Nearly 20,000 seats in 40 Restaurants for Cape Town’s first Restaurant Week

Cape Town’s first Restaurant Week, which will run from 22 to 29 September, will have nearly 20,000 seats available in 40 of the area’s finest restaurants. Participating restaurants include the Planet Restaurant at the Mount Nelson, The Round House Restaurant, Pigalle, The Duchess of Wisbeach, Roca Restaurant at Dieu Donne Estate and Haute Cabrière, in Franschhoek. A complete list of participating restaurants in the greater Cape Town area can be viewed at www.restaurantweek.co.za.

Restaurant Week has been a success around the world and was brought to South Africa by DiningCity.com, the world’s leading online, real time, restaurant reservation and review service. This will become a biannual event, expanding soon from Cape Town to include Johannesburg and Durban.

“South Africa has world-class restaurants and I wanted to let everyone in on this secret!” said Tertius van Oosthuyzen of DiningCity. “Plus, it’s about time we had a powerful, trusted platform like DiningCity to help us browse our favourite local spots, do real time restaurant bookings and to get people around the world to notice all the good food being served here. This is a global platform, one of the most recognizable in the world for fine dining.”

The Restaurant Week concept is simple: guests can enjoy a three course lunch or dinner created by the top chefs at the finest restaurants for R125 or R200, respectively. Restaurants enjoying a DiningCity star will cost an extra R50.

“The idea is to give diners that extra incentive, that little push, they need to try the restaurants they’ve always wanted to visit, but were held back for some reason,” said Tertius. “Restaurant Week diners can browse our website to find the restaurant of their dreams, see if a table is available at the time they want, then make their booking in real time. It’s all about access.” It is easy to book online on www.restaurantweek.co.za and all last minute spots will be in a news feed on the site and at www.twitter.com/RSeats

Tertius is on a mission to tell the world about what our local restaurants have to offer. “South African restaurants are really special in their own way, because of the amazing way they blend ingredients and influences. And as for location and ambience, I don’t think anything can compare to the restaurants we have in the Wine Region. That is beyond added value.”

The timing is particularly good with Cape Townians just venturing out of hibernation said Tertius. “Restaurant Weeks are about high quality dining experiences at a great price and there’s something a little bit celebratory about the whole thing too. It’s really an event for the whole city!”