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Walk up to most Johannesburg restaurants and you'll see waiters scurrying around and hear the clinking of cutlery. The hubbub and laughter billowing out the door is almost tangible. Dining out is a special social occasion here; eating comprises only about a third of the time spent in the restaurant.
So, is the quality of the food not important to Johannesburg diners? Oh, it certainly is, but locals also demand the full, theatrical production. As a local magazine editor said, "local is not only lekker (nice, tasty, enjoyable), but also intelligent, witty and sophisticated."
Johannesburg has become the city of the restaurant. Whether you're hanging out with friends, having an extended Saturday lunch at Cornutti in Illovo or you have to impress a prospective business partner at The Courier in leafy Parkview, this Manhattan-in-the-veld has it all.
From ethnic to international to fusion, there's a range of places just waiting to tantalize your taste buds.
Even the expensive level offers a range of choices. Do you want an expensive, formal place like Le Canard? Or Vilamoura, where the seafood receives top marks. It's carefully designed to be seriously slick, and is a must for many international celebs visiting sunny South Africa.
One of the most popular pastimes here is doing coffee or lunch at a pretty, suburban sidewalk café, like Café Flo in Greenside or Sam's Café in trendy Melville, where foreign journalists in the know eat at least once.
In a city that sees more sun than much of the world, there are also many large, beautiful shopping centers that drive consumers to spend hours at a time indoors.
The malls here are have a lot to offer: you could even find a sidewalk in the middle of what is probably the southern hemisphere's largest shopping center, Sandton City, where you'll also find Ciao Baby Cucina. There's also Steffanie's in the shopping center at Hyde Park. Steffanie's is a classy eatery with plenty of regulars. It's a good place to people-watch and do a quick lunch or brunch with friends on the weekend.
"I know Johannesburg diners are demanding and that's why my restaurants are about people," said Naldo Goncalves. He'd know. His Portugese restaurant, Vilamoura, success story is legendary. From the original small suburban venue (where queues always went out the door), to Sandton, Rosebank, Pretoria and Camps Bay in Cape Town: the joint is jumping.
Seafood is big in Jo'Burg and it is often linked with Portuguese cuisine. From the humble suburban eatery to Beira Alta in the Colony Shopping Centre in Rivonia, there is a good range of truly excellent places to go to.
But, there are also plenty of other specialties to be found. The lemon-herb chicken at The Butcher Shop and Grill in Sandton Square is one of the best in town. Sublime chicken can also be found at the Italian restaurant, Mastrantonio, also in Sandton Square, and of course, it helps that the owners and waiters are gorgeous and charming. The Mastrantonio guys seem to have discovered the secrets of creating theater for their diners. And they're definitely doing something right: from their small beginnings in Illovo, they now have three restaurants across Johannesburg.
People from Jo'Burg are big on meat. The steakhouse of the 60s, 70s and 80s is now out of fashion, so instead takeaway hamburger joints are abound. If you have a sophisticated burger-joint palate, try Carnivore, which serves up meat of the highest quality.
The Singing Fig in Norwood (one of the older suburbs with a shopping street lined with many Italian coffee shops and eateries) serves what is reputed to be the best oxtail in town.
If your preferred cuisine is French, sadly, the only (and very pricey) restaurant is the stuffy but excellent Le Canard in Sandton.
Gauteng's multi-cultural population has produced a wide range of traditional foods found nowhere else in the world. Local food specialties can be both innovative and unusual: from African phutu (maize meal porridge) at Wandi's in Soweto to Afrikaner potjiekos (stew cooked in a three-legged iron pot on an open fire) at Gramadoelas in the Market Theatre precinct.
It's a pity that weekend brunches aren't as big as they could be, but there are a number of places that are good, like the News Café in Rivonia. Many hotels, like The Grace in Rosebank or the Balalaika next to Village Walk shopping centre, are also good options.
However, if you're a motor biker, the breakfast run (leap out of bed at dawn, ride like hell for an hour or so, stop for brunch, come home) is really long. There are almost countless places within an hour's drive that serve anything from eggs and slap chips (French fries) to a large, really good feast.
Gianni Mariano, one of the founders of Mastrantonio says, "the key issue about Johannesburgers is that they are keen diners—and they demand high-quality food."
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