At Wandies, notes of foreign currency, business cards of eminent personalities and signatures of tourists adorn the walls. As you walk through the door, the inviting smell of mutton curry fills your nostrils, and provokes your taste buds. The building is an ordinary Soweto house, extended and converted into a restaurant. Inside, three long tables, decorated with bright red, green and blue tablecloths, are set up with chairs upholstered in matching colours. A fish tank and a wine rack complete the décor. The tranquil atmosphere of the restaurant offers a retreat from the din outside.
About us
For those who seek a touch of the exotic, the establishment serves indigenous cuisine in the form of dumplings, mogodu, ting (soft porridge), pap and umqushu (samp).
Meals are in the form of a buffet. The dish includes mutton, lamb, beef or chicken - roasted or cooked.
Vegetarians are spoilt for choice, if salads are what they want. There are six on the menu, including coleslaw, French salad, beetroot, potato salad, tuna fish salad and chakalaka - a local hot salad made of tomatoes, baked beans, onion, chillies and green chillies.
Wandies has not always been a thriving restaurant patronised by the rich and famous. Wandi Ndaba started operating an illegal shebeen from his house in 1981. Without a licence and with constant fear of police raids, he struggled through the next decade, relying on the loyalty of his regular clientele. In 1991, the restaurant was licensed, ushering in a new, prosperous phase for the joint. Whilst many shebeens stuck to the sale of liquor, Wandi carved a niche for himself by selling prepared food, initially offering fish and t-bone steak to his patrons. With time, the business developed into a proper restaurant, complete with a menu and customer service - appealing to the emergent local middle class. Impressed by the service offered at the venue, regular clients started inviting curious whites, mainly their colleagues from work who wanted some township experience.
Today, the restaurant has become one of the premier tourist attractions of Soweto, with tourists by the busloads streaming in every day of the week and at all hours of the day. The establishment opens seven days a week and operates until about 10pm during week-days. It stays open until the wee hours of the morning over weekends. The restaurant attracts an average of 100 visitors a day.
Soweto Tour
Pick up by your SATSA accredited tour company (KDR Tours) at your hotel, Bed and breakfast or guest lodge.
Enter Soweto via the upmarket area called Diepkloof Ext where some of the houses can cost in the millions. View a large worker hostel near this area. Into the Baragwanath area and stop at the huge taxi rank for a walk about. Soak up the sites, sounds and "smells" of Africa at close quarters - informal open air butcher shop, herbalists, barbers and market etc.
We pass Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere. The tour continues with a drive through the various suburbs to the Kliptown area where the freedom charter was signed, now being developed as the Walter Sizulu square of dedication.
We view a squatter camp and then it's on to Regina Mundi church the focal point of much of the struggle in the 70's and 80's and home to the famous Black Madonna. Then a visit to the fascinating Hector Pieterson memorial and museum. The state of the art multi media centre depicts scenes leading up to the student uprising of June 16th 1976 and the eventual transition to democracy in South Africa.
We will then visit a squatter camp right in the heart of Soweto and meet some of the residents. They will be happy to answer some of your questions and will show you round their homes, to see how many thousands of South Africans live and make ends meet.
Round the corner we go to the Nelson Mandela house museum and Vilakazi street which is the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace prize winners lived. View Winnie Mandela's house as well.
We will visit more suburbs and housing types and styles on the way to a scrumptious traditional African lunch and local hospitality at Wandies Place
We return to arrive home at about 14h30.
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