The holiday season is over and it’s time for a serious shift towards healthy eating! We promote all things healthy and heart-warming this month.

To spur you along, we’ve compiled a list of fab healthy eating out choices in Cape Town, Joburg and Durban.

CAPE TOWN

Osumo
Shop 570, Canal Walk Shopping Centre
021 552 3299
At Osumo, good-for-you food on the go is the order of the day – whether you order a bowl of old fashioned oats, a booster-enhanced smoothie or any of their mouth watering wraps, their low GI, low-fat and high fibre focus keeps a look out for you.

The Showroom
Cnr Chiappini and Hospital Streets, Harbour Edge, Green Point
021 421 4682
Glamorous and award winning restaurants often come with un-figure friendly menus to match but happily at The Showroom, lunchtime is an altogether healthy option. Chef Bruce Robertson’s daytime menu here features an impressive selection of top-notch salads bursting with plenty of flavourful ingredients. Try the smoked salmon Waldorf – it’s outstanding.

Just Sushi
Shop 6, Simonstown Waterfront, Simonstown
021 786 4340
For high protein and low carb diet followers, sushi is a saviour. At Just Sushi in Simonstown, fans can satisfy their cravings with just-caught mouthfuls of succulent sushi and sashimi. The tuna tartare is superb.

Col’cacchio
2 Spearhead Building, 42 Hans Strijdom Avenue, Foreshore
021 419 4848
Say pizza and the first thing most people think about is calories, calories, calories. At Colcacchio, not only do they pride themselves on their fantastically thin bases and moreish toppings but if you choose pizzas with a heart icon, you’re choosing a healthier lower-fat round of deliciousness. They also have wheat-free pastas.

Organic Living
39 Constantia Road, Wynberg
021 797 1123
A rather unassuming exterior in Wynberg belies a temple of health foods and supplements as well as a restaurant featuring extremely popular lunchtime buffets laden with passionate organic chef Julia Sprenger’s wholesome offerings.

Cadeaux
The Santé Winelands Hotel & Wellness Centre, Simonsvlei Road, Klapmuts
021 875 8100
With state-of-the-art spa facilities and a picture perfect setting it’s only fitting that the restaurant at the Santé Hotel & Wellness Centre is a sight for sore eyes. No rabbit food or extreme diets here, just a beautifully prepared organic buffet for lunch (it transforms into an elegant restaurant at night), freshly pressed juices and diet specific tonics and meal choices. They even have organic wines.

Contributer: Vicki Sleet

JOHANNESBURG

Fruits and Roots
103 Komatie Road, Emmarentia
011-646 4404
Hobart Corner Shopping Centre, c/o Hobart and Grosvenor Roads, Bryanston
011-463 2928
Fruits and Roots is the ultimate health food restaurant and health shop. The menu is completely vegetarian and is especially popular with vegans and those with food allergies and intolerances. There’s a great buffet of ultra-healthy and completely delicious meals on Saturdays and during the week you’ll be spoilt for choice with the likes of gluten-free roast veggie lasagne or meat-free chicken mayo on rye, spelt or wholewheat bread. There’s also a selection of organic wine to quench your thirst.

Wild Olive
Shop 1, Strano Place, 14 Gleneagles Road, Greenside
011-646 1445
For one of the most delicious and healthy lunches in Joburg head to Wild Olive in Greenside. The pay-by-weight buffet table absolutely groans with a range of ‘good for you’ salads, vegetable tarts and one or two hot options that are all made from the best, freshest ingredients. The buffet options aren’t all vegetarian but you’ll be hooked once you taste their selection of salads that often include chickpeas, feta, roast vegetables and lashings of the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Betty’s Tearoom
44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark
011-482 3579
Since this trendy restaurant’s new owners took over last year the menu is healthier and more delicious than ever. The idea was to introduce dishes that are as tasty as they are good for you and the new options on the menu won’t disappoint. About twenty-five percent of the menu is vegetarian but even if you remain loyal to steaks and braais, it’s still worth trying the seed loaf sandwiches filled with apple, feta, hummus and cucumber or perhaps the slightly unusual hummus, avo and banana – yum!

Krisp
41 Stanley Avenue, Milpark
011-482 8825
Serving up an extensive list of meals that include wraps, sandwiches, prawn curries and even tacos that are all completely vegetarian – the Krisp team make great healthy food that’s also suitable for vegans. Using a selection of fab tasting meat-substitution products that would fool devout meat eaters, it’s an excellent choice for lunch and is also open for dinner on Friday nights.

Café Organica
Naturally Yours Centre, Corner Main Road & Culross Roads, Bryanston/Fourways
011-706 6550
Situated in Bryanston’s Naturally Yours wellness centre – a bastion of all things healthy, Café Organica is a great choice for the health-conscious diner. For breakfast choose from their ever-popular selection of smoothies or try out the gluten-free flapjacks. The restaurant specialises in gluten, wheat and sugar-free products but you can still get your hands on a selection of hearty and healthy ‘normal’ food like chicken or beef burgers (albeit using gluten-free buns), a selection of wraps, baked potatoes, and fish, chicken or veg baskets that are served with potato wedges.

Benkei
48 Grant Avenue, Norwood
011-483 3296
You don’t get much tastier, healthy food than sushi and sashimi and that’s what Benkei does best. You’re bound to feel a tremendous sense of wellbeing once you’ve gorged yourself on their delicious, expertly prepared and really creative selection of raw fish morsels. Try classic salmon California rolls and avo maki or more adventurous options like the Pink Cadillac roll filled with peppadew and spicey salmon. And then there are wok-cooked meals, ‘soup noodles’ and Japanese-style ‘yakitori’ grilled kebabs – tasty and relatively guilt-free.

Contributer: Jo Buitendach

DURBAN

Sprigs
Field’s Centre, Old Main Road, Kloof
031-764 6031
Open Monday to Saturday, breakfast and lunch
The exciting little deli that made vegetables fashionable again and left the most ardent carnivores green with envy. Sisters Clare and Fiona Ras create a daily lunchtime buffet that may contain butternut and lentil quiche, tomato basil and roasted pumpkin seed salad, sweet potato wedges roasted in sweet chilli sauce, glazed baby carrots, turnip, pea, and feta salad, or even cheese and thyme bread and butter pudding. It’s always fresh and changes daily ­ and yes, there is a meat dish for those who can’t do without. And if you want to break those diets, the cinnamon cookies are sublime.

The Store
Silvervause Centre, cnr Silverton and Vause Roads, Berea, Durban
031-202 6182
Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch, Tuesday to Saturday for dinner
The home of fresh produce, cooked simply with fresh herbs this one-time clothing store has matured into something of a boutique restaurant for lovers of great food. Think exciting salads topped with homemade fishcakes made from fresh kingklip and a spicy mayo. Portions are modest, tastes fresh, and if the doctor will allow it, the coffee worth breaking a taboo for.

Delfi
386 Windermere Road, Morningside, Durban
031-312 7032
Open Wednesday to Monday, lunch and dinner
Now Greek food, with all that garlic and lemon, parsley and olive oil is healthy if you avoid the heavy cuts of lamb. In this tiny little taverna, Maria Taranes does gives you the authentic article, and even goes as far as replacing heavier dishes with leaner cuts. Mezzes are a must: pungent skordalia that will chase vampires away, brinjals grilled with chilli and parmesan, grilled calamari, spicy spinach balls, and fresh sardines, when available are some of the options. Stuffed tomatoes are heavenly for mains.

Daruma
Holiday Inn Elangeni, 63 Snell Parade, Durban
031-362 1322
Open Monday to Saturday for lunch, Monday to Sunday for dinner
Who can quibble about the health benefits of sushi and sashimi ­or in fact Japanese cooking in general. Daruma gives the original article, and has been there since before sushi became the next best thing. So besides the expected salmon and tuna, here you can try eel and other delicacies. The Japanese would even claim health benefits in the carafes of saki that do the rounds. Here, even the tempura is lighter than most. The only draw back – ­ make sure the credit card is not already overburdened.

Elements
Beverly Hills Hotel, Lighthouse Road, Umhlanga
031-561 2211
Open Monday to Sunday, lunch and dinner
This stunning simple venue with views of the rolling breakers beyond, specialises in light simple meals for those who dont want to go the full five-star hog. So sit on the deck on a balmy night and tuck into fresh kingklip on a butternut cake with loads of corriander, of calamari with sugar peas and soy, crab cakes with marrows and peppadews. And if you want an afterwork meeting spot, lounge on the comfy cane chairs and pass around a selection of interesting mezzes.

Cake and Satay House
Willowvale Road, Umbilo
082 716 3793
Open Monday to Saturday for dinner
Now if you can close you eyes to small amounts of palm oil, Indonesian food is the epitome of good health, and no-one does it better than Anita Leong, in the front room of her home in this very unfashionable part of Durban. The atmosphere is zero, but the cooking stupendous. Prawns in black bean sauce and chilli crab are musts – ­here the garlic, ginger chilli and corriander does the talking. Satays are good, as is the wonton soup. And the advantage is you can bring your own wine  – although remember, credit cards are not accepted.

Contributer: Frank Chemaly