Museum and the Cape Town Holocaust Centre.
The impression of being plugged directly into the city’s nervous system is reinforced by the proximity to Greenmarket Square, the second-oldest public space in the city after the Grand Parade, where traders hawk crafts, clothing, curios, paintings and jewellery. A few roads up, the coffee shops, galleries and restaurants of Loop, Long and Bree streets are buzzing.
Back in the hotel, the Taj Cape Town is spread across two heritage buildings, including the old Reserve Bank in Cape Town. Plaques indicate sites and milestones, while the chandeliers, bronze work and metal gates attest to the opulence of the setting. The Reserve Building’s bronze doors from St George’s Mall lead into a stunning room with high ceilings and murals.
Dinner at Bombay Brasserie is a standout. It’s billed as Cape Town’s “signature fine dining Indian restaurant”. Blue velvet seats and delicate glassware set the scene, and the cuisine is mostly North Indian. Small plates include quinoa “tikki” kebab and mustard marinated broccoli florets. Mains include lamb Biryani, old Delhi chicken, baingan bharta (clay oven smoked aubergine) and peri-peri line fish. The baked yoghurt is exceptional, fresh and not too sweet.
That shouldn’t be a surprise. Executive chef David Tilly has worked in Taj hotels around the world and has cooked for former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Mahatma Gandhi’s family, among others.
The hotel, it turns out, is a popular destination with film crews, with directors using the location to shoot scenes reminiscent of European street culture. You can see why: it’ sa location that plugs directly into the city, soaking up the energy and history.