Restaurant & Coffee Shop Guide — JBay

Leandre Brettschneider
4 min readJan 8, 2020

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For a small surf town, J-bay has no shortage of brilliant coffee shops and restaurants. Da Gama road, the main road which runs through our small surf town connects all our favourite eateries and world class coffee shops. If you’re looking to enjoy a surf trip to J-Bay or spending time at a surf camp and you’re worried about the quality of food and beverage, worry no more! Here’s a local’s guide to eating out in J-Bay if you’re on a surf vacation.

Nina’s Real Food Restaurant

Nina’s Real Food Restaurant, or Nina’s as it is affectionately known, is like visiting your grandmother’s house. You immediately feel at home, she welcomes you in with open arms. She smothers you in her love, makes you feel instantly at home, her fridge is always full and her schedule always open — waiting for your visit. No restaurant feels more homely and welcoming!

A stones throw away from the best wave in the world; Supertubes Nina’s serves up pretty much anything you could possibly desire. Thai food, curry, pizza, burgers, wraps, vegan, seafood, steak, ribs — Nina’s has it all. And if that wasn’t enough Nina’s has an array of absolutely delicious locally brewed craft beers. After a marathon surf, the best place to kick it and enjoy some great chow (as South Africans love to say) is at Nina’s. If you haven’t been to Nina’s, you haven’t been to J-Bay!

Also on a (hot) side note, on Monday nights Nina’s hosts a curry night; featuring a decadent spread of Indian curries that’ll have you spiced up for the rest of your trip!

Follow them here.

Quitschy’s Pizza Restaurant

We’re going to go ahead and say it: the best pizza on the east coast. Quitschy’s specialises in traditional Italian cuisine. And damnit their pizzas are good. Using only the finest Italian ingredients imported from Italy, there’s very few pizza restaurants outside Italy that are able to garner the flavours Quitschy’s can.

Family owned, the Italian owners moved from Italy to J-Bay to start a pizzeria and thank the lord they did. The pizza bases are thin, the flavours are rich and layered — each slice basically melts in your mouth. The decor however, is questionable. Quitschy’s boasts mannequins wearing Venetian gowns and masks (why?!) scattered throughout the restaurant. Yes, you read correctly, fully dressed mannequins. Think that’s a waiter standing behind you? Wrong. It’s a plastic mannequin. Rumour has it, the decor is inspired by traditional Italian kitsch style. Whatever decor inspirations are being thrown around, we couldn’t care less, Quitschy’s pizza is a culinary journey of the tastebuds.

Find out more here

Salted Surf

The Surf Lodge’s sister company and perfect post surf hangout, Salted Surf is our favourite coffee shop/surf school. No older than four months, Salted Surf is perfectly located to go for a quick surf lesson with world class surf coach Remi Peterson, followed by a delicious cappuccino.

There’s usually a bunch of the local crew hanging out shooting the shit, a banger playlist blasting over the speakers and some excellent surf magazines and books been shared around. And if your sugar levels are low after your gruelling session tackling the beasts of the deep ocean, well then Salted Surf has an array of superb sweet treat delights loaded with sugar and made in the old Afrikaans style way: decadent. Salted Surf — your favourite post surf hangout coffee shop.

You can follow Salted Surf here.

First Light

Step into First Light and the first thing you’ll be confronted with is the fresh, pungent smell of roasting coffee beans. Along with being an extremely inviting coffee shop with friendly, jovial staff and stylistically appealing in a Pinterest kind of way, First Light boasts its own coffee roastery where they roast all their own beans. The beans have won awards and are nationally acclaimed. If you’re looking for a quick snack and invigorating coffee after enjoying extensive retail therapy at the nearby surf shops, drop in on First Light.

Boogie Slide n’ Jive

Owned by longtime J-Bay locals, Clinton Theron and Ludi Du Toit, Boogie Slide n’ Jive is an avant-garde coffee shop inspired by skate and surf with a couple of dope second-hand threads waiting to be acquired by a suitable suitor. Situated in a nook between a lawnmower shop and a bar which caters to those who enjoy drinking continuously and without retreat, you’ll find Boogie Slide. It’s a brilliant little place and they throw down a mean coffee and a hearty jaffle.

Follow the Boogie here.

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