Ryan Cole often walked past an empty building on the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, wondering why no-one had snapped up the location in a place where there were many restaurants but few with such a remarkable view.
The venue was “hidden in plain sight”, says Cole. It had the luxury of expensive yachts on one side and the austerity of fishing trawlers and a fish factory on the other. It was in an unassuming spot, separated from the main madding crowd by a bascule bridge — one that swings open — that allows sea traffic into the V&A’s marina. He set up shop there and called his place, appropriately, Coy. Not that Cole, voted chef of the year in 2023, is shy about what he serves.
There is a seven-course menu as well as a cheaper version, offering just a starter and main, along with bread and snacks.
Whatever the menu, Coy’s food features ancient grains and African staples such as samp. Dessert can be based on the chefs’ concept of what would be provided at teatime by their grandmothers: roasted rhubarb and strawberry jam, topped with toasted Otees, or lemon cream ice cream and Ceylon tea foam with some raspberry sherbet, along with a madeleine (in this case a koeksister).
I love the industry, I love the hours, I love the pressure
— Ryan Cole
Cole has now moved from the seclusion of one setting to another in the busiest, and certainly the most lavish, part of the city. In 2018 he opened Salsify, a restaurant in the Roundhouse, a hunting lodge from the early 18th century on the slopes of Lion’s Head among the pines overlooking Camps Bay. His partners were chef Luke Dale Roberts and former Springbok Ray Mordt. During Covid Cole took over from Dale Roberts and he and Mordt are now partners in Coy.
Business in the culinary trade is competitive, but Cole says he enjoys it. “I love the industry, I love the hours, I love the pressure, I love the dilemmas, I love the challenges. I’ve never wanted to do anything else — I’ve never done anything else since I was 16.”
At that age he was in matric and on weekends worked in the bakery at The Vineyard hotel in Claremont. Two days after finishing his school exams, and aged 17 by then, he started working full-time at the hotel. He wasn’t allowed to sign a contract until he turned 18 the following year.
Now, in his new place, he is eager to expand beyond the tasting menus he made famous at Salsify. “So it’s a completely different experience, but it’s definitely part of the same ‘family’,” he says. “It’s like the cool younger sibling of somebody that’s fully grown up, which is Salsify.”
The proximity of the sea resonates with Cole’s background: his father is a retired fisherman, and his brother followed in those footsteps. For his restaurant, Cole focuses on sustainable, seasonal and local catches.
But he doesn’t go in for “signature dishes”. He says this is “a good way to keep reinventing yourself”.
Cole has transformed the once empty building into an elegant space of Afro-chic with a dark palette imbued with lightness in the chairs and eye-catching artwork. The blackened wood panelling on the walls and floors references the ancient art of cooking over fire; it has contrasting amber accents that flow through the artwork, fabrics and lighting. There are views of the ocean and Table Mountain.
Head chefs Geoffrey Abrahams and Teenola Govender talk customers through the choices of three starters and three main courses. Our first course was maize chip with tahini and roasted shiitake, plus red lentil fingers with blatjang and cashew. The second was bread, fermented amadumbe sourdough with kefir, konfyt and bokkom.
The smoked seafood was a play on the classic combination sandwich of cheese and chocolate, with smoked Stanford cheese, cashew crumbs and Mrs Balls chutney on top, accompanied by mango atchar foam.
For the main starter, I went with tuna tartare followed by seared line-fish with cabbage and spiced chimichurri. My dining partner decided on the smoked aubergine and pepper tabil. The samp and lamb were excellent.
The wine menu features lesser-known labels, and the bar, called No Reservations, encourages pop-ins so you can arrive, sip a cocktail and sample the menu.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant
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