South African restaurant guides
3 December 2004
Wondering where to eat out tonight? Here's our update on the latest SA restaurant guides, plus where to go for restaurant and food news, features, recipes and more - in print and on the web.
All this food has got to be washed down with something - and South African wines have been earning rave reviews internationally for 300 years. Here's the SA wine story, plus online guides, wine routes, and where to buy on the web.
The online (and offline) feast starts here!
Eat Out
Edited by Sam Woulidge, Eat Out has evolved over seven years into a comprehensive 228-page directory with over 800 national restaurant listings.
According to publisher John Psillos, while the look and layout for Eat Out 2005 has changed to
incorporate 11 regional subsections for easy reference purposes, the integrity of the guide remains undisputed. "Eat Out neither charges restaurants to be listed, nor expects them to pick up the tab for our meals, which makes Eat Out the most objective and definitive restaurant guide in South Africa."
The 2005 Eat Out Restaurant Guide includes a "People's Choice" booklet listing the favourite restaurants of local celebrities - and featuring SA's "FAB 15" restaurants, as voted by the South African public on the Eat Out website.
The website is comprehensive interactive restaurant guide, allowing visitors to find the perfect place to eat out in their area, post their own restaurant reviews or read what other diners have to say.
Eat Out 2005 is available at selected Woolworths, Exclusive Books, CNA and Spar stores for R34.95.
Truffle Pig
Truffle Pig's online restaurant guide features a selection of South Africa's top-performing restaurants. All restaurants listed appear in one of the following restaurant guides for 2004: Wine Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants; Eat Out Johnnie Walker Top 10; Roussow's Restaurants "best performers in price category" (Cape Town & Winelands); or American Express Platinum Fine Dining Programme.
The restaurant's ratings, awards and visitors comments are included, along with downloadable menus and chef profiles.
Also check out Truffle Pig's wine, whisky and gourmet travel guides, culinary dictionary, info on food and wine pairings, dishes unique to South Africa, and more.
Wine Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants
This is probably the best of the guides
if you're looking only for the best restaurants, not just somewhere you can find a pizza without having to drive too far. There are more than 100 restaurants listed – but nowhere near the hundreds listed in the other guides – and all are the best in their category.
The 2004 edition of this excellent guide should be in the bookshops. It is also available through online retailer Mags at Home.
In addition, Wine Magazine regularly puts up the restaurant reviews featured in the magazine - and allows you to search its reviews database by category or area.
More restaurants, recipes & food news
Eating-out.co.za
Use the handy restaurant search function to locate an eatery you already know or search for somewhere new and exotic.
There's also a map search, wine news, chef profiles, features & more.
Eating out in Jo'burg
Dining out page of the City of Johannesburg website, with a restaurant guide searchable by cuisine or by suburb, as well as review of "historic", "elegant" and "unique" restaurants in the city.
Other restaurant search engines:
Dining.co.za
Restaurants.co.za
Webdining.co.za
FOOD24
Includes a collection of over 10 000 recipes. The site is completely searchable and allows you to store recipes in your own online 'recipe book'.
Showcook
Web-based magazine carrying articles about food
in South Africa and abroad, including book reviews and recipes.
Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs
Site of the international society devoted to fine dining. Lists events of the various baillages, or chapters - there are four in South Africa. These gatherings are usually black-tie dinners at top restaurants, but are occasionally more informal events.
South African Chefs Association
Mainly for professional chefs and restaurateurs. Offers links to chefs' associations worldwide, a job site with posts in South Africa and overseas, a list of industry events and food festivals, and pages by a range of chefs, most with recipes.
Traditional South African Recipes
Traditional South African and African recipes are offered on this site, which comes complete with a photo of the
eponymous Pete, who looks like a Limpopo Province game farmer. There's also a newsletter.
Homesick South Africans
Another site for expatriates. Among its offerings are recipes for biltong, including drawings and measurements for making your own biltong box. If that's too arduous, there's information on where to find the stuff overseas.
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