This New Restaurant In Cape Town Has No Tipping, No Waiters And No Kitchen Walls

There is a new kitchen on the block in Cape Town CBD and it comes with a bunch of new and never-been-seen-before offerings. Pilcrow & Cleaver, the brainchild of Chef Judi Fourie, has a no-tipping policy, no waiters and features a kitchen with no walls.

The new restaurant is located on Church Square, in the heart of Cape Town’s CBD and invites guests to not only taste its food but also to experience it with the chef.

For Chef Judi cooking is a passion that she has been nurturing from a young age and the world nearly missed out on this when she got selected to study medicine.

But when you taste her creations you know she chose wisely when she decided to hang up the scalpel and opt for a chef’s knife instead because another symbiosis exists, and it is the humble synergy between (the) Pilcrow & (the) Cleaver.

Pilcrow, is a symbol (¶) used to mark a new paragraph and Cleaver represents food. The food you enjoy every day is a paragraph in your life, and every day there’s a new one.

For Chef Judi Pilcrow & Cleaver isn’t a final destination, it’s a vessel. A constant new start.

There are no waiters. You can talk to the chef directly as she whips up some magic right in front of your eyes. There is no tipping, everyone from back to the front of house are paid appropriately. There is no hush-hush behind closed kitchen doors, in fact, this kitchen has no doors. And it is all part of your culinary journey. As is the library of cookbooks where you can browse, purchase and stir up the chef within from the collection of unique books that you won’t find at your run-of-the-mill bookstores. And the retail shelf is stocked with delicacies like homemade marmalades, pickles, branded aprons and more.

Pilcrow & Cleaver is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with small plates, mains and desserts. You can expect bold modern Euro-flavours with a South African flair. There is kaiings, but kaiings that graduated cum laude from a culinary university, giving you a taste of childhood memories. There is the gooey soft chocolate chip cookie with milk jam – yes, milk jam – that tastes like home. There is calamari steak served on top of soy spätzle noodles… and so much more!

What you see today, you might not taste tomorrow. The menu changes every week. And that’s the exciting part, the constant new start. That there are always new flavours to explore.



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