GOLD Restaurant & Spice Experience Review: It started as a massive disappointment, but then…

If you live in Cape Town and you’ve ever had friends visit you from overseas, or if you are a tourist who has visited the city before, you are probably very familiar with GOLD Restaurant. It is an immersive African-themed restaurant where diners get to experience a 14-course tasting menu of food from across the continent. This is accompanied by authentic African entertainment in the form of singing, dancing, drumming, storytelling and even Malian puppetry. The restaurant now offers the Spice Experience, a more personalised immersive storytelling dinner too. 

Either way, this is what you can expect from dining at GOLD:

Why GOLD Restaurant is a bucket list dining experience

Shortly before relocating to Cape Town, I had been tasked with the job of creating a guide for Chinese travellers to the city, and I began doing research into the attractions that I would include on that list. That was in December of 2019. Needless to say, I never did get to write that travel guide. But GOLD Restaurant stuck in my mind as a must-do experience, and for five years, it lingered on my local bucket list. So when I was finally invited to experience it and the Spice Experience as part of a group of travel journalists, I was beyond excited. 

What is the GOLD Spice Experience?

The Spice Experience is an intimate version of GOLD’s signature 14-dish tasting menu, hosted in a private room. 

This experience includes:

• Arrival bubbly that uniquely fits the restaurant's theme (More to follow) 
• A djembe drumming experience
• A guided spice route storytelling dinner experience 
• Personalised entertainment
• A behind-the-scenes kitchen tour to meet the chefs
• Pre-selected wines

First Impressions & Djembe Drumming

We were greeted at the door by wait staff in traditional African attire and led upstairs into a large entertainment area where we were seated right at the front of the stage. There our djembes awaited and, together with a room full of people, a performer on stage led us through an interactive drumming experience. It’s amazing that a group of strangers could all be so on time, each beat resonating through the entire space and our bodies. 

It was incredible! Well, for about three minutes.

Then it ended. To backtrack a bit, there had been a mixup with our shuttle, and we weren’t just a little late, we were quite a lot late. My heart sank as we were ushered away from the main stage, where I believed all the entertainment took place (all the singing, the dancing and the Malian puppetry). We were led upstairs into a private dining room. 

A Toast with Extra Sparkle

Upstairs, we were greeted with a glass of bubbles complete with flecks of 24-carat gold leaf in it. “Congratulations, you’re late.” Okay, that was not the sentiment at all; it was a lovely gesture. But if I were rewarded with 24-carat gold bubbly every time I was late for anything, I would be a very wealthy alcoholic. 

As someone who values experiences over shiny things, I didn’t feel like celebrating. 
After a moment of feeling sorry for myself, I took a minute to pause, remind myself that I was still at GOLD and point out to myself that I could let my disappointment ruin the whole night for me or I could just enjoy what was still to come. (The bubbles helped.)

The Spice Experience 

Our host for the evening was Cindy Muller herself, the lady behind GOLD. She led us through the Spice Experience. For a more personalised and interactive dinner at GOLD, diners can enjoy GOLD’s 14-dish tasting menu in this private dining room while also learning about the Spice Route and how it influenced world history. You also get to sample different spices before enjoying the dishes that they flavour. 

What's on the GOLD Restaurant Menu?

The menus do change seasonally. We experienced the Spring/Summer menu (yes, that’s how late I am in posting), which included:

• Namibian Grilled Ostrich Fillet Salad with Toasted Seeds, 
• Moroccan Zeilook (a type of dip with aubergine, tomato, garlic and olive oil), 
• South African Roosterkoek (a type of local bread), 
• Malawian Kandolo Balls (made predominantly of sweet potato), 
• Mozambican Chilli Chicken Wings (self-explanatory), 
• and Cape Malay Bobotie Samosas (Bobotie is a type of local dish made with spiced mince). 

The Samosas were my favourite. 

Then came the mains:

• Namibian Venison Pie (made with springbok) with little pillows of pastry (pic below), 
• Zanzibar Tamarind Fish and Prawn Curry, 
• East African Mchicha w’Nazi (a spinach and coconut milk dish), 
• Ethiopian Sorgum with Mixed Vegetables, 
• Rainbow Corn Salad, 
• and Congo Mango and Lime Chicken. 

And all complemented with pre-selected wines.

It was part cooking class, part history lesson, part dinner party. I learned so much about spices, how to identify them (I now know the difference between cinnamon and cassia - just saying) and how different cooking cultures came to be. 

After my entire mood had lifted and I was having the time of my life, I came to realise that my perception that all the entertainment took place on the main stage was actually incorrect. 

GOLD's Authentically African Dinner Entertainment 

Between courses, the entertainers found us in our private dining room. 

Part of the whole GOLD experience is face painting. And, no, they did not paint me (or anyone) to look like Spiderman. They practice traditional African face painting, which usually consists of dots and lines in mostly white and black paint, making decorative patterns. 

We also had an isiXhosa language lesson. Apart from trying to teach us the basics of her language and how to pronounce some of its many different click sounds, our teacher also serenaded us with some Miriam Makeba. 

We were also entertained by at least two other groups of performers who sang and danced for us, together with a performance with a Malian puppet. 

By the time we were done with the main course, I was quite impressed with the whole experience, and I now felt a bit silly for being sad about missing the drumming. But there was still more to come... 

A Behind-the-Scenes Kitchen Tour

As part of the Spice Experience, you get to go behind the scenes into the kitchen to learn more about how to prepare spices. This was something I hadn’t expected but absolutely loved. 

If I wasn’t already impressed by the incredible talents of the front-of-house staff (and I was), the chef, Babalwa Kasi, and her almost all-female kitchen staff are also incredibly talented beyond just their cooking skills. In what felt like a deeply personal and profoundly warm experience in the heart of the kitchen, they sang us a beautiful song.  

A Sweet Ending to the Night

It was then time for dessert. But first, they turned the tables on us and made us work for it by putting us on the stage (on our way back to our private dining room from the kitchen) and making us do South Africa’s famous line dance “Jerusalema”. I may or may not have tripped over my own feet trying to keep up. There may or may not be video footage.

The whole meal experience was completed with Cape Town Cardamom Ice Cream with a Cape Malay Karamonk Biscuit in the shape of the continent of Africa.

And as a final flourish, we were sent home with a little bag of spices from the evening. 

Final Verdict: Is GOLD Restaurant Worth It?

Absolutely. 

Was it disappointing that we missed the full drumming experience? Definitely. Did it ruin the experience? Not even close.

GOLD is more than just dinner. It’s an education, an exploration and a celebration. Even with a hiccup at the start, it managed to exceed my expectations by a long shot. And for the Spice Experience, an event built around storytelling, perhaps it was fitting that my own story at GOLD came with a plot twist.

Book Your Own GOLD Restaurant Experience

If you’re a visitor to Cape Town, a meal at GOLD Restaurant is an absolute must. If you live here, you don’t actually have to wait to be hosting people from overseas to go. You don’t even need to fake an accent or anything! GOLD is for anyone who loves great food, culture and a little sparkle (sometimes even in your drink).

Find out more about dining at GOLD Restaurant and experiencing their amazing food and incredible entertainment here: www.goldrestaurant.co.za

And find out more about the Spice Experience (with the personalised storytelling experience and behind-the-scenes kitchen tour) here: www.goldrestaurant.co.za/spice 

Whatever you do, don't be late. 

How to get there

GOLD is located close to the V&A Waterfront here:

Other things to do in the area:

• If you'd like some diamonds to go with your GOLD, check out the Rockwell Shimansky Experience.
• Enjoy Cape Town's amphibious boat/bus tour with The Waterfront Duck Co.
• Go kayaking through the Canal District with Kayak Adventures.
• Grab a drink at Cape Town's secret speakeasy, The Art of Duplicity.
• See crabs bigger than your dog at the 2 Oceans Aquarium.