Braaihut

Rating: 3

We ate lunch here in December 2023.

Swiss cheese and caramelised onion beef burger
Chicken tenders
Peri peri chips
Spicy rice

We eat a lot of burgers, and you just never know when something special is going to come along. It came along tonight. This place is a little South African hole in the wall which prides itself on offering a comprehensive spice range and describes its offerings as “lekker man”. According to Google, lekker is South African slang for good. We can confirm the burger was extremely lekker, man. Soft bun, crazy juicy pattie, top notch structural integrity, onions for days, the cheese all melty. It ticked every box. You can even pick the spice level of your beef pattie (we went lemon herb, can recommend).

Also in the lekker category were the fries which were outstanding. They were just plain crinkle cut but cooked perfectly in good oil with just the right amount of peri peri and a welcome tomato dipping sauce.

After the burger and chips, Braaihut were looking down the barrel of a 4. Then things took a turn. The tenders were grilled and nothing special, the sauce (we went with mild for the chicken) was uninspired. Then even worse was the “spicy” rice. We had been concerned that ordering spicy rice in a place specialising in spice could blast our tastebuds. We couldn’t have been more wrong. There was nothing spicy about it. There was nothing tasty about it either. It was white rice covered with some kind of anaemic yellow spice and nothing little kernels of corn and peas. Tragic.

Despite a couple of serious missteps, we were big fans of this place. Special shout out to the hostess who went out of her way to guide us in our selection and was truly delightful. Overall, this joint was lekker, man.