A warm and delectable slice of French lifestyle and contemporary bistro cuisine in Cape Town’s CBD, The Wes Bistro & Bar is well on its way to becoming the city’s grande dame for classic contemporary French bistro fare, sophisticated drinking – wine, cocktails or French café-style hot chocolate – polished service and dream-like escapist décor.
Since opening in October 2024, the quirky bistro has quietly come into its own at its prized corner location on a pretty pedestrian-only block of Shortmarket Street. Available from May though to August, it launches a Winter Set Menu that honours the classics with savoir-faire and a bit of Wes magic, at great value.
A charming bistro
To say The Wes is modelled after filmmaker Wes Anderson’s quirky colour-drenched films is both an understatement as well as a superficial take on the well-considered concept of this charming bistro. Yes, it is swathed in pastel colours straight out of Anderson’s aesthetic – mauve and candy cotton pinks, sky blues, maroons, goldenrods and sage greens, and yes, it has a great interior wall mural of The Grand Budapest Hotel, but there’s much more to this place than what meets the eye.
Origin Story
Owner Megan Kritzinger, who is also the founder of Cape Town’s three vibey Stellski Coffee Bars and Cafés, created this deeply personal space, inspired by her time living in Nice where she fell in love with the lifestyle, the energy and the joy around French food and hospitality. Kritzinger adored the accessibility, diversity and warmth of bistros and cafés, where you could just as easily walk in off the street for a pastry and a coffee or a relaxed aperitif, as you could eat a whole meal complete with tableside service.
The Wes sits below The Trade Boutique Hotel, a 50-room hotel where glamour also meets quirk: both are ensconced in a post-modern building with nostalgic notes (in fact, hotel guests have their breakfast in the bistro, adding to that old-fashioned welcoming hotel feel). The look of The Wes with its statement entrance at street level up into the flamboyant bar and dining room with curved suspended ceilings, parquet floors and a central circular banquette wrapped around a fountain of feathers and flowers – is pure 20th century glamour and theatrics.
Vive La France this winter
Few cuisines have a leg up on France when it comes to comforting winter fare. French onion soup with a crusty gratinée of cheese, moules marinière, beef bourguignon, entrecôte with frites, crème brulée: this is the soul food of the French bistro tradition, and at The Wes, it’s alive and well.
A special three-course Winter Set Menu
Available for lunch or dinner daily, the Winter Set Menu is a collection of French bistro favourites that are spot on for the season. The starter course is a choice of French onion soup, dripping with rich beef stock, buttery onions, toasted bread and gratineed white cheddar, or a velvety chicken liver parfait, with toast and pickles. Mains follow with three choices: a wild mushroom medley with olive oil pea puree, grilled courgettes and truffled pommes boulangère, pan-seared duck breast with celeriac mash and sauce poivrade, or the quintessential steak frites, a 200g entrecôte (rib-eye) with Café de Paris butter, served with hand-cut triple-fried pomme frites and a side of homemade mayonnaise. For dessert, there is a choice of three classics: vanilla bean crème brûlée or The Wes Profiteroles, filled with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with dark chocolate sauce.
The greater à la carte menu, available at lunch and dinner too, offers a choice of these dishes and more, like a caramelised fig salad with cremezola and candied walnuts, a pan-seared salmon fillet with crispy skin, truffle and mint pea purée and fondant potatoes, and a deluxe chateaubriand to share, a 600gr fillet with roasted tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and hand cut frites. Add-ons include sauces: béarnaise, sauce verte, peppercorn, mushroom and brandy, and café de Paris butter.
There is also a new collection of fabulous sides including a little Caesar salad, extra frites (because one can never have too many), French green beans with sliced almonds and shallots, sautéed mushrooms with parsley and garlic, roasted pumpkin with goats cheese and sage, a cut of bone marrow with an herb crust, and corn au gratin with parmesan. Like all good French bistros, The Wes offers local cheese and artisanal cured meat plates, perfect paired with a glass of wine.
Breakfast at The Wes is served every day, 7am to 11:30am, and offers all the favourites like Eggs Benedict, three-egg omelettes, a full English breakfast, avocado toast and trout, a health bowl and overnight oats, along with a selection of French pastries. Stellski’s Salisbury Street Blend is the house coffee.
Eat Well, Drink Well
As in France, wine and cocktails are celebrated as part of The Wes experience. The house wine list has curated favourites representing the Western Cape, from smaller to stalwart producers, with many wines available by the carafe as well as the bottle.
Signature cocktails are injected with Kritzinger’s love of whimsy and Wes. Besides the Grand Budapest, there’s Captain Steve Zissou’s Revenge (named after Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou): Stolichnaya vodka, Campari, blue Curaçao, lemon, cranberry juice and soda –“a daring mix to lure the beast from the sea”. Mr Fox’s Sly Bourbon (inspired by the movie Fantastic Mr Fox) is “a clever blend that captures the essence of mischief and charm”: Woodford Reserve bourbon, brown butter, aromatic bitters, fresh orange, lemon and cherry. Well-crafted martinis, negronis, palomas and other classic cocktails are also poured at the elegant bar, with its illuminated arched mirrored alcoves.
In a nutshell
The Wes Winter Set Menu
At The Wes Bistro & Bar, Cape Town
Open daily Monday through Saturday, 7am to 11pm and Sunday from 7am to 5pm.
The Wes Winter Set Menu is priced at R495 per person
Reserve your table online via www.thewes.co.za or call +27 (0) 82 770 3573
