Belthazar Restaurant & Wine Bar

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Theatre of Beef, Seafood and Cape Wine

Belthazar Restaurant & Wine Bar occupies a prime position at the V&A Waterfront, where the rich atmosphere of a wharf warehouse meets dreamy views of Table Bay. The concept was born from a lifelong passion for South African wine: the team behind award-winning Balducci travelled the world searching for a formula that would showcase the Cape's finest bottles in a setting worthy of them. What they built is part steakhouse, part seafood grill, part wine destination — and entirely its own thing.

The name nods to the wise man of the magi, "lord of treasures", and the place lives up to that billing. Thousands of bottles line the walls alongside a glittering store of Riedel glassware, wine aprons, cookbooks and gourmet knives. The restaurant describes itself as a "veritable theatre of fine food and wine on the cutting-edge of shoppertainment" — an honest description of somewhere that genuinely defies a single category.

The World's Largest Wine-by-the-Glass Bar

The wine programme is the centrepiece, and it has earned Belthazar the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence in 2025 — recognition that places it among the world's most serious restaurant wine lists. Experienced sommeliers pour over 250 of the Cape's finest wines by the glass, drawing from a cellar of up to 600 fine wines and sought-after rare vintages. Every bottle is stored in a designer Vinoteque with dual temperature and humidity controls for red and white wines, then served table-ready in Riedel glasses chosen to enhance each pour. The wine list also now carries a dedicated old vine icon, highlighting bottles certified under South Africa's Old Vine Project — wines from vineyards 35 years and older that carry genuine historical weight.

Grain-Fed Beef and South African Game

On the food side, Belthazar has been voted best steakhouse in South Africa, specialising in export-quality grain-fed and grass-fed beef. The kitchen also offers an authentic selection of South African game — Blesbok, Gemsbok, Kudu and Crocodile among them — alongside fresh seafood. The approach is described as "relaxed and restorative, while at the same time being creative, modern and affordable." Service ambassadors and sommeliers work together to make each visit feel considered rather than transactional.

The terrace, reached by following the restaurant's signature romantic lamps, frames Table Bay in a way that few dining rooms in Cape Town can match. For a grill and seafood experience underpinned by one of the most ambitious wine programmes on the continent, Belthazar remains the standard.