A day on the wharf
From tide
to table.
The boats come in, the smokers are lit, the bread comes out of the oven and the grill starts to sizzle. Follow a day at Mariner’s Wharf, from first light to the last nightcap.
Our story
It is all real.
“At Mariner’s Wharf it is all real. From the figurehead that welcomes you to the restaurant upstairs, to the fishing boat and wheelhouse that overlook the fresh fish shop.” Maritime Southern Africa, on the Wharf’s 21st birthday, 2005
“Way back in 1974 I visited San Francisco for the first time, and the excitement of its burgeoning harbourfront reminded me of my childhood in rustic Hout Bay, the fishing village of my birth.”
“From Reykjavik to Tokyo, from Seattle to Sydney, collecting artefacts, researching ideas, evaluating heritage. And, ever so gradually, Mariner’s Wharf began to take shape in my mind.”
Simon Dorman arrives in Hout Bay. The Dormans have fished the bay ever since.
Stanley, born and raised in Hout Bay, takes over a struggling fishing business with four boats. It grows into the Cape Coast group.
A first visit to San Francisco’s harbourfront plants an idea.
Mariner’s Wharf opens, with its Fishmarket built around the hull of the trawler Kingfisher.
The Wharfside® Grill upstairs is upgraded, completing the emporium.
Nominated as an Eat Out Neighbourhood Gem, and still growing under the Dorman family’s watchful eyes.
Private dining
Five cabins, five voyages.
For birthdays, boardrooms and long family lunches, the Grill has private dining cabins, each themed to seafaring history and dressed with pieces from Stanley’s collection. The Union-Castle cabin is home to the 8 ft 11 in builder’s model of the Pendennis Castle, the line’s flagship on the Cape run.
- Queen Mary
- Shipwreck
- Navy
- Masthead
- Union-Castle Line