By Rex Mphisa
THE Baobab Restaurant at the bustling Beitbridge Border Post on Monday opened its doors after two years of preparations.
The opening signalled the arrival of a place where families can sit and eat in an outdoor atmosphere that has been lacking in the border town.
Located on the shoulder of the upgraded Zimbabwean border post, the new restaurant complements the multi-million structure with its appetising outlook.
True to modern designing, it has a passage for wheelchairs, a facility most shops overlook.
Inside there is controlled temperatures and walls clean as a pharmacy. The walls give one a lift to want food.
Good old fashioned reception of customers at the doorstep reminds one of the old adage, customer is king!
Baobab restaurant has a spacious sitting place under an aroma of good food on the menu.
Food on the veranda, which is more like a raised patio, will definitely be different with its scenic surroundings overlooking the Limpopo’s two bridges and a generous view of the southern part of the border post.
“It is a place where travellers can park in between their journey, get a good meal before proceeding. We have a big and secure parking space,” said the manager George Binikos.
“Since we have just opened we close at 7pm later we will go adjust to 10pm and see how it goes,” he said.
At opening the giant restaurant had a staff complement of 24 serving different meals for on site consumption or take aways.
On the menu there is a wide range of choice.
“We have crispy chicken, we have beef and chicken stew, a variety of burgers, grilled chicken, sandwiches and all fast foods. We then have our Hot Meal of The Day, something like hat day special,” Binikos told Ziyah News Network.
Rice and sadza or pap give the basic starch but food lovers have a choice of fries and other starch foods of choice.
Binikos said a substantial amount of money was used to renew the shop whose imposing appearance clearly explains whats inside.
“I cannot say the figures but what I can tell you is we put substantial amounts. Very soon the duty-free shop will open its doors.”
He learnt about the place when discussions about the possibility to open the duty-free shop were on, he said.
The new facility will become handy to staff in the border post inluding immigration, Customs and several other stakeholders who have had to get food from the central business district of Beitbridge.
Travellers who at times have to wait for long while being processed particularly during peak periods will also have somewhere to source hygienic meals and get a bite.
Haulage truckers and other border users like bus drivers, cross border transporters have somewhere to get a fresh hot meal from.
At the moment people relied on food vendors who sneak into the border but conditions under which the food was prepared are unknown.
A sample of the food left this writer with a sumptous aftertaste making one retrace steps back to the Baobab.