The Wes Bistro & Bar Introduces French Winter Menu

The Wes Bistro & Bar, which sits below The Trade Boutique Hotel in the Cape Town City Centre, has rolled out a new three-course Winter Set Menu. It runs daily for lunch and dinner and leans straight into proper French bistro comfort food.

 

Choose between starters, mains, and desserts. Start with either French onion soup or chicken liver parfait. The soup comes with the usual slow-cooked onions and melted cheese over toasted bread. The parfait is smooth, served with toast and pickles.

For mains, there’s a choice of mushroom medley with pea purée and truffled potatoes, duck breast with celeriac mash and sauce poivrade, or steak frites, a 200g rib-eye with Café de Paris butter and fries. Dessert is either crème brûlée or profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

The à la carte offering includes favourites like caramelised fig salad, pan-seared salmon with truffled pea purée, and a chateaubriand designed for sharing. At the bar, the mood shifts toward playful escapism. Cocktails nod to a cinematic universe with drinks such as Captain Steve Zissou’s Revenge and Mr Fox’s Sly Bourbon, alongside classic negronis, martinis, and palomas served beneath softly glowing arches.

The hot chocolate, served with marshmallows, is also worth ordering.

The Wes is unmistakably styled with a cinematic hand: pastel tones, curved forms, and whimsical detail that recall the visual language of Wes Anderson. But beneath the aesthetic lies a more personal origin. Wes founder Megan Kritzinger drew inspiration from time spent living in Nice, where she experienced the ease of French café culture: a place where a quick coffee, a glass of wine, or a full meal could all exist within the same space.

The restaurant is open daily. The Winter Set Menu is available until August and is priced at R495 per person. To make reservations, visit www.thewes.co.za or call +27 (0) 82 770 3573.