Looking for a family-friendly restaurant in the Gauteng area where good food and children's entertainment meet in scenic surroundings? Axel Bührmann visited Bambanani in Melville with his family and highly recommends the venue to our readers.
With dire warnings about the expected demise of many restaurants across South Africa, it’s clear that those in this sector of the hospitality may have to rethink their strategies if they want to survive.
It seems consumers are starting to expect more from restaurants than just sitting down and scoffing back expensive munchies, no matter how trendy the settings, which is why the discovery
of Bambanani – which means community – in the heart of Melville is such a pleasure.
While the likes of the Spur may sell themselves as “kid-friendly” this is the first place we’ve been to in Johannesburg that has friendly and seemingly very responsible child-minders all over the place, and a play centre for kiddies that is probably out-of-the-world for tots and older children.
Besides the toy-laden astro-turfed section (and it’s soft and real-looking enough for kiddies who do have an oopsie to recover quite quickly – kids will be kids and gravity seems to favour them), there’s a netted-off padded jungle-gym type section that goes up and up; tunnels and climbing your tots can explore to their little heart’s content.
Actually, not only for tots; there are two sections – one for under threes and one for under sevens, and from what we could see, the child minders carefully controlled those who tried to play here. Only age-appropriate kiddies would be allowed went into the correct section, which is good. Too often in other “child-friendly” play areas you’d have boisterous seven-year-olds clambering over nervous tots, who were still trying to button down the finer art of standing, never mind walking.
And if your tot is a little nervous, there are many friendly child-minders’ hands to not only steady them, but also to guide them or even entertain them. From what we could see, mom and dad could easily relax and not worry about their little ones falling down, hurt or bullied.
It’s not only the child-minders that made this a treat; the food was well-prepared and not at all expensive – well-priced and in line with what other restaurants would charge. Even though it looks 
chic and funky, this is not reflected in the pricing (in my mind "chic and funky" tends to get associated with over-the-top pricing).
Plus there’s not only a menu for tots, but cost-effective items for babies as well, as you can see in the photographs.
Bambanani doesn’t seem to be loading its pricing for you to pay for the child-minders; and you can tip ‘em if you feel they’ve done a good job. We certainly thought so, with little Alex being thoroughly a) hungry enough after playing for a while to eat most of his flapjacks and b) tired enough from playing afterwards to pass out in the car seat on the way home.
Bambanani isn’t only about the kiddies. It opens at 7:30 (except Mondays) and seems to go off till all hours of the night, and for those who are into this sort of thing, a very well-stocked bar will cater for those revellers who have designated drivers late at night. Downstairs in the outside kiddies section we counted about 18 tables, but there’s also an upstairs section that looks more like your conventional, trendy restaurant. There’s free Wi-fi, as well.
The bathrooms are also kid-friendly, with kiddies’ toilet seats and steps in both the gents’ and ladies’ toilets; plus a changing-room where nappies can be taken care of.
Interestingly, there’s a well-known franchise coffee shop across the road; as my other half said, this is the first time she’s seen one empty at breakfast. Seems people would much prefer Bambanani, which was very busy on the Sunday morning we went there.
Bambanani 85 4th Avenue, Melville 011 482 2900
(All images: Axel Bührmann. Creative Commons License.)
