I want to sincerely thank Kobus van der Merwe for sharing his concerns in his op-ed for the Daily Maverick. Having worked with the South African restaurant industry for 25 years, we know that the best way to evolve the Eat Out Awards is to engage with all those we have the privilege of serving. Kobus raised some valid points and his op-ed has given Eat Out pause to listen and consider how we can improve in several key areas, specifically judging and scoring.

What we can share now is that we made a key decision late in 2023 that all the restaurants being judged will be visited by all the judges and on separate occasions. The need for this came through in almost all of our feedback sessions with chefs and restaurants following the Eat Out Awards ceremony in November 2023. So this change has already been implemented for the coming year. It’s important that considerations such as consistency and an individual judge’s subjectivity are taken into account, and we agree that having all the judges visiting each restaurant will make for a far more robust judging process.

We stand behind the integrity of our judges and we are always willing to listen, learn and evolve together with the industry. What we will be doing now is reaching out to all the restaurants, owners and chefs, as well as to our audience, to gain detailed feedback and insights. This feedback will inform our complete approach for the coming year and be considerate of the whole industry. We encourage everyone we reach out to, to be as direct and honest as Kobus has been.

We don’t yet have all the answers but, as an independent brand, we are absolutely committed to fairness and transparency. We will publish the full judging process for 2024, along with any further changes, on the Eat Out website and social channels by 29 March 2024. This will include the 2024 judging panel, which has not yet been finalised.