Review: Enjoy Delicious Cocktails & Easy Grub at Green Point’s Eye Bar Restaurant
Looking for a new lunch, breakfast, or dinner spot on the Green Point strip? Look no further than Eye Bar. Located on the ground floor of the new Vïb Cape Town hotel, the recently opened cocktail bar and restaurant is sure to impress. Offering a laid-back atmosphere with delicious breakfast, all-day light meals, and dinner dishes to both hotel guests and local residents, this easy-going restaurant isn’t your typical hotel restaurant.
While hotel restaurants can often be lacking in creativity, offering sub-par dishes with exorbitant price tags, Eye Bar offers a relaxed café feel with food and cocktails to rival any trendy bar or eatery on the Green Point strip. The meals and drinks are competitively priced and offer excellent value for money.
Whether you’re popping in for a quick brekkie, a snack on the go, a leisurely à la carte affair, or tapas-style plates shared over a cocktail, Eye Bar has something for everyone to enjoy. The space features a chic cocktail bar, grab ‘n go coffee station, indoor restaurant and open-air terrace, all of which are open daily to both members of the public and hotel guests alike.
On the menu, exciting flavour combinations and a generous choice of options abound. Guests are treated to a contemporary menu of vibrant modern cuisine featuring sushi and tapas-style sharing dishes alongside favourites like deli sandwiches, grilled steaks and gourmet burgers. The boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to enjoy breakfast and dinner at this trendy spot and were thoroughly impressed. Eye Bar is the type of restaurant I would go back to time and time again. In fact, its welcoming atmosphere and great dining options have solidified it as one of my favourite go-to spots in Green Point.
Breakfast of champions
To start off your day, you’ll be hard-pressed to choose between the contemporary Continental deli offering or the traditional hot breakfast. If you opt for the former, there’s a tempting array of healthy smoothie bowls brimming with power treats such as chia seeds, rooibos-poached dates and berries. Or, try any of the Yoghurt Parfaits, which come dressed in mint syrup, maple syrup or honey, along with seeds, muesli and fresh fruit. All the usual baked goodies are there too, of course — croissants, cinnamon rolls, Danish pasties, pan au chocolat, assorted muffins, and 8 different types of breakfast loaf complete the carb hotlist.
An enticing selection of classics fill the Hot Breakfast menu including Eggs Benedict and Florentine and a good old fashioned full English breakfast. Barista-made, Fairtrade coffee puts a caffeine zing into this morning run. If you’re en route to work and in a hurry, then grab it to go along with your take-out breakfast.
For breakfast, the boyfriend and I both ordered the English Breakfast (R110 for non-hotel guests) which included 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, rosti, mushrooms, cocktail tomato, and toast. The portion size was generous and everything was cooked to perfection. I also grabbed a yoghurt parfait and cinnamon roll from the continental breakfast station to start, both of which were beyond yummy.
The main event
If you’re popping in for lunch or dinner, order off the sit-down à la carte menu bursting with options inspired by international flavours. For light meals, there are Asian notes such as ramen bowls, and a teriyaki beef or yakitori chicken burger with fries. Mediterranean flavours make their presence felt in the form of an Italian Panzanella salad with the traditional crispy bread, olives, tomatoes and bocconcini, but with a Middle Eastern twist, thanks to the addition of cucumber and a tahini dressing.
Adventurous flavours are the hallmark of Eye Bar’s sandwich assortment, which changes daily. Think curry tofu, sesame sweet potato, peanut compote and coriander chimichurri, or, spicy sweet and sour salmon, with fennel, orange and cream cheese.
For mains, try the crispy buttermilk chicken with quinoa tabouleh and a roast garlic shawarma sauce or the pan-fried rib eye dusted with herb rub and accompanied by mushroom ketchup and roast garlic cream. The steak is served with chips or panzanella salad. Vegetarians and vegans are both catered for, with standout dishes such as the charred tandoori cauliflower served with vegan yoghurt, sambal balado, baby pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, onion salad, and a peanut and miso vinaigrette.
For dinner, the boyfriend and I tucked into a soup of the day starter (R35), followed by the Teriyaki Beef Burger (R120) and the Yakitori Chicken Burger (R95), both served with a side of chips. The juicy, moreish burgers were good enough to compete with the likes of popular gourmet burger spots like Hudson’s and Roccommas and the generous portions sizes ensured we were too stuffed for dessert after our meal.
If you decide to stay for dessert, try the drool-worthy chocolate and matcha cheesecake brownie with chocolate cream, raspberry coulis, raspberry gel and marinated raspberries, or the white chocolate mousse and honeycomb with hazelnut praline, baked white chocolate crumble, candied lemon, and honey lavash.
Cheers to good times
Eye Bar is also a fantastic spot for drinks with friends. We enjoyed a few cocktails before dinner and loved the vibe. Guests can sit outside on the terrace overlooking Green Point’s vibey strip, or sit inside and enjoy the chic atmosphere of the indoor lounge area.
The cocktail menu offers all sorts of delicious treats to tempt you. We whet our pallets with the Amber Cup G&T, made from Inverroche Amber gin, cucumber, mint, green apple, and ginger ale (R80 | R210 1.7 l jug) and the Mangito G&T made with Bacardi Oakheart, mango, chilli, and lemonade (R60 | R150 1.7 l jug). The cocktails were beyond delicious and some of the best I’ve had in a long time.
If you’re looking for a few nibbles to enjoy with your cocktails then check out Eye Bar’s Small Plates Menu for a range of mouth-watering morsels to accompany that after-work unwinder, or pre-dinner drink.
The Spanish-style tapas plates include grilled chorizo sausage, but with a deliciously unexpected peanut and miso dressing. The calamari is done tempura-style yet comes with a suitably Spanish smoked paprika aioli.
The finger sandwiches will have you abandoning all thoughts of that conventional High Tea cream cheese and cucumber staple. Instead, sample the sesame sweet potato roosterkoek with anchovy and mushroom, the stuffed bao buns, or the braai broodjie with cured ham, blue cheese, soya and balsamic fig relish.
The snacks are a must-try. The goat’s cheese and candied ginger poppers come with a miso caramel, and there’s chicken wonton tacos with smoked jalapeno relish, among other savoury delights.
The Small Plates Menu finishes off with seductively sweet treats, like dark chocolate salami, red velvet and white chocolate fudge, and baked malva doughnuts with cardamon and caramel.
To peruse all the full menus for Eye Bar, click here. Looking for a place to stay in Cape Town? Read our full review of Vib Cape Town here.
For breakfast, no pre-booking is necessary. Eye Bar takes reservations for lunch and dinner. Opening hours are from 06:30 to 22:00 (depending on lockdown curfew). Outside of lockdown curfew, the regular closing time is 23h00. Eye Bar is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, including Public Holidays.
