Johannesburg Archives - wareontheglobe

After our lovely visit to Newark’s Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in February, I was totally excited to visit Virgin’s Clubhouse at the Johannesburg, South Africa International Airport. In fact, it was the only thing getting me through the depression of going home, LOL.

Happy in Cape Town, South Africa the day before departure.

ENTRANCE TO THE VIRGIN ATLANTIC CLUBHOUSE.

Despite a number of lounge options in Johannesburg’s international terminal between Priority Pass and our American Express Plaitnum card, we heard that the Virgin Clubhouse was the nicest and went promptly there (after a little shopping in the Out of Africa shop!). The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is located on the second floor of the international terminal, just a bit further down from the aforementioned Out of Africa store. We took the elevator up. Checkin was quick and consisted of presenting an American Express Platinum card and boarding passes. I particularly loved the flower wall at the entrance.

Entrance to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, Johannesburg from inside the club.

Said flower wall! Small, but mighty cute!

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Dan and I had a brief, overnight layover in Johannesburg (“Jo’Burg”) when transferring between Victoria Falls and our safari near Kruger. We were hoping to go strait from the airport to Kruger, but the only flight from Livingstone, Zambia (one of the two airports near Vic Falls) got in too late to make the 5-hour drive, and we just made a night out of it!

Unfortunately we did not have enough time to see the city – and I really want to go back and explore more – but we did have enough time to enjoy the luxurious hotel 54 on Bath and have a delicious, delicious meal at Cube Tasting Kitchen.

Our afternoon started with 54 on Bath sending a luxury car to pick us up from JNB (private transfers are about $65 US…there is a cheaper train). Upon checking into the hotel, we were taken straight to our room, which was so lovely! The entire hotel is done in black and white theme and it is super nice! Our room was very large with a king bed, luxurious bathroom and included snacks and coffee! My favorites were the complementary sweet treats!

The hotel also has a Champagne bar with outdoor seating and some FABULOUS wall paper!

The wall paper. LOVE.

We spent the afternoon outside overlooking the pool and croquet course with a bottle of South African sparking wine and South African fried cheese. And I can’t forget, the flowers were beautiful!

After, we changed and went to a delightful 10-course tasting menu at Cube Tasting Kitchen, a BYOB restaurant about 10-minutes from our hotel that has freshly prepared meals by about 10 chefs. Its ranked very highly and you can make reservations online. We brought one bottle of wine for the two of us, but many tables brought two for two people given the large number of courses.

First course: light salad from the garden. Tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, aubergine, mozzarella, mint, chili, vinaigrette film. This was simple, but so, so tasty!!!

Second course: antipasto interpretation. Artichoke, asparagus, cucumber, apple, elderflower. That arancini was awesome!

Third course: fish pie. Trout, white anchovy, spinach, pastry, lime. The anchovy (wrapped in the thing reminiscent of a birds nest) was surprisingly delicious!

Fourth course: dissolving textures. Pomegranate, sherbet, caviar. Woah. This was such a crazy combination. The chef suggested taking it like a tequila shot, with sugar on your hand, a shot of pomegranate and finished with the caviar sherbet. Mind blown.

Fifth course: pork. Smoked eisbein pie, slow cooked belly, crackling and onion, dehydrated bacon, leeks. How can you go wrong with pork?

Sixth course: beef. Braised flank, bone, herb moss, olives, mushroom, dried onion, fennel. Even with marrow, this was my least favorite course. Perhaps I was stuffed at this point.