(no stars) Santi's Ristaurante, The Square Shopping Centre, Naivasha Road, Sunninghill

This restaurant is situated on the mezzanine floor of the centre with a balcony looking out over the lower levels.  We had booked a non-smoking table and arrived on time.  This first noticeable thing was the smell of cigarette smoke which infused the whole place.  We asked for a table which was not affected and none was forthcoming.  On speaking to the manager, he informed us that "I only work here".  We turned around and left, instead going to...

**** JHB Grill, Rivonia Crossing 2, 3 Achter Road corner Witkoppen, Paulshof

This restaurant is large and airy.  It was very well patronised on that night as well.  Not surprising as the food was good.  We shared a calamari starter which was excellent and then had beef burgers which were enormous!  Rick had mushroom and I had Madagascar pepper sauce.  The latter could have been hotter but both burgers were good and accompanied by potato wedges and vegetables.

Their service was good and the white wine by the glass more than acceptable.  Their filter coffee was excellent.  I would recommend it, even though it is pricey as it would suit a special occasion!

Contact Details for JHB Grill: Tel 011 234-0337, 087 150-1414, e-mail jhbgrill@gmail.com;info@jhbgrill.co.za, web site.

Whining and Dining

Julius visited a restaurant and ordered the soup of the day.  Then:
"Waiter, what's this stuff?"
"It's bean soup, sir."
"I don't care what it used to be, what is it now?"

The Gone... Back to top

• Designer Faire in Rivonia Centre, 369 Rivonia Boulevard: Deli, light lunches, breakfasts, teas, catering. Sadly, Julia has had to close the shop to go and look after her sick mum in the UK.  We wish them both well.
• The last "All Things Nice", in Dunwoody shopping centre, has closed after a year.  They still do catering, and can be contacted on 'allthingsnice@telkomsa.net'.

Blowing our own Trumpet    Back to top

This month we'd like to say a little about Megaplex.co.za, the site that brings you this newsletter.  Most of the site is dedicated to publicising businesses (mainly shops and restaurants) in an area of Sandton stretching from Morningside in the south to Sunninghill in the north, and Woodmead in the east to the William Nicol Highway in the west.  We have, at present, 35 pages each focused on a shopping centre or precinct, and add one or two a month.

The result for you is that if you Google for, for example, "Sandton vets", www.megaplex.co.za/rivonia-village-vet.htm comes up for Rivonia Village Veterinary Clinic.  Google for "Rivonia Indian restaurant" and you'll get our Rivonia Restaurants and Taste of India pages.  A Search for "Woodmead Value Mart" shows www.megaplex.co.za/shops-woodmead-value-mart.htm and so on.

Just for fun. we did a thumb-suck on how much we might be contributing to the economy of Sandton: The Megaplex site had 26,330 visitors and 32,621 page views in August.  Say that each of those visitors spent just R10 on what they were looking for.  Alternatively, say that one visitor in ten spent R100 (not difficult: That's a meal for one at many restaurants, a book at Exclusives or Bookdealers, or under a quarter of a pair of shoes or a dress).  So we might well be contributing a quarter of a million Rand to the local economy each month.

If you're in business in Sandton, megaplex.co.za or this newsletter might be a good place to advertise... more here.

At the Hardware Checkout

"A Police Reservist said I should fit an 'extra-long patio door bolt' so that burglars can't lift my sliding door off its rails: Do you have any?"

"Certainly sir ... here you go."

"Can I put it on myself?"

"You can, sir, but it will be better to put it on the door."