It was a shock to see a Facebook post by Chef Chantel Dartnall of award-winning Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient, announcing that she is closing her restaurant on 28 March 2021, after 15 years of operating it outside Pretoria. Not only has the restaurant been on the Eat Out Top 10 List for many of these years, but Chef Chantel’s restaurant is probably the most highly internationally recognized South African restaurant.
Last month The Restaurant at Waterkloof closed its doors in Somerset West, another Eat Out Top 10 restaurant.
South Africa is two months into Lockdown, 62 days of restaurants not being allowed to open to serve sit-down customers. For the past 27 days many restaurants have reopened, operating within the Government regulation of offering a Food preparation and Delivery Service. On the eve of Restaurants being allowed to offer a Delivery as well as a Customer Collection Service from Monday 1 June, I looked at what the 2019 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants are doing currently in terms of keeping their Restaurant brand names visible, and generating income to cover their costs and to employ some of their staff again.
