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“We’re bringing back the boerie!”
That’s the bold, boerewors-powered plan from restaurateur and chef Neil Swart who, together with business partner Anouchka Horn, is shaking up the edible attractions of Cape Town's East City.
If those names sound familiar, they should, because they are no strangers to Cape Town’s restaurant scene. In 2018 they transformed an old bike shop on Harrington Street into Belly of the Beast, a restaurant with a set menu and a bold approach to nose-to-tail cooking. It was an instant hit.
They followed that up in 2023 with Galjoen, bringing that same focus on ingredients to South African seafood. In 2025 Seebamboes took it up another notch, with a more refined tasting menu experience. Now they’re both ramping it up and dialling it back, with ambitious plans for three new Harrington Street restaurants opening this year.
We’ll get to the other two in a bit, but for now let’s get down to the wors.
“Everyone is opening up smashburger joints, and that’s all the rage, but Anouchka and I always wondered why you can’t get a bloody good boerie roll on every corner of this country?”
So while they’re not quite solving the ‘every corner’ problem, when BURI opens in mid-2026 they’ll have fixed at least one corner in the East City.
BURI is going to keep things “lekker simple”, says Swart.
“Somebody wrote that we’re reimagining the boerewors roll. We’re not doing that, we’re just doing it properly, with good ingredients and a bit of care and attention,” says Swart. “Good sausage on a lekker bun, cooked on a charcoal fire, of course. Homemade sauces to go with that. Chips made with real potatoes. The basics. But we’ll also play around a little bit, with air-drying the sausage in the fridges to really ramp up the flavour.”
ICYMI: We love the East City! Check out our guide to the best spots
While the menu will keep it simple too – think Classic or Double Classic – these are chefs after all, and they can’t resist the temptation to play with their food. But forget about going global for inspo, they’re keeping it local for the occasional special.
“We’ll stick to local. Maybe a sosatie wors, with the sosatie curry flavours, maybe a lamb sausage, or a venison sausage. Nothing too out there, we don’t want to not do justice to the boerewors.”
While we are totally there for the boerie roll done right, we’ll also be keeping an eye on the other two outlets they have in the works.
In a cool basement space across the road from BURI, Quagga (opening late-2026, they say) will bring the same set-menu format that made Belly famous, but with a focus on wild game meats and fish.
“We love changing people’s minds, whether it’s about offal or venison, which is the most delicious and healthiest meat when treated properly,” says Swart.
Last, but not least, is No Show... a playful poke at the issue that riles restaurateurs, but also a flip of the Belly concept. Here there are no reservations, and it’s à la carte only, with a menu that’s as creative as Belly and Galjoen, but pared down. Quicker, easier, less of an investment in time and money. There will also be burgers and steaks on offer, making it more of a casual ‘let’s pop in’ kind of place than the ‘book-a-week-in-advance’ vibes of the OGs. No Show is set to open in late-2026.
Long story short? Harrington Street is in for a tasty year ahead, with Horn and Swart firing up a trio of delicious new dining destinations in the East City.
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