Currently making a splash is new 16-seater restaurant Seebamboes in the Cape Town CBD’s East City, where every dish on the menu incorporates sea and land, playfully breathing new life and meaning into “surf and turf”.
The best restaurants – and certainly the most memorable -- are those infused with meaning; where every detail has been considered but is also personal and nostalgic. Seebamboes – a land and sea collaboration between Belly of the Beast and Galjoen duo Anouchka Horn and Neil Swart with chef Adél Hughes and visual artist/front of house lead Liebet Jooste – is that kind of a restaurant.
Named after the extraordinary fast-growing kelp that straddles land and sea, Seebamboes not only tells the story of the Western Cape’s natural edible bounty but also that of Hughes and Jooste. They have journeyed together from inland – their early days as a couple were in Pretoria – to the coastal village of Betty’s Bay and a farm outside Paternoster, and eventually to Cape Town for what Hughes calls their chapter in the city, which began in the kitchen of seafood-focused Galjoen.
If Hughes sounds familiar, it’s because not only has she worked closely with city culinary mavericks Horn and Swart along with head chef Isca Stoltz at Galjoen, but for four years ran the kitchen at Oep ve Koep in Paternoster, the sister restaurant of Wolfgat owned by legendary chef and forager Kobus van der Merwe.
FEASTING & FORAGING
“The foraging thing all started on our stoep in Pretoria when I was paging through a TASTE magazine and came across an article about what Kobus was doing,” explains Hughes, who at the time was studying at the Prue Leith Culinary Institute. For Hughes, already passionate about cooking from the garden, it was a defining moment.
They relocated to Betty’s Bay where Jooste had spent childhood holidays, and in 2018, Hughes cooked at Forage, at Wildekrans in Botrivier. Then it was on to Paternoster, where at Oep ve Koep, she immersed herself in the hyperlocal and seasonal foods of the Paternoster coastline.
The name Seebamboes has its roots in Betty’s Bay where post-Paternoster, the couple returned and sold takeaways out of their holiday house: Hughes cooked, and Jooste liaised with customers. They decided to put the concept on ice until the time was right, which turned out to be not very long. In 2023, Hughes joined Galjoen as sous chef, and Seebamboes began to organically take root through conversations with Horn and Swart, who wished to develop the mezzanine space above Galjoen.
The deal was clinched when Galjoen hosted a Belly/Galjoen collab (while Belly was under renovation) with a surf and turf menu. It was clear this was a fresh concept that worked, was in line with the vision of Hughes and Jooste, and was an organic extension of the Belly/Galjoen framework. “We like small restaurants with personalities behind them,” explains Swart, who along with Horn, has collaborated closely with Hughes and Jooste on every aspect of Seebamboes.
SHAPED BY NOSTALGIA
Does surf and turf mean a wooden platter heaped with steak and prawns? Not at Seebamboes. It does mean that every dish on their tasting menu will incorporate sea and land – even desserts like an ice cream sandwich – and will be shaped by nostalgia. Like the Betty’s Bay Broth, which gets its name from the area so dear to Hughes and Jooste and from where its kelp base was foraged. Hughes elaborates: “Some dishes will scream surf and turf; others will have a sneaky element bridging the two. Generally, we want to move away from the strict understanding of surf and turf as two proteins.” A perfect example of this is the pairing of seaweed and mushrooms.
As for the wine list, it is alternative and off-beat with, not surprisingly, a big focus on the Swartland.
The team have collaborated with artists and artisans on interiors, to create a space which feels intimate despite its industrial framework. From the Wall of Curiosity – a ceramic artwork that contains changeable bits of sea and land to the pendant lights which resemble seebamboes, the décor adds calming coastal elements to the dining area, which overlooks Galjoen and the mountain.
They may be running a city restaurant but Hughes and Jooste plan to continue foraging regularly, making the rounds between Betty’s Bay, Scarborough and occasionally Paternoster, supplementing this with carefully sourced products from suppliers.
“In my mind, the magic here is in engaging with nature,” says Jooste. “Seebamboes is a place where we can show off nature and celebrate it with our guests. In Paternoster we learned about the plants and what we could eat, we did it daily. If you live by the sea you’re engaging with both land and sea, right, so in a way you are living the surf and turf life. That’s the feeling we want to share.”
Seebamboes, 99 Harrington St
Tues-Sat from 18h45 seating only, tasting menu only. Book via Dineplan | www.seebamboescpt.co.za | @seebamboes
IMAGES: Seebamboes, Sharon Sorour-Morris
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