Pretoria – African Cuisine
La Terrasse Rooftop Café and Deli
Atterbury Rd., Menlo Park
If you are keen to indulge in the flavours and fragrances of South Africa, get yourself to La Terrasse Rooftop Café and Deli. The platters are abundant, filled with Moroccan spices. Anything from baba ganoush, humus, Zulu zaalouk – which is aubergine relish together with green olives, tomato, paprika, cumin, and balsamic – and kefta. Really, the place represents a non-stop feast.
If you want to go for what to many is the most exotic option, stick with the tagines. These dishes are a combination of lamb, honey or tomato, and dates; chicken with beef, preserved lemon, and sweet potato; and the vegetarians can have sweet potato with butternut, lentils, together with Moroccan spices.
You get any/ every dish with a heap of fragrant couscous, which makes the tangines ideal for celebratory get-togethers.
Other true standout dishes include kefta tagine with spicy meatballs, egg poached in tomato, and grilled pitta; or the butternut and cinnamon soup.
The wine list has been sourced by the restaurant owner’s brother, a guy who is always on the hunt for the ideal wines to match well with the flavours on offer in the restaurant.
For other drinks, try the apple and pomegranate ‘secret blend’ which is non-alcoholic.
If you’re in a hurry, then it’s probably wise to go elsewhere. The staff here is minimal and the food is prepared from scratch as it’s ordered.
The ambience is perfect – the restaurant being situated out under the African sky on a rooftop. There’s a distinctively Moroccan style here, which compliments the food and wines perfectly.
Johannesburg – Asian Cuisine
The Great Eastern Food Bar
Bamboo Centre, Rustenburg Road, Melville
The self-taught owner and chef, Nick Scott, plays around with techniques, tastes, and ingredients, seemingly on a whim, though fresh and healthy is always adhered to.
The menu is forever changing, dependent on what’s growing best, and a number of the chef’s herbs are in fact growing up the balcony walls. The vast majority of the produce is sourced from local farms.
This is not a Japanese restaurant, nor is it really oriental, even though many of the flavours do hail from the orient. There’s no red meat to be seen, but rather, you’ll frequently find trout that’s entirely fresh, and has been brought in from sources of an unfarmed nature.
For instance, the Kimchi Chilli Ramen is made of a combination of homemade dashi broth a slowly-poached farm egg, and freshly pulled beansprouts, and that’s served up alongside home-pickled kimchi.
All the noodles are made on-premises, many of which are wheat-based, others being more traditional rice-based. And some are even from chickpea.
The wine list is limited, albeit interesting, and features products sourced from boutique wineries that generate a maximum of 5,000 cases, such as Tamboerskloof, Anura, and Vondeling. There are also a number of trendy beers if that’s more to your liking.
The establishment is not at all meant to be formal, and is much more of a “homemade food meets convivial atmosphere” setup. Most of the service is undertaken by the chef’s partner, Carolina Rasenti.