Since opening GALJOEN in June 2023, a seafood restaurant on Harrington Street focused on South African ingredients, chefs Anouchka Horn and Neil Swart—known for Belly of the Beast—are now preparing to launch their next project, SEEBAMBOES.

Perched on the mezzanine above GALJOEN, this intimate restaurant is a collaboration with chef Adél Hughes and artist Liebet Jooste. Together, they are crafting a tasting menu that reimagines ‘surf and turf’—a playful, nostalgic, and modern take on the classic pairing, designed to be celebratory and delicious

“If ‘surf and turf’ has had a bad rap, it’s because it’s been badly executed in the past”, says Swart. “It was always these obvious combinations, like steak and calamari, or steak and prawns, often quite unflatteringly prepared”.

Horn says the much-maligned carpetbagger steak was among the first dishes discussed when they began bouncing ideas around. “Because it’s one of those old-school dishes people order, but no one ever gets right”.

But Swart and Horn believe there are ways of combining sea- and land-harvested produce in more nuanced, experimental, and delicious ways. Their aim is to make ‘surf and turf’ memorable for all the right reasons.

With SEEBAMBOES, which translates directly from ‘sea bamboo’ (or Ecklonia maxima, a kelp that’s native to South Africa, grows up to 12m tall, and is a vital part of the Great African Seaforest visible around Cape Town), they plan to demonstrate the broader creative potential of sea and land ingredients brought together in imaginative ways.

“We’ve always been very passionate about ‘surf and turf’, says Horn. “We want to take that nostalgia aspect and flip it around, creating something new with it. Not necessarily a big piece of fish and a big piece of meat together on a plate. It might also be seaweed with meat, or a mix of seaweeds with land vegetables. Because vegetables are also turf, right?”.

Hughes, who will head up the kitchen, has been working on SEEBAMBOES in the back of her mind for a long time. It began in Betty’s Bay, where picking up pieces of dried kelp on the beach got her thinking about the interplay between sea and land, ocean and shore, and how ingredients harvested from both could serve as an interesting conceptual focus for a restaurant tasting menu.

“Rather than any usual surf and turf combinations, we’re coming in from the side and creating unanticipated flavours”, Hughes says. “We’re unlikely to do a straight steak and calamari, but at some stage, I do want to create a pairing of chokka and trinchado”.

Jooste, who will manage the restaurant, says they’re effectively ‘deconstructing’ surf and turf, “elevating everything from the land and from the sea in its own right as well”. That includes using sea bamboo, an incredibly nutritious, fast-growing sea vegetable, as an ingredient, experimenting with lesser-known indigenous plants, and playing with unexpected combinations in search of rewarding flavours.

The setting, too, will embody that playful spirit. Up some stairs from inside GALJOEN, diners will step into an intimate mezzanine space where food is prepared and cooked close to the tables. An impermanent ‘wall of curiosities’ artwork at the top of the stairs showcases objects picked up on the beach or from the veld, alluding to an ever-changing menu that reflects the seasons, food memories and cravings, and new culinary ideas triggered by long conversations about specific dishes and their potential for reinvention.

High tables with tall chairs will create a faintly bar-like atmosphere, and through the large rectangular window, there’s an unexpected view of Table Mountain visible over the chefs’ shoulders. The design scheme incorporates reclaimed glass embedded with sea sand so that it appears to have been weathered by years spent tumbling around in the ocean. Together with colours derived from sea bamboo, these subtle touches will imaginatively evoke the shoreline – that in-between place where land and ocean engage in a kind of eternal conversation. A clean, simple, sophisticated space with the focus absolutely on the food. Comfortable too, and despite the scale of the dining concept, the restaurant itself will be incredibly intimate – 16 diners at a push.

“We don’t like big restaurants, so the size is perfect for us”, says Swart, who hopes each meal will take all the diners in the room on a shared culinary adventure. “A tasting menu should be like going to watch a good show”, he says. “It takes you on a journey that flows according to a rhythm”.

“And we’re doing that with some very cool dishes”, says Horn. “And with huge imagination”.

Sustainability is a key priority at SEEBAMBOES, with a focus on innovation to reduce waste and uphold an ethical approach to sourcing ingredients. Much like at BELLY OF THE BEAST and GALJOEN, the aim is to strike the right balance between delivering a memorable dining experience and maintaining respect for both ingredients and the environment. Swart explains that this ethos is realised by remaining steadfast in their commitment to sourcing produce and proteins locally. “We’ve set our boundaries as the borders of our country – no imported prawns, salmon, or anything of that sort. We simply don’t believe in bringing in foreign ingredients when we have such an abundance right here”.