 South Africans love meat – beef, pork, lamb, game – and restaurants, from steakhouses to fast-food kiosks, that concentrate on the popularity of meat are always successful.
Below are some of the larger establishments. Although the majority are either elegant steakhouses or fast-food hamburger/steak eateries, there are also upmarket restaurants devoted to hamburgers. Prawns, calamari and line fish are on all steakhouse menus, and most offer the odd vegetarian dish. All list the sauces you can pour over your fillet, and some add the marinade you can request.
One of the oldest steakhouses in the city is The Grillhouse in Rosebank. It bills itself as "a New York-style grillhouse", and the ambience – it's quiet, the seats and banquettes are leather, there's a cigar lounge a few steps away – is reminiscent of a gentleman's club. The Grillhouse offers sirloin, T-bone, fillet and rump, grilled and served basted or spiced – but also ostrich fillet, beef ribs, lamb and chicken. London's TimeOut online called The Grillhouse "one of the best", and it is well patronised.
TimeOut also wrote that there is a steakhouse on every corner in Johannesburg. Not quite – but in Parktown North there are three within steps of one another, and one is actually on the corner. That's the Local Grill, which promises "natural, wholesome and preservative-free ingredients", with beef aged on the premises and cut to order. Steaks are served "either rubbed, buttered, peppered or plain", and venison is also on the menu. There's another branch in Hurlingham Manor, Sandton.
Across the road is the Turn 'n Tender, a welcome return of a restaurant very popular in the 1970s. The original Turn 'n Tender steakhouses were operated by four brothers; Brian Aaron, one of the quartet, runs the steakhouse in Parktown North, and there's a small, very popular branch in Emmarentia called the Mini-Tender. The menu in both runs to marinated beef spareribs, hamburgers and steaks with a range of toppings and marinades – for example, fillet rolled in olive oil and dipped in paprika, coarse salt and black pepper.
Wombles is a few steps down the road. Owned by Duncan and Yvette Barker, originally from Zimbabwe, it is, in Johannesburg terms, venerable – it's been around for more than a decade. Wombles serves the usual formula – fillet, rump, sirloin, T-bone, prime rib – and a huge range of sauces, but also offers steak tartare, beef stroganoff and, among starters, marrow bones and toast.
Moving on to Melville, The Melville Grill offers grain-fed, wet-aged rump, fillet, loin, T-bone, and rib eye steaks in various sizes, as well as free-range rump and sirloin, and the menu notes how long each cut has been aged – it is aged on site. You can also find pork belly ribs and lamb cutlets on the menu. Owned by a former New York Newsday journalist, it's a restaurant that is generally buzzing, and has the added attraction of a separate Ethiopian menu for those recalling the interesting cuisine served in Addis Ababa.
In Sandton, there's the Butcher Shop and Grill on Nelson Mandela Square. Its signature entrees, in addition to the usual cuts of beef, include cubed fillet sauted in olive oil and fresh rosemary, surf & turf (steak with three prawns) and oxtail, and there are always game offerings, including venison pie. Oysters feature among the starters – they go through at least 800 fresh oysters daily, both wild and cultivated.
In Johannesburg there are three branches of the Meat Company – Melrose Arch, where it occupies an old house and patio; Clearwater Mall, in a shopping centre; and Montecasino, in a casino in Fourways. Among offerings are flame-grilled rump, fillet, sirloin, rib-eye, T-bone and prime rib, with a black pepper crust or just basted. Diners can also order lobster. The group also owns steakhouses in Australia, Dubai, Israel, Bahrain, Greece and Mozambique.
The Gourmet Garage specialises in hamburgers, but with a difference. The latest venture of the Grillhouse partners is a delightful upmarket restaurant fitted out to look like a cross between a diner and a service station.
There are two Gourmet Garages – the first was opened in Sandton, and when that achieved instant popularity the partners opened another one in restaurant row in a casino in Fourways, the Tuscan-style Montecasino. The hamburgers are somewhat out of the ordinary – there are, in addition to the basic burger, such inventions as a pepper burger, a jalepeno mustard burger, lamb burgers, ostrich or bacon burgers, even a Dom burger (served with Dom Perignon) and a Moet burger (same idea, different champagne).
There are chicken burgers, salmon burgers, and four kinds of veggie burgers. And for those who aren't into burgers, there's steak, beef or pork ribs, lamb chops and even hot dogs.
For diners in a hurry, there are two ubiquitous chains of steak/hamburger establishments. Steers (slogan: real food made real good) offers flame-grilled beef or chicken burgers. The Spur steak ranches serve burgers, steaks, ribs and chicken.And for people in a really great hurry, there's always McDonald's. |
