TABLE FOR ONE: Old-school style and a lonely grand piano at Level Four

Set in a classy boutique hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Level Four is redolent of older hotel restaurants where standards are high and the menu laced with the familiar. And something from Thailand, inevitably.

I had thought that this restaurant, Level Four, was in the same hotel that I was staying in – the Southern Sun in Rosebank’s Sturdee Avenue. But my shuttle driver from the airport frowned and asked, “Which one?”

But luckily the shuttle was readily available when I needed it so it deposited me outside 54 on Bath just in time to meet some of my favourite colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in an age. That’s a part of the life of us Maverii — we seldom see one another outside of a computer screen.

We had wine (for me, whisky for them) in the gorgeous bar on the fourth floor which is currently named after a fancy gin brand. Apparently it changes sponsors every now and then and is totally refurbished to match the new brand. People with money to burn, eish.

Even as I walked into the hotel I thought, damn, this is a few cuts above the one I’m staying in. So stylish, more of a boutique inn. Much less Sol Kerzner. Then my friends arrived and in a flash we were four storeys up and ordering a drink at the start of an hilarious hour of catching up, gossip, and general gratitude to be alive. This in the context of my recent heart surgery you understand. It gives a shine to everything.

Then off they went, our colleagues’ ears stopped burning, and I slid past a white grand piano to find my solo table for dinner at Level Four, backed by red and gold filigree-leaf wallpaper, gilt-framed artworks, and strolling across black-and-white checkerboard marble-like floors to photograph points of interest. Like that white grand piano which lacked only a pianist to bring it to life…

The place is a bit loungy, and this isn’t a criticism. A tad clubby perhaps. I liked the fact that there was no evident attempt to make it trendy or of our time, other than a pair of geometric-patterned pillars whose role seemed to be to meld the wallpaper and artworks with the plush grey upholstery of the smart chairs. A grey dado rail played its part in this too.

Tables were decked in starched white damask, properly old school, and that’s not a bad thing if you want to see your food.

I’d see this decor as a fair start. I think they should go further, add more art, vintage lamps and ornaments, make it a little busier. Without adding more, it has a feeling of being put together by an interior designer; but zero in on more detail and it will come into its own as an arresting space of note.

Se