Kalk Bay Photographs

The unpre­ten­tious bohemian fish­ing vil­lage of Kalk Bay lies between the moun­tains and the sea, just 25 minutes’ from Cape Town. Home to one of the last remain­ing work­ing har­bours in South Africa, not only can you meet the return­ing boats for the catch of the day at noon, but the little cobbled streets, shops and res­taur­ants make this an easy place to while away the time and for­get the fast pace of city liv­ing. Antique stores, second-hand book shops, art gal­ler­ies and a thriv­ing theatre have given rise to a real sense of com­munity in Kalk Bay ... Continued

Cést La Vie in Kalk Bay

C’est la Vie (Kalk Bay)

I went to Provence for a crois­sant and cafe au lait on Sunday morn­ing.  You dont believe me non?  OK I didn’t, but with the cobbled street and bor­ders of lav­ender out­side Cést La Vie in Kalk Bay you would be excused for think­ing you were in the South of France. I read about Cést La Vie in a magazine and thought this was some­where I just had to try.  So, when my hus­band got back from his LSD Sunday run (Long Slow Distance for those of you who are not in the run­ning mix!) we hopped in the car and headed to Kalk Bay ... Continued

Dinner at the Outspan in Kalk Bay

The Outspan

We had fam­ily stay with us over the Festive Season and with an empty fridge on our return from a week in Citrusdal the only solu­tion was to drive the short dis­tance along Main Road to Kalk Bay, park and stroll along decid­ing where to have din­ner.  We tried for a table at Live Bait but with that fully booked and rum­bling tum­mies telling us that wait­ing for a table would not be a good option we decided to try The Outspan which is on the corner of Main Road and the begin­ning of Boyes Drive (next door to the Olympia Cafe) ... Continued

19-on-Main Bistro, 'Kalk Bay on a Plate'

19-on-Main Bistro

We went down to Kalk Bay on Sunday for a spot of lunch.  We nor­mally go straight along Boyes Drive and then will, nine times out of ten, hook a right and make straight for Polana.  However, now that the road to Simons Town is south flow­ing only, we find ourselves driv­ing along Main Road and dis­covered a few spots that we haven’t before, purely because we don’t drive past them.

I wanted to have lunch at a little French place I’d noticed but before we got there we noticed 19-on-Main Bistro and ended up walk­ing in, lov­ing the look of it and settled down there instead.  I don’t know how I hadn’t seen this gem of a place before.  Perhaps its because the sign for the res­taur­ant and, to be hon­est, the front door are set back a few metres from the road. Continued

Harbour House Restaurant in Kalk Bay — a review

Dessert @ Harbour House

It was my birth­day on Monday and although my hus­band offered to make fran­colin curry for din­ner I got my way and off to Harbour House we went!  We’ve often been to Polana but have not eaten in the ‘smarter’ part upstairs and oh it’s so pretty!  The floor to ceil­ing pic­ture win­dows give the most beau­ti­ful views of Kalk Bay’s work­ing har­bour, the Hottentots Mountains and False Bay.  There was a bit of a zephyr blow­ing on Monday night which made for a very stormy sea – the huge win­dows are ideal for star­ing down at the waves crash­ing onto the rocks below.

For a Monday night the res­taur­ant was packed.  The atmo­sphere is relaxed and com­fort­able with some diners even arriv­ing in shorts as if they’d just hopped off the Cape Town sight see­ing bus!  I appre­ci­ated too that the tables were fairly large; I hate get­ting squashed at a tiny two seater ... Continued

Kalk Bay and Tribeca

My in-laws are vis­it­ing from KwaZulu Natal for the week and hav­ing not been to the Mother City for a num­ber of years we thought we would do the ‘touristy’ thing on Sunday and star­ted off with brunch in one of my favour­ite places; Kalk Bay.

The drive along Boyes Drive from where we live in Lakeside sets the hol­i­day tone; the glor­i­ous views of  Muizenberg Beach, the streams com­ing off the moun­tain, the signs for the many moun­tain hikes and trails and then off course the bob­bing fish­ing boats in Kalk Bay Harbour all remind me why I love liv­ing in this part of the world. Continued

Perfect Polana — dine with the crashing waves only a few metres away

Polana

I hadn’t been to Polana for a good three years (Ive got no idea why I stayed away for that long!) but a friend had a birth­day party here on Saturday night and I was reminded of why it’s such a great spot.

The loc­a­tion of this venue could not be closer to the sea – in fact you could prob­ably touch the rocks if you leant far enough out the enorm­ous win­dows!  The view, on a clear day or not, is spec­tac­u­lar – the crash­ing waves only a few metres away and of course being able to see right across the bay to the moun­tains on the other side ... Continued

Culture vultures in Kalk Bay

On Wednesday I not only man­aged to sneak into an art exhib­i­tion open­ing and mingle with the art afi­cion­ados of Cape Town, but I also man­aged to snatch a moment of poetry at Kalk Bay Books straight afterwards.

I didn't know the Kalk Bay Modern exis­ted, until a col­league of mine insisted on stop­ping off in Kalk Bay en route home from Fish Hoek one morn­ing, not only for the more than choice hot crossed buns at Olympia Cafe, but also to whiz through a col­lec­tion of George Hallet's pho­to­graphs on dis­play at the gal­lery, but that's another story! Continued

Olympia Cafe Photographs

Photographs of the unpre­ten­tious but pop­u­lar Olympia Cafe in Kalk Bay, Cape Town. (see our pre­vi­ous art­icle / review here — Olympia Cafe). The third pho­to­graph is of Kalk Bay taken from the har­bour pier. (for more inform­a­tion about this charm­ing sea­side ham­let see our pre­vi­ous art­icles "Catch your breath in Kalk Bay" and "The defin­it­ive guide to Kalk Bay"). Continued

Olympia Café in Kalk Bay

Olympia Cafe

Aside from the fact that whenever vaguely in the vicin­ity, I find reason to pop into the Olympia Café's bakery, which now offers its breads, pastries, dan­ishes and other delect­able tasties around the corner from the eat­ery on the corner of Main Road and Boyes Drive, I have also had occa­sion to break­fast there at least once and found reason to dine there more than twice - and I don't even live in Kalk Bay!

This rather obvi­ously expresses my enthu­si­asm for the pop­u­lar place. The food is, well, it's really good. And for what you receive on your plate, excel­lent value. The bread is heav­enly (I defy any­one to find tastier ciabata on the pen­in­su­lar) and the menu takes its cue from the access­ib­il­ity and avail­ab­il­ity of fresh, local, organic where pos­sible ingredi­ents ... Continued

The Definitive Guide to Kalk Bay

Kalk Bay

Clutching sun faded tow­els and cloaked in floaty kaf­tans, the more adven­tur­ous res­id­ents of Kalk Bay make their daily pil­grim­age down to the tidal pools that gen­er­ously grace the False Bay coast­line. Splashing in refresh­ingly cold sea water every morn­ing could be the secret to the youth and vital­ity of the people in Kalk Bay, although per­haps it has some­thing more to do with the mys­ter­i­ous atmo­sphere of abund­ance and relax­a­tion that infuses its visitors.

Morning dips in the ocean are best fol­lowed by one of Cape Town’s best cof­fees at C’est la Vie, an unpre­ten­tious French peas­ant style café with their own tiny bakery on site or at Olympia Café for a hearty deli break­fast with kip­pers and fluffy eggs. Grabbing a few sup­plies for the pantry from the charm­ing Olympia Bakery is a ritual, before return­ing home. Continued

Catch your Breath in Kalk Bay

Kalk Bay is one of those places where you can finally catch your breath ...

Kalk Bay

This won­der­ful his­toric har­bour vil­lage, en route to Cape Point, has everything you could pos­sibly want from a day out by the sea. Well, everything except warm water. Which is just as well, because you might be less inclined to explore all those amaz­ing antique, art and bric-a-brac shops, out­stand­ing res­taur­ants, ice cream par­lours and funky bars that line its main thor­ough­fare. By far the best way to arrive is by train, a most exquis­ite jour­ney from Muizenberg (park at the Olive Station), tak­ing in breath­tak­ing views of the wind­ing coast­line, while all the while keep­ing an eye out for passing whales.

Turn right out­side the sta­tion and imme­di­ately right again through a short under­pass, and you will soon arrive at The Brass Bell, a fam­ous pub and res­taur­ant beau­ti­fully loc­ated out to sea, an abso­lute must for any vis­itor to Kalk Bay. Few tra­di­tional pub-like atmo­spheres can boast an excel­lent view of frol­ick­ing seals, or indeed, give the impres­sion that your fish 'n chips might get dragged out of the sea at any moment. The kids will love it. Outside, there is a little craft stall, selling a fine selec­tion of mar­vel­lously invent­ive can­dle­stick hold­ers, jew­ellery and sculp­tures made from shells and drift­wood; I bought a chunky brace­let made from twis­ted strands of cop­per and a ring made from an old sil­ver t-spoon. Continued