Review Cruise Cafe - Knysna

Lovely dinner by the water! Staff was attentive and efficient. Each meal carefully prepared for our group. Highly recommend the Elephant Milkshake and Crème Brûlée

Featherbed experience starts with a boat ride on board Spirit of Knysna and guide giving information about parts of Knysna and Featherbed. Then there is the ride on a viewing vehicle to the restaurant. A circular walk back to restaurant guided. Not recommended for people who are challenged to do downhill. The buffet was lovely. Hake a bit dry, but calamari and roasted, smoked beef and salads to die for. The desserts looked amazing. The cruise Cafe served lovely cupochino.

Friendly service, generous portions, beautiful view of the estuary and a play area for the kiddies. It's an all-in-one deal 🤩👌🏻

We popped in to Cruise Cafe looking for a sundowner drink. Ended up having a few tapas as well. We arrived just after 6pm, the place was full at 7pm. Great venue with great views of the lagoon, reasonable prices and great service with friendly attentive waiters. A must visit!

Unbelievable good food. Everything tasted like a dream. Our waitress was gorgeous as well and the atmosphere just cosy and nice. Loved everything.

Friendly staff, beautiful setting overlooking the estuary. Freshly prepared meals with amazing portion sizes.

This lovely little restaurant is on the water in Knysna in the most beautiful setting. It was recommended to me by a local friend but it far exceeded our expectations! The staff were friendly and there is a wide selection of food - something for everyone. If you need to stop in Knysna and fancy a bite or refreshing drink in a gorgeous setting, this is the place.

Great views, friendly staff, good food, cold beer and a reasonable wine selection. The steak main course is particularly tender and tasty.

Great spot with good food and views. I absolutely loved the eight seater square tables they are fabulous and social we could all sit together and chat without one person being out of the conversation. There is also a fireplace so great for colder nights! Will definitely be back!

We got there at 18H00 and it was not to busy. Parking at the side by the entrance is better than the street parking There is yeti running into the lagoon that makes it look cool. And is a great place to watch the sun set and to take pictures. We had the calamari tubes fried. The food was great and the beer too😉.

We had a fabulous Mother's Day lunch at the Cruise Cafe...we had such a warm welcome, the service was fabulous and all 5 of us enjoyed our meals ...the prawns were great and hubby loved his burger and the desserts were soooo yummy...

Great view with tasty food, maybe a little bit overpriced. Definitely worth a visit plus you can book a cruise there which is also awesome.

Nice outdoor atmosphere. After tour there was a nice buffet and the food wasn't bad. I tried the babooti and was surprised that I liked it (I'm not adventurous when it comes to food). They had plenty of non-seafood choices as well. The buffet is included in the tour price, however drinks are extras (which was clearly explained in advance). The tour takes you to the top of the trail, and then you walk back down, ending at the café. Don't waste too much time walking though - we almost missed lunch because we took too much time for photos. You don't need to rush, just be aware of the time.

Amazing food and great service. Thank you and will be dropping by a lot

Very nice restaurant with good food. Overlooking the Knysna Heads, beautiful view

Unfortunately the place has really gone down in food quality over the past years. Really loved to come here but it’s unfortunately become very average.

Excellent setting, service and food!<br/>It has been our second visit and we were thrilled by the hospitality and prompt, professional service. Always worth a visit!

This is a lovely waterfront spot, with casual seating outdoors and a more formal restaurant inside. We arrived for dinner early and sat outside, finding a table as far from the live music as possible. The singer was great, but the volume rendered conversion pointless. <br/><br/>As it grew cooler, we moved inside, a table of 4 adults and 2 kids. <br/><br/>The menu looks like a small local newspaper and was cute, although a little difficult to navigate. But we found a great selection of seafood! Between us, we ordered calamari, fish and chips, mussels in cream sauce and the kids hake and chips. All the meals were fabulous. The batter on the fish was crisp and not oily. The mussels were delish and the calamari tender and yummy.<br/><br/>Great night out and a lively restaurant suitable for families with older kids.

The waitrons are of the best trained that we have encountered. Very professional service. There's an amazing wooden deck and ferry loading bay. Arguably the best burger in town. On the Knysna lagoon.

We had a solid breakfast here today, overlooking the water <br/>I can't rate them too high as it was a standard English breakfast but they get an extra half mark for the ton if bacon they gave us.<br/>Our waitress was lovely and told us all about the good things to come back for one evening so I am sure we will return!

Visited this restaurant on day 1 of my trip in knysna last week and I have no complaints. I enjoyed my food however my steak was really small so had it not been for that I would have scored 4.5/5. <br/><br/>This restaurant has a nice view as well, our waitress was super friendly too ! Overall a relaxed and pleasant experience.

Thanks to the Cruise Cafe we had the opportunity to join their Opera cruise. <br/><br/>This was an interesting experience. The artists were quite good and everybody seemed to enjoy it. <br/><br/>They did some extra effort to accomodate our dietary requirements. Thank you very much! The food and the service was realy good. <br/><br/>We had more than enough to eat and enjoyed the cruise to the Knysna heads. <br/><br/>The Cruise Cafe is also very accomodating for patrons who need to get some work done over a cup of coffee with more than adequate power points. <br/><br/>They are also very well situated in central Knysna. <br/><br/>Really worth a try. <br/>

I ate lunch here with my family on the 23 January 2016. Sat on the deck with lovely views overlooking the lagoon. <br/>I had the venison samoosa with cranberry sauce which was surprisingly delicious, it left me wanting more - I did not expect savoury and sweet to blend so well. The sirloin steak was average and the amarula Creme brulee was okay. I've had dinner here on 2 occassions previously - 2014 and 2015 and their food standard has declined a bit which is very disappointing. Their food is well priced. If not for the food, go there for the experience, it's worth it.

I must say it was the morning of disappointments in Knysna today. After having a very unsatisfactory experience at another restaurant we went in search of good oysters. I had a previous experience that was good at Cruise Cafe so we found our way there. We sat down and got menu's. Took time to decide to order when once again we had a bad experience. We ordered oysters only to be told it not available (no upfront communications on out of stock items). Then our menu's were suddenly abruptly taken away by the manager and we were told that we were accidentally given old (redundant) menu's. Given that the menu's are printed like a newspaper and these were in mint condition I find the story of old redundant menu's just accidentally lying around hogwash. It quickly started making sense when we looked at the new Holiday Edition menu - basically the same menu items just marked up on price on every single item. Obviously the off season vs peak season menu's. I hate being so blatantly ripped off and after perusing the original menu for more than 10 minutes I feel it is questionable to grab my menu and give me the over-inflated price one - they should have taken the knock and not made their mistake my problem. I voiced my dissatisfaction with the manager when I left and heard her snigger with the staff - she obviously thought my dissatisfaction was a big joke. Sad to say we called it a day and left Knysna oysterless and completely dissatisfied with our cullinary experience. Another Knysna restaurant that will never see me again.

Cruise cafe is located right on the water and the sunsets behind the Knysna mountains-beautiful! But the food is really bad, we had the muscles mains which comes with a "white wine" sauce but all it tasted of was either flour or corn flour. The calamari was ok, we also ordered the market fish, the fish was dry, tough and sauce was not good at all. Really bad!

Had a lovely lunch yesterday, service was attentive but not overbearing. Shared the jalapeño poppers as a starter and was very impressed with the portion size and taste - a bit on the hot side but nothing our drinks couldn't handle. We both had cruise burgers and they were excellent ! Home made juicy beef patty with decent side of fries. Wife had the amarula creme brule for desert and father in law the cheese cake - both were very good and presented beautifully on the plate. Overall a very good experience and will definitely be back again.

I will admit that I was very sceptical after the waitress took our order. We had to repeat it at least three times and then she still came back to check the order again. We did come late and I really appreciate the manager opening up the kitchen so that we could order desserts and coffee. We did wait a while before our orders finally arrived. It was worth the wait though! Amarula creme brulle with peanut brittle was amazing, the cherry cheesecake was soft, felt that it could have been chilled a bit more to stiffen the cheesecake a bit more but it had tons of flavour. If you have time, go around sunset and enjoy a wine while waiting for your food to arrive. No rush

Cruise Cafe is a large, open restaurant right next to the Knysna lagoon. As you enter you immediately notice the beautiful wood work and art which is used throughout the restaurant to help enhance the nautical theme. My personal favourites are the wooden fish by the entrance. <br/>The food was good although we did wait a very long time before it arrived but this was due to the poor planning by our waitress who decided that she would bring the drinks and starters together which resulted in us waiting 35 minutes for our drinks to arrive. The jalapeños chilli poppers stuffed with feta, pepperdew and mozzarella are deliciously hot and well stuffed but lack consistency in size resulting in some being very big and messy to eat. I usually don't order hamburgers but I am glad I did as the Cruise Burger was beefy and the filling. The caramelised onions really made the burger for me. Overall everyone at the table was pleased with their meals.<br/>Our waitress was quite slow and did make a few mistakes (spilling wine, touching the tomato sauce in a bowl, delaying food) but was still very friendly. The restaurant is also very clean and although it has a nautical theme it completely avoids being tacky. One of the things I liked the most is that although it is right next to the lagoon it doesn't smell fishy at all.

Their tempura prawns are to die for,pork belly tasted a bit dry and the seafood platter looked nice,but tasted above average -calamari tubes were bit rubbery and hake looked slightly grey and was not juicy. Stuff was friendly and the place got the lovely view.

We come here often for a quiet meal. Food is always great and very reasonably priced, the service is way above the expected norm and the venue is outstanding. We love it.

Great location but food a bit average - however this might be a once off as I've had good food here before. This time though the food was just too rich for my liking. I recommend the beetroot burger when it's on the menu .....)

Even better than the last few times we visited. Missed the beetroot burger but soaked up the superb service, atmosphere and views. The mussels were delicious and I loved the Thai salad!

Visited the restaurant with friends. We all had a fantastic time. Enjoyed our meals immensely! The staff was very helpful and friendly and the atmosphere was peaceful and relaxing. Would definitely visit it again when in the area.

Venue outstanding!<br/>A restaurant which thinks it can produce second rate meals to tourists and the locals must accept it. But i suppose revenue must be considered? !<br/>Service poor.<br/>Food mediocre at best.<br/>What more can i say? <br/>Don't go there unless it's the view you're after.