Top Kitchen passes test, has a braai

For the second year in a row, Cape Town restaurant The Test Kitchen has been named the best restaurant in the country.

Asked how he felt, Luke Dale-Roberts, head chef of The Test Kitchen and Chef of the Year in 2011, said: "Absolutely brilliant. Super excited.

"We've got the whole team together for a celebratory braai tonight."

The annual Eat Out Awards presentation was at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront on Sunday.

David Higgs, who last received an Eat Out award in 2010, won Chef of the Year.

His restaurant, five hundred, at the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, was voted the second-best restaurant in the country.

The top 10 restaurants were: Franschhoek's Pierneef à La Motte (10th) and The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français (9th); Somerset West's Camphors at Vergelegen (8th); Stellenbosch's Overture (7th) and Jordan (6th); KwaZulu-Natal's Hartford House (5th); Cape Town's The Greenhouse (4th); Stellenbosch's Rust en Vrede (3rd); Johannesburg's five hundred (2nd) and The Test Kitchen (1st).

Winners were also chosen in a number of special categories, including service excellence (Rust en Vrede), style (The Pot Luck Club), country-style (Towerbosch), Asian (Kitima), Italian (Burrata), bistro (The Leopard, owned by The Times columnist Andrea Burgener) and steakhouse (Carne SA).

The revamped Eat Out magazine will be available at the end of November.