Tucked away on the first floor in the V&A Food Market, Woodies is lauded by some as Cape Town’s best halaal gourmet burger bar. But does it live up to the hype? Eat Out critic Ashraf Booley finds out.

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After hearing a good number of recommendations around the office and reading many a raving review, I finally paid Woodies a visit. With high expectations in mind, I hungrily queued along with the rest of the patrons on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Upon my arrival at the counter, however, I was met by an irate man shouting at the kitchen staff behind him in an attempt to hush them. As a first impression: tsk, tsk…

Fast facts

Average meal: R70
Parking: plenty parking at the V&A
Food type: burgers and fries
Best for: lunch, a casual date or dinner with friends
Star rating: Food 3, service 3, ambience 3

Food

Go hungry. You’ll develop a large food baby after wolfing down one of these bad boys. I opt for the Saffa burger – according to Urban Dictionary, that’s ‘a real South African’. This patriot of a burger features soft, seeded buns and comes with two juicy, chargrilled patties, melted mozzarella, cheddar cheese and all the trimmings. The beef has a slight smokiness to it and the mild chilli basting adds a lekker kick. Throw piquanté peppers and chutney into the mix, and you’ve got an explosion of slighty sweet, spicy and umami flavours.

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Because The Avo burger isn’t available, we decide to tuck into the CMGP (creamy mushroom and green pepper) burger. To my disappointment, I can’t pick up the mushroom or green pepper flavour. Could it be that they had failed to add the very sauce after which the burger is named? Perhaps they had run out of mushrooms? And green pepper.

Hoping to find solace in the hand-cut chips, I am further disappointed. The chips turn out to be a little oily and instead of being crispy on the outside as I had hoped, are more like slap chips.

For the brave (read: ravenous), Woodies also offers ‘Challenge Burgers’. Choose between The Triple Stack (including three 100g patties) and The Colossus (either four 100g patties or two chicken fillets) with cheese, pickles and all the trimmings.

I’ll be back to try The Avo burger.

Drinks

Woodies only sells burgers and chips – no drinks. The food market, however, has a wide range of drinks available.

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Service

Besides the quarrel at the counter, the service was reasonably quick and efficient.

Ambience

It’s a food market so shared tables are a thing. Because the food is served takeaway-style, you can opt to chow down in the comfort of your own home if you’re not lucky enough to find a seat somewhere.

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And…

Woodies is one of the few, if not only, dedicated halaal burger bars in Cape Town.

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Eat Out critics dine anonymously and pay for their meals in full. Read our editorial policy here.