Playing chicken with tradition

Italian eatery places a premium on authenticity.

- Bruce Dennill

In South Africa, ‘chicken restaurant’ generally refers to a place where you order at a counter or a drive-through window, and ‘Italian food’ most often means pizza and pasta in a venue decorated in red, white and green.

Rosto, in Linden, Johannesburg, defies those stereotypes. Chicken is a focus – underlined by the large wood-burning rotisserie in the middle of the restaurant’s serving area – but it’s prepared and served in a way that stands out. Each portion arrives with a metal tag denoting the flavour chosen by the diner, be it rosso (sundried tomato, chillies and garlic), giallo