Bigger & more beautiful: Grand Africa Cafe & Beach is back

Sipping cocktails with soft white sand between your toes, palm trees swaying and blue ocean vistas isn’t just a tropical island dream.

Bringing that dream alive with retro style is Grand Africa Cafe & Beach in Granger Bay, which has been a favourite Cape Town summer destination since 2009. It's recently reopened looking even more beautiful after a multimillion-rand revamp courtesy of new stakeholders Harbour House.

The minute you walk down the new boardwalk, the view of the ocean, palm trees and huge mirror ball will inspire a summer holiday mood demanding sparkly sandals and summer dresses for leisurely lunches segueing into sundowners.

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It also feels like a welcoming and fun place to bring the kids for big family get-togethers. Even though it seats 1,000 people, with all the different areas (two separate sets of parasol-shaded tables on the beach, the terrace and two indoor spaces) it doesn’t feel crowded and there’s plenty of room between the dining areas for bucket and spade play, plus a giant chessboard and more.

The Grand’s approach to food is all about sharing. Going against the current trend for small tapas plates, it embraces enormous platters of seafood for the whole table and giant rectangular wood-fired pizzas to feed a family.

Seafood is the cafe’s speciality – delicious tender calamari with aioli and salsa verde, oysters from the Knysna Oyster Company, linefish tagliata with grated ginger and Cajun spice topping, and fresh prawns served with peri-peri sauce. The huge Chalmar sirloin steaks on the bone are also proving popular, and there’s also a short sushi menu.

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However busy it gets, with five different bars around the beach to order from directly, drinks keep flowing: champagne, MCC and cocktails from mixologists at the Pongracz bar, craft beers from the container bar, wine and GH Mumm Champagne by the glass, and mocktails too.

The complete refurb of the vintage warehouse, adding sliding glass doors, a marble bar and an intimate second bar with a fireplace, means you can get cosy and enjoy the beach vibe and sea views indoors in winter too.

And the revamp has provided more shelter: even though the wind was blowing hard in the city when we visited, we enjoyed lunch with only the occasional gust blowing menus away.

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This article is adapted from one originally published in one of the Sunday Times Neighbourhood: Property and Lifestyle guides. Visit Yourneighbourhood.co.za, like YourNeighbourhoodZA on Facebook and follow YourHoodZA on Twitter.