Markets

Markets in Cape Town

Cape Town is a market lover's paradise. From the trendy food stalls at Old Biscuit Mill to the handcrafted goods at Bay Harbour Market, there's a market for every taste and budget. We've mapped out the best weekly markets, night markets, and seasonal pop-ups so you never miss out on great food, live music, and local crafts.

Markets in Cape Town: where to go and when. Cape Town’s best markets are Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock for food and design on Saturdays, Oranjezicht City Farm Market at the V&A Waterfront for produce and breakfast on weekends, Bay Harbour Market in Hout Bay for a working-harbour setting with a Friday night market, and Mojo Market in Sea Point if you want something open daily rather than just on weekends.
Here’s what each one actually offers, and how to plan a weekend around them.

Neighbourgoods Market, Old Biscuit Mill

Neighbourgoods Market sits inside the Old Biscuit Mill on Albert Road in Woodstock, and it’s the market most people mean when they say “Cape Town market.” It opened in 2006 and set the template that most of the others since have followed.

It runs Saturdays only, 9am to 3pm. Expect gourmet street food, artisan bakeries, specialty coffee, a wine bar, and stalls selling clothing, jewellery and homeware alongside the food. The space is small for how popular it’s become, so go early if you want to sit down rather than eat standing.

Fresh produce shares the floor with the food stalls, though the market has grown well past its farmers-market roots into more of a weekend food and design destination. Live music runs through the day, and it’s an easy half-day out if you pair it with the boutiques around the Mill itself.

Oranjezicht City Farm Market, V&A Waterfront

Despite the name, Oranjezicht City Farm Market isn’t in Oranjezicht. It moved to Granger Bay at the V&A Waterfront years ago and kept the name because that’s where it started, as a small community food garden founded in 2012.

It’s open Saturdays 8am to 2:30pm and Sundays 8:30am to 2pm, with a Wednesday night market from 4pm to 9:30pm that runs from August through May and closes over the coldest winter months of June and July. The market supports dozens of local farmers and around 80 food traders, so you’ll find fresh produce, artisan bread, cheese, free-range eggs and honey alongside ready-to-eat stalls doing everything from samoosas to dumplings.

Go for breakfast rather than lunch. The pastries and coffee are the strongest part of the market, and it gets crowded by midday. It’s dog-friendly, and bring cash for the smaller stalls even though most vendors also take cards.

Bay Harbour Market, Hout Bay

Bay Harbour Market runs out of a converted fish factory on the Hout Bay harbour, and the setting does a lot of the work here. You’re eating and browsing inside a working harbour building with Chapman’s Peak visible from the water’s edge.

Trading hours are Fridays 5pm to 9pm, and Saturdays and Sundays 9:30am to 4pm. The Friday night market is the one to know about if you want live music and a proper night out rather than a daytime browse; it draws a different, more social crowd than the weekend sessions. Over 100 traders operate here across food, craft, art and clothing, and it’s one of the few Cape Town markets that genuinely functions as a night market rather than a daytime one with extended hours.

If you’re driving out, Chapman’s Peak Drive is the scenic route in, though it’s a toll road and closes occasionally for rockfall risk or maintenance, so check conditions before you commit to that route over the M63 through Constantia Nek.

Mojo Market, Sea Point

Mojo Market is the one to know about if the other three don’t fit your schedule. It’s open daily, from around 8am for coffee and breakfast through to late in the evening, with most of the 30-plus food stalls opening around 11am. There’s no single closing time you can rely on across sources, so treat “daily, roughly 8am to late” as the safe assumption and check ahead if you’re planning a late visit.

It sits on Regent Road, a short walk from the Sea Point Promenade, in a converted double-volume space with five bars and regular live music. Unlike the others on this list, there’s no need to plan around a specific day. It works as a fallback if you land on a Monday or Tuesday and still want a market atmosphere, or as an evening option after a walk along the Promenade.

Other markets worth knowing about

The V&A Food Market, inside the Watershed at the V&A Waterfront, is a smaller, more central option if you’re staying near the Waterfront and don’t want to travel out to Woodstock or Hout Bay. It runs daily rather than on a fixed weekend schedule, which makes it useful if your trip doesn’t line up with a Saturday.

Seasonal and pop-up markets appear around the city through the year, particularly over the festive season and during First Thursdays, the monthly evening event on the first Thursday of each month when galleries and shops around the CBD stay open late. These aren’t fixed fixtures, so check what’s running closer to your travel dates rather than planning around them in advance.

How to plan a market weekend

If you’ve only got one weekend, don’t try to do all of them. Pick Neighbourgoods on Saturday morning if food and design matter more to you, or Oranjezicht if you’d rather do breakfast and fresh produce with a harbour view. Both run Saturday mornings, so you’ll need to choose rather than combine them without rushing.

Bay Harbour works best as a separate outing, ideally the Friday night session if you’re around for it, combined with the drive out via Chapman’s Peak or Constantia Nek. It’s far enough from the city centre that bolting it onto another market in the same day means a lot of driving for not much market time.

Mojo is the easiest to slot in anywhere, since it doesn’t depend on a specific day. Use it as your Monday or Tuesday option, or as an evening market when the weekend ones are closed.

Practical tips

Bring cash. Most stalls take cards now, but smaller vendors at farmers-style markets still prefer cash, and card machines occasionally struggle with load on a busy Saturday.
Go early at Neighbourgoods and Oranjezicht if you want a table. Both get crowded from mid-morning, and seating is limited relative to how many people show up.

Check the weather before Bay Harbour or an outdoor market day. A Southeaster wind or winter rain changes the experience considerably at markets built around open-air or semi-covered spaces.

Parking is tighter than the markets themselves suggest, particularly at Bay Harbour and Neighbourgoods. Arrive early or expect to walk a few minutes from wherever you find space.

Frequently Asked Questions