Review Con Brio Bistro - Cape Town Central

Cozy and relaxed atmosphere, great spot for families. The food is beautifully presented and super flavorful. In a cold winter day, the mountain vibe and the strong wind make a perfect pairing with any soup available on the menu. The menu offers a great variety of small plates for a fair price, the portions are generous! Not only the soups, I also recommend the poached pears (WORTH LOOKING FOR IT) and the open ravioli. Yummy! I found it on Feastfox, and even though I had to travel for 15 min to get there, it was worth it :)

The food is really delicious, fresh and well-presented. But more importantly, it's great value for money and not pretentious at all. Portions are generous and I never walk away feeling cheated. The service is consistently excellent, which is almost unusual at Cape Town restaurants these days. The "small plates" are worth it if you want to try different things (I am usually full after two plates and am not shy on the food front!). My husband and I usually get four and sometimes another (more because it tastes good than because we're hungry!). My faves are the squid, the chicken livers and the potato cakes. The menu changes though so these might not be there in summer. All the gnocchi dishes are wonderful. Great mains: the steak, the gnocchi with the creamy, spicy sausage sauce and the ostrich steak. Get the baby chicken if that's available when you're there. And for dessert: the peanut butter swirl ice cream is worth abandoning a Banting diet for -- BEST peanut butter dessert ever. The donuts are lekker too and the chocolate meringue thing is lovely and light. The apple cigars with cinnamon and salted caramel is also quite yum.

What a little neighborhood gem! I must admit that this bistro lacks curb appeal so I have passed on it for years. However, yesterday I went there for lunch with my husband (we are foodies) and we were pleasantly surprised. The light meal menu is extensive and well priced with a lot of vegetarian options. The wine list is good too. Can't wait to go back for dinner.

The cosy & inviting Con Brio Bistro is such a gem in the heart of Vredehoek 👌🏻🍴🥂 An absolutely delish experience with friendly service from Tobias & Vanessa 😊 The food is hearty, well-priced & so moreish 😋 Nothing was too much trouble for them and they happily changed the gnocchi dish to my liking. They are also on The Entertainer ZA app. I couldn't get enough of the mussels & gnocchi! The creamy sauce for the mussels was mind-blowing! I think it was the addition of bacon 🥓 Hubby enjoyed his stuffed Little Bird (chicken). The portion was very generous. We will definitely be back for more 😍 Haven't experienced such a relaxed and welcoming ambience in a long time. They have some great meal deals too. And you can take a book or two from their bookcase as long as you return them or replace them with other books Can't wait to go back! #foodie #yum #blogger #lovecapetown #livingitupct

Their garlic burgers and fries are so delicious! I had them a couple of years back, and returned recently to have them again. I was impressed once more! Service is good too. The only downside was that the restaurant was very hot and stuffy. Although it had a fan on, it didn't help much to combat the hot weather. Some air conditioning would be great.

A nice place to chill at best food anyone can ever taste.... A place to b

A local favourite place of mine that I frequent almost every month for their famous and fantastic Quiz Night! A well-priced Italian restaurant with great service and a good selection of drinks (beers on tap and wines by the bottle). The Owner is always present and waits on tables. Will miss this place when I move. Definitely recommend for a quiet mid-week night.

Nice little establishment with good service and reasonably price food. Pizza was good comfort food!

Me and my husband love this place! We've been twice since it opened. The small plate menu is regularly changing so we tried a host of different plates each time. They were all great. The quality is really high and it is a much more interesting bet than Woodlands Eatery next door in my opinion, which I find hit and miss. I was really surprised by how great the food was, considering its unassuming appearance and reasonable prices, but the quality is excellent. They do really good cocktails too, so it's fun to come with friends and share the tasting plates over cocktails. Definitely my new favourite place to eat in the neighbourhood!

Had an early dinner on Saturday afternoon. Loved the chilled out vibe. The hostess was so accommodating and friendly considering we had a 3 year old. The food delicious! Undoubtedly the best seafood pasta I've ever eaten, the seafood was fresh not the usual seafood mix and the chili mentioned in the description could actually be tasted :-) Look forward to trying out the amazing selection of vegan fare next time round!

The people who give this place anything more than 2 stars must be cooked, because firstly the place was cooking hot. Almost no ventilation and no air con. Only one tiny fan in the corner that offered no relief to the blistering heat. Kind of makes you feel like you’re at some dingy back alley diner in Thailand where sweat and heat is the norm. <br/><br/>AND DONT ORDER THE PIZZA<br/><br/>While their pizza toppings looked good, the actual pizza is not. I am not sure how they make it but it was greasy as hair that’s been unwashed for months. The one pizza almost tasted like it had blue cheese instead of mozzarella. I hate blue cheese. <br/><br/>Both pizzas came out very watery. Like a disgusting mushy kind of watery. The tomato paste tasted extra artificial. The Avo was raw. They burnt the first pizza and when they brought it out again it was half cooked. At least they didn’t charge for the second one. <br/><br/>the waitress was at least kind and pleasant. But that was probably the only good thing this place has going for it.

A long while back I came here for the 2 course special on their Wednesday quiz night. This place was so much fun! The quiz master was absolutely brilliant and the owner, Vanessa, was so welcoming and very hands on. <br/><br/>I had the calamari steaks as main and the gnocchi as starters. My friend had the pork fillet as mains and the arancini balls as starters. Massive portions! As in ginormous! The food was also very flavoursome, although I did prefer the pork fillet dish over the ostrich steaks. <br/><br/>Today however I decided to order in from here. I remember their burgers looking really nice the last time I was at the restaurant, and so that seemed to be a good option. <br/><br/>The patty is handmade was lots of flavour. The buns are lathered in garlic butte goodness. The chips are handcut real potatoes and the onion rings are crispy guilty pleasures. <br/><br/>I was super happy with my takeaway, but definitely should make a point of returning to the restaurant soon.

I honestly didn't like the location of the restaurant. I had to go through winding roads to reach here. For a Sunday afternoon, the restaurant was quite full but we managed to get a seat.<br/><br/>There is no veg label on the menu, therefore I asked a guy who was helping us, but he wasn't helpful. Then I asked for the free wifi password, but he looked confused, then said it wasn't his restuarent & that he was helping. He eventually got the wifi password, but wifi was too slow & there was no good signal. The restuarent has very poor ventilation & was very hot inside.<br/><br/>We ordered veg pizza & veg fried gnocchi. The food was tasty but gnocchi was very greasy ( it was literally soaked in oil).<br/><br/>I was introduced to this restuarent because of the entertainer. I used it for the bill, but the lady ( I'm going presume the owner) was very unhappy that we didn't buy any drinks and said it was in the terms & conditions of the entertainer. I showed her the terms & conditions and it does not mention that we must buy drinks. My mom and I don't drink alcohol or carbonated drinks. Anyways, it should be the customers choice whether they want drinks or not. We did however, order the free slice of lemon in hot water ( as we both are health conscious & were very thirsty).<br/><br/>In overall, the food was good, average staff, small cafe & hilly location. Try their fried gnocchi...I found this to be unique.<br/><br/>

nice food. best ostrich in town! service is excellent and quiz nights a lot of fun<br/>great wine list... go there and enjoy! Weekly specials are burger on tuesday and pizza on wednesday.

Great food and ambiance. Friendly staff. It never disappoints!<br/>The owner is very hands-on and this makes a real difference. <br/>The small plates are always a winner.

Had an amazing time with friends. The wife and I shared the garlic bread with feta and fig, and the arancini (risotto balls) to start and basically licked the plates clean. Dinner was the burger and the fish. We loved the place, the owner was there, very hands on and very attentive. If you like good food, at an owner run restaurant I highly recommend Con Brio.

A friend is a bit of a regular here, and suggested that we go for the 2-for-1 burgers with 2 other friends. The others went for the beef burgers, and I chose the veggie burger. They all thought the beef burgers were good. I'm still not sure what I ate (the waitress first described it as cornbread-like with veggies, then mentioned potato starch). The chips were very good, as were the onion rings. All very cheap with the 2-for-1 deal too. <br/><br/>The service was not very good, particularly the waitress we had. From the explanation of the veggie burger, to forgetting to place the order for our onion rings (the chef was informed and apologised and rectified this quickly), to leaving 2 items of the bill. The owner and chef were much better, and I will return with the friend to try them again, going for a better experience.

Quite impressed with this new bistro on the block. A big improvement on the place that was there before. I got their Steak which was cooked perfectly, and had their tiramisu for dessert, which was good but the portion was a bit on the smaller side. My friends had the ostrich and the duck -and their food looked great too. Their spring 2 or 3 course deal is good value for money. <br/>The atmosphere is great; nice and quiet too. Service was very good  - will definitely be back.

Came upon this little gem by accident. Had the fig, garlic, balsamic and almond pizza for breakfast. Pity I am leaving today, the menu is vast and every dish sounds delicious. Will definitely be back to try more of their dishes! WOW!!!

Food is awesome, the mussels were super fresh and very tasty, the chicken livers were done just right with onions truly caramelized! The summer lunch special is great and worth it, love the setting and the decor. Will be back soon

We had a birthday party here for 15 people - we had delicious variety of starters - mussels, baked Camembert, rocket, almond and balsamic focaccia - all so delicious. Mains varied from thick, perfectly cooked sirloin, excellent Cardinal line fish, loved the chips all followed by a birthday cheese cake with raspberry coulis - the service was exceptional. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this restaurant. The waitress and manager are super attentive and the food was delicious. I had a wheat free pizza that was definitely one of the best ive had. The base was thin, crunchy and perfectly cooked. I went with a party of 10 people and all of us left incredibly happy and quite excited to have discoved a place like this in our neighbourhood. I will be back soon!

very cozy spot! <br/><br/>The food is always yummy! Nothing too get excited about! The service is good as well! This is a place you can go to and know that, that they will not disappoint!

Con Brio had a chance to really impress me - I was super hungry, very keen to eat here, and I was in a bit of a hurry. I could've left a brilliant, 4.5/5 rating quite easily... but I shan't. I ordered the B.A.F. - Bacon, avocado and feta. This is a pizza which is quite common - something any Italian restaurant in Cape Town has to offer. I was happy when the pizza arrived, my stomach grumbling. Firstly, the pizza was very hot - usually a positive, except this was as a result of the excess oil on the pizza. I plowed through anyway, except... I found a hair cooked into my pizza. I feel I was too lenient, I didn't even complain. I left feeling that the pizza was still quite tasty, with an unfortunate result. I hope this isn't common practice here... I'll be back to check soon. 30%.

I'm almost selfishly tempted not to give this gem a rating of 5 as I don't want the rest of Cape Town to discover it :-) We only have great things to say for the great service, amazing food, great value for money, and quite a few veggie options. It's great that the owners are so hands on too...

This was the best burger I have eaten in Cape Town bar Starlings. Fresh ingredients, good quality meat, not too saucy. Nice atmosphere too and friendly staff.

DONT TRY THE PIZZA! Unfortunately it only takes one bad experience to warrant a bad review, but this place will never see me again. There used to be an Italian place called d'Angelos in the same location. We used to go there from time to time to eat their pizza, and it was pretty good pizza. (not that pizza can be bad can it?) So we decided to give the new place a go. After already ordering the pizza we noticed that (except for the total lack of ambiance compared to the previous place) there was something really important missing.... the pizza oven. I don't know what they used to concoct our pizza, but judging by the texture it was the microwave. I asked for a pizza with no cheese and no feta (specifically) and it arrived with feta. Now being a vegan, I am pretty used to this. It seems Capetownians don't know that feta is a type of cheese. So I sent it back and got a new pizza in record time. Too fast. it was completely undercooked. I took most of it home and cooked it further and it still tasted pretty horrible. The spinach was chewy, which I have never come across, and the whole thing was tasteless. I asked for garlic and balsamic expecting to get a little tray with chilli and sauces like you get at other places that serve pizza, but no, I literally only got garlic and balsamic. It wasn't just that my pizza was half raw, my boyfriend also didn't like his pizza. The quality is just absolutely crap. Never again

After leaving a café because it took almost half an hour to deliver our drinks, Con Brio saved the day! With a welcoming atmosphere, great small plates and ABSOLUTELY AMAZING burgers. Kid friendly and live sports. The staff there are down to earth and very observant, something one needs on a Sunday afternoon.

Ambience 2/5<br/>Food 3/5<br/><br/>Food combinations were new- but not enough staff for restaurant. The decor and ambience is not exciting - garlic pizza starter was good, calamari was good.

Love the atmosphere and the food was very nice. The deep fried potato gnocchi is delicious. I'm not a blue cheese fan but this dish might just convert me. The images by a local artist just add that personal feel to a very nice afternoon hangout spot. Will definitely be back soon.

We only had the burger; if you like garlic you'll love this burger. The bread roll is toasted with garlic butter. The meat patty was cooked medium so.. nice and juicy and comes with grilled cheese and some pickled accompaniments (gherkin, peppadew). No sides are served with the burger but I've heard the garlic fries are good.

Such a nice little Bistro, situated literally a few blocks away from Table Mountain in Vredehoek. They have a nice enclosed outside area and a slightly bigger area inside. During summer months the outside area will be a hit! The menu is small (which is a huge plus in my books), but with something for every taste. Their Burgers are of decent size with a home made patty and perfectly toasted bun. They also serve great pizzas. I tried the deep fried gnocchi with butternut,spinach and gorgonzola.. Amazing with full of flavour! Certainly a place that I will visit again.

Pork neck and arancini balls come highly recommended! Owner SO lovely, allowing us in for a glass of wine before they opened. Small but good wine selection. Friendly staff. Will definitely be back!

Ended up here by chance on our way to another restuarant. What we found was an absolute gem where the service is top rated. Out irish coffee was on the house, the portion of mussels gigantic and the pork neck starter was phenomenal. Do not miss this gem.

A hidden gem. As my first time at this restaurant I was pleasantly surprised by their delicious meals - gourmet standards at affordable prices. I will definitely be coming back for more. Excellent service, amazing management and a great vibe. I highly recommend their salmon salad.

This is a cosy little restaurant with a nice feel. The rib eye steak main was very good but I found the pork neck starter to be a little on the dry side.

Interesting and great tasting tapas Generous portions Lovely baked Camembert and awesome squid dish Malva pudding also tops Good service Definitely worth a visit

Foodie heaven! Their winter special is great value for money at R139.00 for a 2 course meal. Portions are generous...I tried the mussel starter( generous portion) with toasties...my friends raved about the Camembert starter and pork neck...their steaks were cooked to perfection and my sea bass was tasty and moist served with the most authentic potato chips( skins on)! Will definitely be back for more

Wow!....is all I can say about this little Gem in Vredehoek. The restaurant itself is quite small so I'm sure on a busy night booking is recommended but the food is superb! The menu is varied enough to satisfy most tastes and pricing in relation to the superb quality is excellent. I had the ostrich steak and my wife had the sirloin, both done to perfection and masterchef quality presented. Our baked cheesecake to end of our meal was also heavenly. A gem of a find and we will be back. Highly recommended!

There is so much to love about this place, and I've personally raved about it in the past, BUT I had a very disappointing experience recently. I went with a Muslim friend, who ordered the French Onion soup. It arrived packed full of pork! Needless to say this was rather upsetting. The owner made no attempt to apologise, and only when I made a loud remark within earshot did she eventually (an hour later) say "oh I heard about that... sorry" So yes, as much as I love the food, I love the concept of customer service more, so I won't be back.

Perfect place to sit after work and have a cocktail to unwind. Service is lovely. And it has this cosy outside patio with blankets - perfect for cuddling up in winter. Their small plates are divine (of what I have tasted so far). Basically I could go there everyday easily. Also cannot wait to try their burgers on 2for1 on a tuesday!

We have been there twice for dinner and have not been disappointed. The service is quick and friendly. The ambiance is warm and pleasing. The food is prepared with care and attention to detail. The ostrich steak has not dissapointed with great exotic taste.the pork neck is delicious and<br/>Succulent. On my second visit I tried the calamari ,baked camberbert and creme brulee. Nice portions and a chance to enjoy many flavours at a good price. Definitely will go back

Just had dinner at Con Brio - brilliant burger. Highly recommend

Con Brio ticks all the boxes. We were surprised to find so few people dining on Wednesday evening. The food was fresh, beautifully presented and the owner, management and staff were all pleasant and attentive. The prices are modest and the really good thing is that they have smaller plates so you can have 2 or three different mains. Or still have a big steak! Jane had the mussel pot and raved. I had stuffed pimentos followed by pork neck, both delicious. My wife fought with me over the chocolate panacotta. I hope they are successful. I want to go back again soon.

Having eaten at Con Brio several times since its opening, I thought that it was the perfect venue to have a business lunch at. Not knowing everyone's preference for food, the diversity of the menu allows you to order from 'tapas' type options as well as main courses. Loved the mussels, now one of my favourites on the menu after the baby squid salad. If you haven't yet tried this quaint eatery, you must.<br/>