The Top 20 restaurants in SA for 2015

The highly anticipated 2015 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards will take place at the Sunday lunch of the year on 15 November at Mistico Equestrian Estate near Paarl where the final Top 10 Restaurants in South Africa will be announced. 

In previous years Eat Out have released the names of the 20 nominees in the lead up to the big gala event on their website. This year, however, the chefs of the Top 20 restaurants were all filmed as they found out the good news about their nominations. The videos were released yesterday and today in batches of 5. 

WATCH: Watch as the first 5 chefs find out they have been nominated.

WATCH: Watch the next 5 chefs finding out they have been nominated.

WATCH: Watch as nominees 11-15 find out they have been nominated.

WATCH: Watch the final 5 chefs finding out they have been nominated.

The Top 20 nominees for the 2015 Eat Out Restaurant Awards are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Chefs Warehouse – Cape Town – Chef Liam Tomlin

2. Indochine – Stellenbosch – Chef Virgil Khan

3. The Restaurant at Newton Johnson – Hemel en Aarde Valley – Chef Eric Bulpitt

4. Overture – Stellenbosch – Chef Bertus Basson

5. Tokara – Stellenbosch – Chef Richard Carstens

6.  DW-11-13 – Dunkeld, Johannesburg – Chef Marthinus Ferreira

7. 500 at The Saxon – Sandton, Johannesburg – Chef David Higgs

8. Jordan Restaurant – Stellenbosch – Chef George Jardine

9. Mosaic – Elandsfontein, Pretoria – Chef Chantel Dartnall

10. The Kitchen at Maison – Franschhoek – Chef Arno Janse van Rensburg

11. Foliage – Franschhoek – Chef Chris Erasmus

12. Rust en Vrede Restaurant – Stellenbosch – Chef John Shuttleworth

13. The Test Kitchen – Woodstock – Chef Luke Dale-Roberts

14. Camphors Restaurant – Vergelegen, Somerset West – Chef Michael Cooke

15. The Tasting Room – Franschhoek – Chef Margot Janse

16. Terroir – Stellenbosch – Chef Michael Broughton

17. The Pot Luck Club – Woodstock – Chef Wesley Randles

18. Waterkloof Restaurant – Somerset West – Chef Gregory Czarnecki

19. The Greenhouse Restaurant – Constantia – Chef Peter Tempelhoff

20. La Colombe – Constantia – Chef Scot Kirton

The announcements are not the only thing Eat Out are doing differently this year. Instead of the glitzy gala evening, usually held on a Sunday evening, this year will see Eat Out host the lunch party of the year in Paarl.

This year’s judges for the awards are Abigail Donnelly, Siba Mtongana, Jackie Cameron and Benny Masekwameng.

We are certainly looking forward to hearing who the Top 10 restaurants in South Africa will be come November 15th.

See who the Top 10 were last year here and the Top 20 nominees for 2014 here.

Food24 would like to congratulate all the nominees for 2015 on an outstanding achievement.