Category Archives: Johannesburg

Marble to open in the Cape in 2023, following a trend!

 

At the Eat Out Awards last week the Marble Group announced that it is to open Marble in Cape Town in 2023. This follows deluxe Sandton restaurant Tang opening in the Waterfront shortly. The move of these two top restaurants confirms the dominance of Cape Town as the Gourmet Capital of South Africa.

One star Marble restaurant is headed up by Chef David Higgs, once Executive Chef of Rust & Vrede, and resulting in the restaurant becoming the number one restaurant in the country. Soon thereafter Higgs packed his bags and left the Cape, to open Marble. Saint and The Pantry opened subsequently, and make up the Marble Group. Continue reading →

Utopia nominated as 2022 Top Rooftop Restaurant in Africa by World Culinary Awards!

 

Utopia Cape Town, Life Grand Café, Wolfgat, Clara’s Barn, ëlgr, Pier, Restaurant KLEIN JAN, and Post & Pepper Restaurant are eight restaurants that have been nominated in various 2022 Best Restaurant categories in Africa, presented by the World Culinary Awards.

All the restaurants nominated as Best in South Africa by the same Awards are all from the Cape!

Continue reading →

Twelve SA Restaurants make La Liste 1000 Top Restaurant List, Restaurant Klein JAN receives special award!

 

At a Gala Event held in Paris on Monday, the new La Liste 1000 for 2022 was announced, with 12 South African Restaurants included in this prestigious list of 1000 top restaurants around the world, one sadly included but no longer operating!

In addition, brand new Restaurant Klein JAN at Tswalu in the Kalahari, owned by Chef Jan-Hendrik van  der Westhuizen, received a special Award as World Hidden Gem Restaurant. While his JAN restaurant in Nice has been awarded one Michelin star for the past six years,
it is not included in the La Liste List.  The La Liste accolade for Restaurant Klein JAN, and its inclusion in the world’s Top 1000 List, is the first international recognition for any of Chef Jan-Hendrik’s restaurants. Continue reading →

Very few recent Restaurant openings and closures in Cape Town and Winelands: September 2021

 

Despite the dreadful impact on restaurants of Level 4 during July, no restaurants appeared to have closed.  By the end of September Chef Luke Dale Roberts will have closed all his restaurants. He will consult to Ethos in Johannesburg.

Chef Bertus Basson is on a continuous Restaurant opening spree, having opened Geuwels at Vergenoegd Löw in Stellenbosch at the beginning of this month, with Chef Drikus heading up the kitchen. It is open Wednesdays to Sundays, for Breakfast and Lunch. Continue reading →

Lindt adds a colourful touch to its Hello South Africa chocolate slab range packaging!

 

Lindt has announced the launch of new Hello South Africa packaging for its Hello Chocolate Slab range, with colourful packaging and interesting ingredient combinations for its three products honouring our three biggest cities. The Hello range was launched in 2020, but its packaging design is new.

Cape Town is honoured with a visual of Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak, Lions Headcand Signal Hill, and is a Caramel Brownie Chocolate. Johannesburg’s Jozi Chocolate wrapper depicts the colourful Orlando Power Station in Soweto , and is a Cookies & Cream slab.  The Durban Durbz slab is a Crunchy Nougat slab, and its wrapper depicts the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Continue reading →

Corona Virus: How SA Eat Out Top 20 Chefs are coping with the COVID-19 Lockdown – Part 2!

 

Yesterday I published a post that focused on a number of leading South African chefs, in summarising what they are doing to maintain awareness for their restaurants, what they are posting, and how they are getting involved in helping their clients as well as the disadvantaged community. This Blogpost is a continuation of the story, focusing on the remaining restaurants which made the 2019 Eat Out Top 20 List. Continue reading →

Cape Town Top 20 World Travel Destination, home to 7 of South Africa’s Top 10 Hotels, according to 2020 Forbes Travel Guide!

 

The Forbes Travel Guide has included ten top South African hotels in its 2020 Star Award winner list, seven of which are in Cape Town, one in Stellenbosch, and two in Johannesburg. Cape Town also made the Guide’s Top 20;Travel Destination List. Continue reading →

23 SA Restaurants make it onto the 50BEST Discovery restaurant and bar list, but does it really mean anything?

 

It is the season of Restaurant Awards and accolades, and the newest one is 50 BEST Discovery, launched just two weeks ago by the World’s 50 Best, a credible ranked list of the best restaurants in the world. In total, 27 South African establishments appear on this new list, of which 23 are restaurants, ten in Cape Town, and with some strange inclusions. I had to ask myself what this is all about, reading the motivation for and description of this newest accolade. Continue reading →

JHP Gourmet Guide announces 2020 top restaurants, but does not release the list until January 2020! Read it here first!

The publishers of the Gourmet Guide 2020 have made it really difficult to write this post, in that it is not revealing its full list of 36 restaurants that received its one, two, or three plate awards on Monday, until January 2020, its website states. One can surmise that it wants the Gourmet Guide 2020 to be bought so that it can generate income. By January these Awards will have long been forgotten! Continue reading →

American Express announces Top 2020 Dining Award winners, with a Johannesburg bias!

It was a multi-Award day on Monday this week, with both American Express (for the Western and Southern Cape), as well as the Gourmet Guide (National) announcing their 2020 Restaurant Award winners. A week earlier American Express had announced its Gauteng, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal Awards. There were many similarities in the winners, yet some strange winners in the American Express Dining  awards documented in this post. Continue reading →