Monte Casino & A Vegan Brunch

Last Friday night the Residential Office at Monash planned a trip to Monte Casino in Sandton, and as I hadn't ventured that way yet, it seemed like a good decision to go and check it out. While I was expecting a casino and a few restaurants, what I wasn't expecting was perhaps one of the tackiest places I have ever been too ...

We arrived in Sandton at around 7:30pm at night, by this time the air was cool and it was definitely dark outside. Walking inside the casino we were greeted by bright lights and a blue sky. It took me a moment or so to realise that what I was looking at was actually a ceiling that was painted blue with white clouds.

The whole interior of Monte Casino was designed to look as though you had just entered Italy, with cobblestone roads and all, bustling with tourists, shops and bright lights. It reminded me a lot of Universal Studios in Singapore, which I had visited a few weeks earlier with my family, but this was something different. While Universal Studios is intended to looked like your favourite childhood movies and stories, this place was basically recreating a whole country. This did not feel like South Africa at all.
Having no desire to go bowling, and as no one was that keen on gambling (... or looked too young to be allowed to go into the casino ...), two other girls and myself decided to go and have some 'Italian' pizza and some drinks. I haven't been to Italy but the pizza was pretty delicious, vegetarian and with a balsamic dressing!

After pizza we walked around a bit, before ending up an English style pub that had live music and where the majority of patrons were white. It was an enjoyable night with friends at one of the most of the most random places I've ever been too.

One Sunday that same weekend I finally got to go to a vegan restaurant that's in the area. Called "Leafy Greens", it was an 80Rand ($7.50AUD) cab ride to the restaurant. On weekends they have a buffet, which was very enticing. Since moving to Johannesburg brunch hasn't been as big as a part of my life as it had been Melbourne, which is really quite sad. 

The 'circle' (not roundabout) outside the front of uni. Blue skies everydayyyyy.

Leafy Greens is situated one kilometre off a main road and was surrounded by lots of trees, greenery and a few other restaurants. There was also another event on at the same time in the area, so there were lots of people and little children running about.

The restaurant itself was really nice, my friends and I had a table outside and got to enjoy the endless sunshine that South Africa has been providing. All we had to do was order drinks, then go inside and collect a plate and dish up! Pictured below was only half the food provided, and you could literally fill up your plate as much as you wanted. Plus all the food was vegan, which makes me very happy. 

There was a large assortment of salads, as well as roast vegetable, rice paper rolls, raw pizza, cooked pizza, these-things-that-looked-like-falafel-but-actually-had-spinach-inside, and lots of other things. It was a bit pricy, 150rand from memory to fill up a large plate, but the food was really very good and actually quite healthy. I can't wait to go back again!

Afterwards we took a walk around the area. I'm pretty sure Leafy Greens grow all their own produce, so it was a nice afternoon spent outside and away from university and study.

Until next time,

Kylie.