South Africa is known for its bustling food scene, and every season several new and exciting eateries open their doors to the country’s eager foodies. After long upsetting months of restaurants closing due to coronavirus, new places are opening.
Below we look at some of the new spots.
Two4One Kitchen and Bar
Situated in Observatory in Cape Town is Two4One Kitchen and Bar, a first of its kind restaurant concept in South Africa where all main dishes are available all day, every day at two meals for the price of one.
Chef Yannick Muamba, no stranger to the Cape Town culinary scene, describes the menu as “simple”.
“The menu was designed for people who want to enjoy easy meals and dishes that can be shared with a friend or partner at an affordable price. The menu includes a wide range of options like beef, chicken, and vegetarian burgers, pizza, and desserts as well as a sharing menu offering hake fingers with tartar sauce, cheesy nachos, chilli poppers, beef sliders, and delectable chicken wings with blue cheese dipping sauce. It’s about sharing, tasting, and feasting on a variety of flavourful dishes made using ethical, locally sourced ingredients. It’s an eating experience for the relaxed gourmet-meal lover – with a well-stocked bar and televisions for sports enthusiasts thrown in,” said Muamba.
Two4One Kitchen and Bar is open seven days a week from noon to 12am, 90 Lower Main road, Observatory.
SOLO Restaurant
Situated in Sandton in Johannesburg, SOLO Restaurant is a trendy, casual dining eatery co-founded by Tumelo Maepa, Hlompho Chauke, and Thokozane Shongwe, who is also the executive chef. Shongwe has spiced things up in the kitchen for venues such as the Intercontinental Airport Sun, Gallagher Estate Conference Centre, Westcliff Hotel, The Park Hyatt in Rosebank, African Pride Melrose Arch, and the Fridays restaurant, allowing him to cater to a premium clientele that includes international businessmen, heads of state and monarchs. His favourite dish on the menu is grilled ostrich where he has created a fusion of class and South African township flavours to bring the SOLO Restaurant personality. The ostrich is served with pap balls (arancini), chakalaka puree, grilled baby marrow ribbons, heirloom carrots, and sherry jus.
Cloud Dine Restaurant
Fiamme Holdings, owner and franchisor of over 100 outlets through The Fish & Chip Co. and Maxi’s Grill brand, this week announced the opening of its new revolutionary franchise online restaurant concept which is CloudDine. The first CloudDine franchise outlet will service customers in the East Rand area with the store located in the Eastgate mall precinct.
According to the non-executive director at Fiamme Holdings, Carlo Gonzaga, the concept has been in the pipeline for some time.
“Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of online purchasing and home delivery to the extent that restaurant business models need to be re-imagined with delivery-only in mind. We have carefully considered the pain points in a franchisee’s life, and believe that a delivery-only restaurant model will address these. They stand to benefit from lower set-up costs as there is only a kitchen and no customer area to be fitted out, similarly, these kitchens can be set up where there is a demand as opposed to prominent shopping malls, which translates into lower rentals,” said Gonzaga.
Fiamme’s managing director, Jan De Beer said customers benefit in three main ways: first is choice – they have a large variety which means that families don’t have to always compromise between a pizza or a hamburger as they currently do. Second is speed – delivery is treated as a second priority in traditional restaurants whereas for us it is the whole business. Everything from preparation times, packaging, and order accuracy is a priority which means customers get hot food fast. Lastly is value: they add the cost of delivery into the price of the product, as most restaurants currently have to add the delivery cost to the price.
Legacy Yard, Umhlanga
Durbanites have been craving something new and with the recently opened Umhlanga Arch, they are getting just that. With two food-centric spaces – the Legacy Yard food hall and the BackYard rooftop bar, Durbanites will have their pick of what they want to eat.
The Legacy Yard offers a dynamic, informal and interesting way of dining and it is working for modern customers while appealing to every kind of patron- single diners, couples, families, business people and large groups. Eateries include Bachao, Butterscotch, Home Base, Mama Wanda, Momenti, The Baron, Super Smokehouse, The Rotisserie and Wasabi. The layout encourages consumers to celebrate, live, laugh, love and create memories within an authentic environment.