Shayona Restaurant, Mayfair

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Restaurant description

Shayona is justly famous for its first-rate vegetarian curries, especially those with home-made cheese, or paneer. It's also well-known for some of the best rotis and pappadums to be found in Johannesburg, and for a huge assortment of sweetmeats - the glass cases displaying sweetmeats run almost the length of one wall.

A deluxe lunch, served on a metal tray, consists of three curries, including one with paneer, several rotis, samoosas, pappadums, rice, mango achar and other condiments, yoghurt-based raita and a sweet dessert called shreecan. It's enough for two or even three to share. A regular lunch is much the same, but there are only two curries and no paneer. But you don't have to go for the extravaganza: you can order a single curry with roti or rice as well.

The menu changes every day, depending on what vegetables the chef finds in the market. Even the rice is different each day. There are no garlic or onions in any of the curries. This means the restaurant attracts Hare Krishna devotees, but also people who come to Johannesburg to work for Indian companies.

Shayona started life as a catering operation to support Swaminarayan Hindu charities. It specialised in sweetmeats and savouries, with a bit of takeaway on the side. Everything was made on the premises - from paneer to ghee to sweets made with imported buffalo milk powder.

Three years ago, the caterers went big: they moved into a shop down the road, added tables and chairs and opened Shayona as a restaurant. They still do quite a lot of catering, and a lively lunchtime takeaway business.

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