Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Welcomes Amura By Ángel León: A New Ocean-Rooted Fine-Dining Experience In South Africa!

Published on December 6, 2025

The iconic Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town, better known locally as The Nelli, has unveiled its newest culinary venture: Amura by Ángel León. For the first time outside Spain, Michelin-starred chef Ángel León brings his ocean-driven gastronomy to the Cape, signalling a bold new chapter for taste and sustainability at Mount Nelson.

The hotel’s sense of calm heritage, palatial yet welcoming, now meets an innovative seafood narrative. As guests walk through its gardens and historic corridors, they will also encounter menus shaped by the rhythms of the sea.

A Heritage Hotel with a Living Soul

Mount Nelson has stood under the watch of Table Mountain since 1899, its signature pink façade a symbol of peace since 1918. Nestled amid nine acres of gardens, lawns, palm trees and rose bushes, the hotel remains an urban oasis in the heart of Cape Town, quietly elegant, historically rich and yet vibrantly alive. With 198 rooms and suites, restored Victorian-era cottages, interconnecting family suites and romantic hideaways, it caters to honeymooners, families, seasoned travellers and cultural explorers alike.

Mount Nelson has long been celebrated for its refined charm, its legendary Afternoon Tea, its lush gardens, spa, pools, tennis courts, and a suite of restaurants offering everything from relaxed garden-side meals to classic formal dining. It remains a living monument to Cape Town’s layered history: heritage architecture, cultural depth, and a cosmopolitan spirit.

Amura: Where Sea meets Soul

Under the stewardship of Ángel León, known for his pioneering work with previously undervalued marine species and sustainable seafood at his flagship Aponiente, Amura presents a deeply personal culinary voyage: a marriage between Andalusian sensibility and Cape coastal character.

The menu, curated by Head Chef Guillermo Salazar (a Culinary Institute of America graduate and veteran of kitchens including Eleven Madison Park, Arzak and Akelare), reflects this fusion. Guests might begin with a Plankton Risotto, an electric-green dish dense with umami and rich in Omega-3, designed to evoke the open sea. Or sample a Yellowtail Tartare with escabeche, reinterpreted through Cape citrus and herbs. The catch-of-the-day might come with pickled Cape kelp; other offerings include West Coast mussels with seaweed-dusted chips or Saldanha Bay oysters paired with a local River Dragon bubbly.

On the drinks side, Amura extends the maritime theme: a Kelp Martini featuring kelp-infused olive brine and local gin, or a unique Cape-aged Sauvignon Blanc, bottles matured on the ocean floor to capture sea-born minerality. These imaginative pairings reaffirm the restaurant’s commitment to celebrating the sea rather than exploiting it.

A Space Sculpted by the Sea and Memory

Stepping into Amura is like boarding a grand ocean liner from a golden age, at least that was the intention behind the design by celebrated South African interior architect Tristan du Plessis. Timber, rattan, burnished bronze and curved forms conjure the hull of a ship cutting through water; the lighting evokes filtered light beneath kelp forests; deep-green tones, leather and classic maritime materials complete the ambience.

At the centre stands a double-height wine library, more sculpture than storage, accessible via a library ladder, a theatrical blend of cellar and stage. The space is cinematic, romantic, immersive. As one enters, one doesn’t simply walk into a restaurant, one enters a voyage, at once anchored in heritage and drifting toward discovery.

Shared Purpose: Gastronomy Meets Ocean Consciousness

Amura’s mission is more than gastronomic flair, it is rooted in purpose. The choice to highlight often-overlooked marine species, to draw on local kelp and coastal ingredients, and to source botanicals from Mount Nelson’s own gardens echoes the hotel’s legacy of respect for place, heritage and environment.

The collaboration reflects a shared philosophy: that luxury and sustainability need not be opposed. Rather, they can, and should, nourish each other. The Nellie, long a haven for travellers seeking refinement and tranquility, opens a new door: one where fine dining becomes a statement of ecological awareness and culinary innovation.

What It Means for Cape Town and Future Guests

For Cape Town, the arrival of Amura signifies more than a new restaurant, it marks a growing convergence of global gastronomic innovation with local identity. It invites both locals and travellers to re-imagine what it means to dine by the sea: not just for leisure, but for respect for marine ecosystems, for heritage, for integration.

For guests at Mount Nelson, Amura becomes a destination within a destination. A stay here no longer promises only afternoon tea, rose gardens, pools and spa, but also a deep sensory immersion into the sea’s bounty, curated by one of the world’s most visionary ocean-centric chefs.

A Rendezvous of Past, Present and Sea

As Capetonians and visitors traverse the leafy driveways and manicured lawns of Mount Nelson, they now step into something new, a restaurant where the dialogue between land and sea, heritage and innovation, Spain and South Africa, becomes edible and elemental. In Amura, the ocean speaks with a different salt, a different light, and Mount Nelson offers the stage.

What was initiated in 1899 underneath Table Mountain, what thrived in around ninety years of colonial and urban history, has got a new way of expression: in the gentle light of the elegantly arranged dining rooms, in the sparkle of drinks containing kelp, and in the tranquil green of risottos inspired by the sea. And for the visitors, the ocean does not merely murmur: it articulates.

Image Credit: Mount Nelson A Belmond Hotel Cape Town