Moyo at Zoo Lake

Moyo at Zoo Lake
WITH its joyous establishment at Zoo Lake in Parkview, Moyo has taken a logical step: from theme restaurant to theme park. Drums abound in this perfect setting. Young women offer to paint your face, and there are enough children to keep them busy. Birthday parties attract not one or two waiters but several, who don hats with big feathers and sing Happy Birthday, Shoshaloza and several encores. There are a variety of venues: you can eat outside or inside or on a deck, near the lake or under a tree, or you can rent a thatch-roofed area that seats up to 60. Moyo at Zoo Lake (subtitled Moyo in the Making because it keeps adding new venues) describes itself as child-friendly and pet-friendly, and that is accurate. The restaurant runs workshops on weekends and during school holidays. "An African experience" they call it, and some of it is indeed African - a drumming circle, for example, or a chance to learn gumboot dancing. But the children can also learn cooking and enamel crockery painting, as well as engage in theatre games and drama. Meanwhile there's entertainment on weekends - which start on Friday here - throughout the year: mbira players, a henna tattoo artist, sometimes a storyteller, mime artists or iscathamia singers. Presumably people who lunch at Moyo at Zoo Lake are not in a great hurry, because with such a huge area, far away from the kitchen, even the world's best waiting staff would be hard-pressed to deliver lunch (a) piping hot and (b) within a reasonable time. They do try, however. Here's the sort of food you can find at this Moyo's: for breakfast, from 8am, there is everything from healthy stuff like muesli and yoghurt to salmon trout and saffron eggs. If you're feeling very indulgent, there is the Rand Lord Breakfast: Cap Classique sparkling wine with strawberries, meringues, brownies and so on. For lunch, there are lots of salads named after such luminaries as Frantz Fanon (a cous-cous salad) and George Bizos (a classic Greek Salad), or sandwiches including a bunny chow and a Vrystaat burger, tagines, linefish or platters (vegetarian, mixed, sweet or cheese). There is also a kids' menu and, under "bone appetite", handmade dog biscuits at R7,95, plus - free of charge - bread for the ducks. On weekends there's a brunch buffet from 9am to 4pm: R115 for adults and R46 for children. Breakfast ranges from a low R18 to R60 - and a jump to R115 for the Rand Lord Breakfast. For lunch, salads go from the low R30s to the mid-R40s, main dishes from R50 to R85, and desserts from R19 to R28. Zoo Lake, Lower Park Drive, Parkview Telephone: 011 646 0058 Hours: Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mondays to Sundays Website: www.moyo.co.za
Moyo at Zoo Lake

WITH its joyous establishment at Zoo Lake in Parkview, Moyo has taken a logical step: from theme restaurant to theme park.

Drums abound in this perfect setting. Young women offer to paint your face, and there are enough children to keep them busy. Birthday parties attract not one or two waiters but several, who don hats with big feathers and sing Happy Birthday, Shoshaloza and several encores.

There are a variety of venues: you can eat outside or inside or on a deck, near the lake or under a tree, or you can rent a thatch-roofed area that seats up to 60.

Moyo at Zoo Lake (subtitled Moyo in the Making because it keeps adding new venues) describes itself as child-friendly and pet-friendly, and that is accurate. The restaurant runs workshops on weekends and during school holidays.

"An African experience" they call it, and some of it is indeed African - a drumming circle, for example, or a chance to learn gumboot dancing. But the children can also learn cooking and enamel crockery painting, as well as engage in theatre games and drama.

Meanwhile there's entertainment on weekends - which start on Friday here - throughout the year: mbira players, a henna tattoo artist, sometimes a storyteller, mime artists or iscathamia singers.

Presumably people who lunch at Moyo at Zoo Lake are not in a great hurry, because with such a huge area, far away from the kitchen, even the world's best waiting staff would be hard-pressed to deliver lunch (a) piping hot and (b) within a reasonable time. They do try, however.

Here's the sort of food you can find at this Moyo's: for breakfast, from 8am, there is everything from healthy stuff like muesli and yoghurt to salmon trout and saffron eggs. If you're feeling very indulgent, there is the Rand Lord Breakfast: Cap Classique sparkling wine with strawberries, meringues, brownies and so on.

For lunch, there are lots of salads named after such luminaries as Frantz Fanon (a cous-cous salad) and George Bizos (a classic Greek Salad), or sandwiches including a bunny chow and a Vrystaat burger, tagines, linefish or platters (vegetarian, mixed, sweet or cheese).

There is also a kids' menu and, under "bone appetite", handmade dog biscuits at R7,95, plus - free of charge - bread for the ducks. On weekends there's a brunch buffet from 9am to 4pm: R115 for adults and R46 for children.

Breakfast ranges from a low R18 to R60 - and a jump to R115 for the Rand Lord Breakfast. For lunch, salads go from the low R30s to the mid-R40s, main dishes from R50 to R85, and desserts from R19 to R28.

Zoo Lake, Lower Park Drive, Parkview

Telephone: 011 646 0058

Hours: Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mondays to Sundays

Website: www.moyo.co.za

Moyo at Zoo Lake