The date and venue are set for the South African foodie’s celebration of the year. On Sunday 18 November, the winners of the 2018 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards will be announced at GrandWest in Cape Town.

The limited tickets are in high demand, with all of them selling out in record time in 2017. For this year’s event, guests will be welcomed with canapés and Graham Beck MCC, after which they will be seated in the Grand Arena for a multiple-course lunch created by some of the country’s top chefs to be enjoyed throughout the ceremony. Celebrations will conclude with a party, offering guests the opportunity to mingle.
To celebrate the wealth of talent on the restaurant scene, Eat Out will announce 30 nominees prior to the event and count down from 20 to 11 at the ceremony, before finally revealing the Top 10. The winning restaurants will be chosen by a core panel of anonymous judges, with Margot Janse as the judging convener.

“Honouring the extraordinary talent in South Africa is what Eat Out is all about,” says Aileen Lamb, MD of New Media, which owns Eat Out. “This awards ceremony is where we get to celebrate our world-class chefs and the magnificent work being done in the food industry as a whole. Our partnership with Mercedes-Benz, which is also dedicated to recognising excellence and innovation, makes our journey together even more inspiring.”

Mercedes-Benz South Africa is the sponsor for this prestigious awards ceremony for the fifth consecutive year. “As a brand, we’re always striving to find the very best, and we’re thrilled to recognise local chefs and restaurants around South Africa whose culinary delights exceed expectations year after year,” says Selvin Govender, Marketing Director of Mercedes-Benz Cars. To honour the Restaurant of the Year, the head chef will receive a luxury Mercedes-Benz for the duration of their reign.

Aside from Margot Janse, the panel will remain anonymous after the judging has concluded, as this enables the judges to remain on the panel for the coming year(s) to ensure greater consistency. As always, their scorecards will be audited before the announcement and chefs will be able to obtain feedback from Eat Out after the awards. The criteria to determine the nominees and winners remain the same as in previous years but, as in 2017, slightly more weighting will be given to food. (The scorecard can be viewed here.)

In addition to naming the hotly contested Top 10 restaurants, the 2018 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards will recognise the Eat Out S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna Chef of the Year, the Eat Out Retail Capital New Restaurant of the Year and the Eat Out Rising Star. Winners will also be announced for the Eat Out Graham Beck Chefs’ Chef Award, the Eat Out Diners Club Service Excellence Award, the Eat Out Wine Service Award, the Eat Out John Psillos Award for Outstanding Contribution to Service, the Eat Out Lannice Snyman Lifetime Achievement Award, the Eat Out Woolworths Sustainability Award, and the Eat Out Style Award.

Limited tickets are now available for the 2018 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant awards for R1 595 per person at Quicket: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/51117-eat-out-awards-2018/?preview=t#/seats