Haggling
by whitebobo
This is a tip that will serve you well and prevent you from being the focus of a shop keeper's frustrations and anger.
It may be your culture, it may be the culture of a vendor, but under no cicumstances should you start haggling with a salesperson in a large mall in South Africa. You may ask for discount if you are buying for a large amount (ie R3000+) but to haggle shows much disrespect when rentals are so high. These shops pay very high rent and are completely different to a vendor in the street who pays nothing to have his stall there. Go crazy haggling with vendors, but try and haggle for anything more than 10% discount in a mall and you will notice the level of service you receive fall drastically. This is Africa, but not all of it is run the same. Would you ask for discount at your local mall's supermarket? Then why ask at a supermarket in another country?
The funny thing is that the vendors will often make you pay more for your haggled item than what you would pay for it in the mall.
Also do not take photographs of anything without at least asking the shop owner or vendor before hand. This also causes a lot of anger and some vendors will charge you for photographs. It is very disrespectful to take photographs of carvings or artworks someone has spent hours making and then leaving the store without buying something, all without asking in the first place.
Grand Prix Action
by cokes
Well this is one of the best race tracks in Africa. Early this year this first 2 seater F1 was held here , with People like Marc Gene , Nigel Mansel , Alan Prost and many other F1 great names raced here. Just Bring Yourself Along.
Monte Casino Sasas
by cokes about Cocktail Bar
Well this is a small cocktail bar , whereby you can go and have a few drinks and hit the dancer floor. Its quiet nice for a cheap fun filled night.
The dance floor is quiet small, so then what "Just dance on the Bar". They have no particular dress code. As far as I know , no track-suites are allowed.
Meat! Meat! And more meat!!
by MikeAtSea about Carnivore Restaurant
South Africans love their meat and they like big servings too. At Carnivore you get to choose from a wide range of meats including crocodile, zebra, chicken and more. Waiters will carve succulent slices for you with Masai spears while you sit around a fire enjoying the feast. Hmmm - difficult to say... I am a carnivore so I guess all.... I even tried elephant here once... though I was still chewing on that meat a few days later!!
I love my springbok, kudu and impala.... nice and tender!!
Barney Barnato would have felt right at home!
by CatherineReichardt about Radium Beer Hall
The Radium Beer Hall is a institution dating back to the heyday of Johannesburg's mining boom, and frankly hasn't changed a lot since! The only difference is that these days, there are security bars to keep the scoundrels out, whereas in the past, their function may had been reversed!
This is the sort of place that you can imagine the likes of Barney Barnato and the other mining pioneers either celebrating their good fortune or drowning their sorrows at end of a day as circumstances might dictate.
The long wooden counter of the bar (salvaged from the old Ferreirasdorp Hotel) has been polished by a century of elbows, and the handles on the beer pumps are shiny and beaded with condensation in promise of icy cold beer - rather than experiencing the fake ambience of Gold Reef City bars, come and visit the real thing!
The Radium offers a bar menu that is predominantly Portuguese. It makes no pretence at haute cuisine, but is ideal fare to accompany cold beer! There is sometimes live jazz on Sundays.
Sadly, Orange Grove has seen better days, and it's not the best area to wander around by night. There is a small car park behind a building on the opposite side of the road, which has a guard, so I suggest that you park there (or, even better, since you'll be drinking, why not organise a cab?) Frankly, nobody goes for the food, but the combination of food, beer and ambience is an absolute winner!
The prego (Portuguese garlic steak) roll is good, cheap and filling - just ask them to go easy on the peri peri first time if you're not used to it!
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Dining Room
Hotel Formula inn, Johannesburg
