Post and Pepper: Veg Fine Dining in Stellenbosch
If you’re spending a day in Stellenbosch navigating through the cute town and stunning vineyards, be sure to visit Post and Pepper for dinner. This lovely restaurant is located inside the old post office building in town. The interior is classy and modern, with a velvety jungle theme perfect for year-round dining.
Restaurant owner and chef Jess Ven Dyke opened up Post and Pepper with restaurant manager Dimitri Hadzigrigoriou in February 2022.
The restaurant offers 3- and 4-course dinner tasting menus as well as a la carte lunch. Meat eaters, pescatarians, and vegetarians are all accommodated.
I love restaurants with dedicated vegetarian tasting menus. To me, it means that the chef has taken the extra effort to not just replicate the intentions of the dish with vegetables but also consider how each meat substitute works with the flavors.
The tasting menu is a fusion of South African and Asian classics. The intention of the tasting menu is for people to share, tapas style. During dinner, you’ll pick between 2-3 options for each tasting.
The basics
- 45 minutes drive from Cape Town
- Excellent 3- and 4-course tasting menu for dinner, R550 per person
- Lunch a la carte available
- Dedicated vegetarian menu
- Open Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-14:30 and 18:00-20:30
- Visit the website to make a booking online here
- View the lunch and dinner menus here
Vegetarian tasting menu
A highlight of Post and Pepper’s fine dining in Stellenbosch is the dedicated vegetarian tasting menu. In fact, this was the reason I chose Post and Pepper. Wilhelm and his parents opted for this menu.
The tofu skewers with a whipped onion dip were a clear winner as a starter. All three of them chose this dish to start with.
Next came the eggplant tartar. Grilled to perfect with plenty of olive oil and pine nuts, we could have had 4 servings each, it was so delish! (I totally forgot to take a picture but it looks similar to the pictures of the tuna tartar you’ll see in a second…)
The final dish was a choice between mac & cheese and gnocchi. The mac and cheese came with hints of truffle and delicate mushrooms.
The gnocchi (which I also got some tastes of my fish dish) was more creamy and (for lack of a better word) melt-in-you-mouth than traditional gnocchi.
Pescatarian tasting menu
Pescatarians are accommodated on the regular tasting menu, which includes fish, veg, and meat options. In order to take advantage of the variety at Post and Pepper, I opted to try to the pescatarian version of the 3-course dinner. The tuna tartar was literally calling my name and I just had to have it.
I started with the summer squash salad. The pesto dressing was phenomenal. If you’re a fan of pesto, then this dish is worth the drive from Cape Town. I’ll be wishing for this dish on several summer afternoons.
Next, I had the tuna tartar. It was hard to determine if I liked the veg version or the tuna version better, to be honest. Both were amazing.
Finally, I had a line fish main. The line fish at the time was seabass (which is among my favorite) and I enjoyed the asian flavors.
The Vibe at Post and Pepper
Throughout the dining experience, we all enjoyed the care put into the presentation of the food. All the flavors were rich and delicate at the same time.
We were full after the 3 courses though I wouldn’t say no to a 4-course dinner next time.
Wilhelm’s parents are visiting Cape Town and we all love trying out new restaurants together.
If you want the amazing flavors of Post and Pepper without the hassle of driving back to Cape Town in the dark, then opt for lunch. The same dishes are available for both lunch and dinner. Around 6 dishes are recommended to share between two people.
Definitely add Post and Pepper to your Stellenbosch day trip!