Clarke's runs one long shift from breakfast coffee to last call, and somewhere around dusk the diner quietly hands the room over to the bar.
Published June 11, 2026 · By Daniel Okafor
Clarke's Bar and Dining Room holds down 133 Bree Street, the spine of central Cape Town's eating and drinking strip. The team opened it in 2011, and EatOut still files it as a Bree Street fixture. It reads as a designer diner by day and a proper bar by night.
The food is the hook that keeps people coming back. The butter fried brioche bun burgers are the headline order, the all day breakfast carries the morning, and the oysters and sandwiches fill the hours in between. Clarke's serves from 8am, which makes it one of the few rooms on the street working the full day.
The drinking sharpens after dark. The cocktail list is the reason regulars linger past dinner, and on weekends a DJ turns the dining room into a late night bar. Anyone mapping the street should also read our guide to the best cocktail bars in Cape Town.
The layout gives you three ways to sit. Sidewalk tables for people watching on Bree, the designer diner counter inside, and a plant filled courtyard at the back for a quieter drink. The mix lets the room flex from a fast lunch to a slow evening without changing character.
The crowd tracks the clock. Remote workers and brunch tables fill the morning, a Bree Street lunch rush takes over midday, and a dressed down after work group settles in for cocktails as the light goes. By the weekend the bar end runs loud and late.
The diner look is part of the draw. Clarke's leans on a clean retro counter, hard surfaces, and big windows onto Bree, so the room reads bright at breakfast and warms up under low light at night. It is a deliberate piece of design rather than a theme, and it lets a single space feel like two venues across a day.
Go between 11am and a quarter to four if the sandwiches and the calmer room are the goal, a window the venue itself flags as the sweet spot. Come after nine on a Friday or Saturday for the DJ and the bar in full swing. A weekday evening splits the difference for a relaxed drink.
Clarke's sits in good company on the strip. A few doors of walking gets you to La Parada on Bree for sherry and pintxos, while The House of Machines handles the late cocktail and live music end. All three anchor the wider Cape Town cocktail scene that makes Bree Street worth a full evening.
For what to order, the brioche burger is the safe headline, but the oysters and a cocktail make the better grown up order once the bar takes over. The all day breakfast carries a slow morning, and the kitchen handles a quick weekday lunch without fuss. A negroni or a house highball reads the room best after six.
The Bree Street setting is half the appeal. The strip carries more of Cape Town's drinking culture per block than anywhere else in the centre, and Clarke's has held its corner of it since 2011 while newer rooms have opened and closed around it. That longevity is its own recommendation on a street that turns over fast.
What guests praise most is the range, a single address that does breakfast, burgers, oysters, and cocktails without dropping the standard. The recurring caution is the weekend volume, when the music climbs and a quiet conversation gets harder to hold. Prices stay honest in the $$ band, which keeps it an everyday option rather than a splurge.
Sources: Clarke's official site (clarkesdining.co.za); EatOut Cape Town venue listing; Tripadvisor Cape Town Central reviews; Clarke's official Facebook page.