Three Stellenbosch restaurants have made the 2009 Prudential Eat Out Top Ten restaurant list, being Overture, Rust en Vrede and Terroir.   The first two restaurants are new entrants to the top ten list.     

The Stellenbosch success is at the expense of Franschhoek, which retains only one restaurant on the top ten list, being the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais,  slipping from top position last year to 7th place this year.     Franschhoek’s Grand Provence and Bread & Wine, on the top ten list last year, fell off the top list, with the former falling off the top twenty list.    Reubens did not manage to make the top ten list, but was on the top 20 list.  
Competition for the top ten list was tough, with many new restaurants making the top twenty list, from which the top ten restaurants were selected.   The winners, in order, are as follows: La Colombe, Jardine, Terroir, Overture, Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient in Pretoria, Rust en Vrede, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, Roots at Forum Homini, Bizerca and Hartford House.    La Colombe was selected as Restaurant of the Year and its chef Luke Dale-Roberts the Chef of the Year.  Terroir won the Service Award, while the Lifetime Achievement Award was made posthumously to Frank Swainston, who was at Constantia Uitsig until his death earlier this year.

Notable upsets were the exclusion from the list of The Showroom and Aubergine.    Ginja was a top ten winner last year, but did not even make the top twenty list this year.

The judges selected the top restaurants on the basis of operating for a year or more, the chefs demonstrating a passion for their business, showing a dedication to uplifting the industry,  where chefs source their ingredients, and consistence and excellence in all aspects of their business.  Food quality counted for 70 points, service for 20 and ambience for 10 in judging the top restaurants.

Seven top restaurants are in the Western Cape, of which three in Cape Town, three in Stellenbosch and one in Franschhoek.

Bertus Basson, award-winning chef at Overture, opens Genot on Kleingenot in Franschhoek today.