Rainbow Restaurant & Jazz Club

The Rainbow might not be the ultimate in fine dining, but if you want value for money, wholesome food and some damn good live music, there aren’t many places that can compete.

And I can’t think of anywhere better to take guests from overseas who want to experience some good old fashioned hospitality – African style.

Rainbow regulars rate the A♮ Chicken amongst the best in the Southern Hemisphere. Flame grilled with secret spices, it’s served with a large mixed salad, chips and shatini (fresh sambal).

Other hugely popular dishes on the menu are:

Isipindi, fried ox liver – served with a choice of chips, bread, shatini or salad)
Curried beans – a delicious vegetarian option, served with shatini and ujeqe (steam bread)
Mutton bunny chow – massive!
Chicken curry with rice
Fried fish & chips
Blade steak served with egg, chips and shatini

It’s not just about the food, though. The Rainbow Restaurant has been hosting South African bands and artists every Sunday for thirty years. Yes, way back into the Apartheid years. There’s no other place around the Durban-Highway area that provides a vibe quite like The Rainbow, where artists from Sipho Gumede and Jimmy Dludlu to full bands like the African Jazz Pioneers and Jabu Khanyile & Bayete have graced the stage.

So why does this club work, when others disappear faster than your bonus cheque on a Christmas shopping spree?

Firstly, owners Neil & Nicola Comfort have their market pegged. The Rainbow is one of the few venues in the country that has figured out exactly what the customer wants, and happily gives it.

Secondly, everything about the Rainbow is generous – the huge welcome you get at the door, the enormous platters of wholesome food, and beer by the quart.

Bands usually play three sets, with two short breaks for food and refreshments, giving you a whole afternoon’s worth of music to soothe the soul, company to cheer the heart, and an atmosphere to lift the spirits.

Neil commented: “It takes a special kind of passion and a small fortune to provide a fully equipped performance platform to our musicians, and as far as I know there are not too many platforms in eThekwini such as the Rainbow, with crazy folk like us who persist in putting it on without any sponsorship and certainly without much in the way of public sector support.

“Whilst our Minister of Arts & Culture professes to support “Mzansi’s Golden Economy”, people like us on the coal-face have to watch from the sidelines as millions of Rands are poured into one-off festivals that enrich the lucky few but do very little to sustain a viable original music industry.

“Our musicians need daily and weekly performance platforms if the music industry is ever going to be a contributor to the national treasury and a major generator of employment. This is not re-inventing the wheel – there are numerous international case studies that support this – and so I will persist in beating this drum.”

Spread the word. The Rainbow Restaurant & Jazz Club is THE place to eat, drink and be merry. Good food, good company, and the groove orientated township jive and afro-jazz is impossible to resist. It doesn’t take long for the dancing to start. Even the waitresses join in, dancing from table to table, balancing plates and bottles with practised ease.

The Rainbow Restaurant & Jazz Club 23 Stanfield Lane, Pinetown Open from 7am to 7.30pm Monday to Saturday and from 9am to 8pm on the last Sunday of every month

Phone: 031-702-9161 or 083-463-8044 Email: bandwagon@artslink.co.za Website: www.therainbow.co.za

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