The Shortmarket Club Johannesburg Review
The Shortmarket Club Johannesburg recently opened in September 2021. It offers an Asian-inspired menu in a contemporary setting in Rosebank.
The restaurant is the brainchild of famed South African chef Luke Dale Roberts, whose other ventures include the Cape Town restaurant of the same name and the Pot Luck Club in Cape Town. Another favorite was the Test Kitchen but Chef Roberts closed down this super popular restaurant in September 2021.
p.s. We ate at the Pot Luck Club in September and it was a wonderful dining experience: the food and service were on point!
Dining at The Shortmarket Club
The basics:
- Cost: R250/pp to reserve booking. This is deducted from your final bill.
- Reservations strongly suggested.
- Highlight: The fact that I wanted to go and then I went.
The Shortmarket Club Johannesburg Hype
The chef and his restaurants have several awards and are world-known. Considering the hype, I had high expectations for our dinner.
Although the restaurant only opened in September, there are already almost 500 positive reviews on Google and several articles fanning the flames of praise for the Shortmarket Club. However, the high Google Maps ratings are fake news! The restaurant reviews are mostly from the Cape Town version. IDK how they managed this but please search by “newest” on their Google Maps review to get other people’s opinions for our version here in Joburg.
Perhaps because our expectations were high, we didn’t have a great experience. Sure, the food was good but nothing that makes us want to return. Additionally, the service was poor in our experience.
Everything in this review is based on our visit and our experience could be unique. If you’re interested and willing to drop R800 on finding out for yourself, let me know how it goes!
Bookings
Bookings are strongly suggested as the restaurant fills up quickly. You can make your booking here.
The Shortmarket Club Johannesburg is located in Oxford Parks, across from the Radisson Red hotel. There is secure basement parking and for 2-ish hours you’ll probably pay R10 in parking fees.
Visit the Shortmarket Club website.
The Shortmarket Club Food Review
There are an array of appetizers, mains, and steaks. There are two options for vegetarians: an eggplant dish and a gnocchi dish.
An amuse-bouche is also sent to the table. We were served a Japanese milk bun with Italian olives and salted butter. The olives were excellent.
We ordered the linefish tartar and the miso chickpeas. Both dishes were good. I always enjoy a good tuna dish so this was no exception. The carrot and cumin flavors went well with the linefish and there was just enough mayo to hold the tartar together without it being overpowering. A unique feature of the chickpea dish was the charred avocados.
For mains, we got the smoked tofu puree with eggplant and the fish curry. I liked the eggplant dish more than the fish curry as the Asian fusion attempt shined brighter with the eggplant dish. The fish curry just made me wish we were eating take-away from Chef Micky instead.
(Bonus: if you don’t know, now you do: Chef Micky has excellent Thai dishes that work so well for takeaway on a lazy night).
To be honest, I was still hungry after the meal! Maybe it was all the waiting around for the food to make it to our table…? Idk. Wilhelm said he was fine… Maybe I was just super hungry that day. I had eaten a light lunch to have a solid appetite for dinner (because I was excited to dine at the Shortmarket Club) but obviously, that backfired.
Dining advice
- Expect a slow dining experience and practice patience.
- I recommend the two apps and the eggplant main dish.
- Many people were ordering steaks so that seems like a good option if you’re into that.
Budget
To book a table, you will pre-pay R250 per person. This cost is deducted from your final bill.
Additionally, there is a 12% service charge added on top of all bills. I generally like this practice as it takes the guesswork out of service charge for mathematically challenged folks like myself.
For 2 people, our bill was around R800 but it’s easier to go higher if you order more drinks, appetizers, or get dessert. We ordered two appetizers and two mains. We also got sparkling water, a beer, and one glass of wine.
The Shortmarket Club Johannesburg Experience: Ehh.
Welcome to my rant…
Considering the hype and expectations, I expected to have more or less timely service and this soured the experience for me. It is worth noting that the restaurant was full and there were two tables with large groups. The most attentive staff on-site was the Sommelier. I even tried to order food with him because I couldn’t get anyone else’s attention. Haha.
It’s me. I’m ranting.
Seating and Appetizers
After we were seated at 7:45 pm (our reservation time), it took 20 minutes for someone to take our order. After 15 minutes I raised my hand a couple of times but was not noticed. Then I got more desperate and so I said “excuse me” louder than usual to get a passing waiter’s attention.
Things with timing get tricky here because I want to count the 20 minutes we waited to order. Maybe it’s worth noting that we always look up menus beforehand and decide within the first 5 minutes (usually less) on what we want to order.
The amuse bouche arrived maybe 15-ish minutes after we ordered and then our mains arrived in another 10-ish minutes. We were hungry when we arrived, so we basically waited 45 minutes for the apps in my (hungry) opinion.
Mains
Our mains took another 40-ish minutes after the appetizers. So, though we sat at 7:45 pm, we ate dinner at 9:10 pm. We finished the mains quickly (due to hunger) and then quickly requested the bill so we could leave.
I think the waiter overheard me telling Wilhelm that I couldn’t believe how long it was taking because when he came with the dishes he told me “good things take time.” Maybe it was just a coincidence but the comment deff didn’t help the situation for me because I was ready to just eat a banana and call it a night.
Final thoughts
Of course, if I had known about the long food wait times here then I probably wouldn’t have been so irritated about it. I usually like slow dining experiences when food is sent out slowly as it’s prepared, etc but this was just long periods with no food. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt here but I’m not going back to find out.
I hope you enjoyed my mini-rant and sass. I hope your experience is better if you decide to go. Perhaps call to ask when is the best time to dine when there are limited diners.