where to eat in Durban?

it’s too humid to argue about dinner. hand it to Karen.

justpick in Durban Karen explains, reluctantly

Durban is the home of the bunny chow, which settles one question and leaves every other one open. justpick handles the rest: tell it where you are between the beachfront and the north coast, and swipe through the restaurants Google has near you.

Indian is one of the thirteen cuisines you can pick, and No Spicy is one of the dealbreakers, for the member of your group who says “medium” and means “mild”. Karen will note the contradiction if you pick both.

pick for me in Durban

free. no sign-up. type your suburb on the next screen. Karen does the rest.

areas to type in real places. Karen checked.

justpick doesn’t keep its own list of Durban restaurants. Karen refuses to play favourites. It searches around whatever area you give it, so the more specific you are, the better the deck. A few you could start with, if you’re capable of starting:

Tip for Durban: Umhlanga and Ballito are separate searches. Type the one you are in so Karen doesn’t send you up the N2 for a curry.

someone in your group said “not too spicy”. Karen is already tired.

how it works here five steps. you can manage five.

  1. Say where you are. Type a suburb or street in Durban, or tap “use my location” and let your phone snitch to Karen. Your location is only used for this search and isn’t stored. She’s nosy, not creepy.
  2. Go Out or Stay In. Go Out shows restaurants you can sit down in, on real chairs, in real shoes. Stay In looks at delivery and hands you over to Mr D Food or Uber Eats to order. Pyjamas optional.
  3. Set a budget. Chilled is under R150 a person, Lekker is R150 to R300 a person, Full Send is R300+ a person. Karen doesn’t judge. (She judges.)
  4. Pick cravings and dealbreakers. One cuisine or several, plus anything you flat-out refuse to eat. Karen respects a hard no.
  5. Swipe. Right to keep, left to skip. Each card shows the photo, Google rating, distance and whether it’s open. Tap for directions. Stop at the first one that makes your stomach growl.

Try this in Durban: Umhlanga, Lekker, Indian and Seafood. Then swipe until something makes you hungry, or until Karen loses patience. Whichever comes first. (It’s Karen.)

cuisines and dealbreakers she has a comment for every one

Thirteen cuisines to choose from. That’s thirteen more than you managed on your own:

And the dealbreakers, which take places out of the deck instead of adding them. Every group has one person who lives in this section:

Can’t face any of it? WTF Mode picks go out or stay in, the budget and the cuisine for you, then serves up restaurants. You just eat. Honestly, Karen’s favourite button.

Karen, unprompted nobody asked. she’s saying it anyway.

The Bokke win scrums in any weather. You can’t pick a restaurant in a light sea breeze. Karen will carry the ball on this one.

Stop waving your phone around like a wand hoping a restaurant appears. It’s far too humid for magic. Swipe.

what Karen won’t pretend she has standards. a few.

Restaurants, photos, ratings and opening hours come live from Google Places when you search. justpick doesn’t rank Durban’s “best” restaurants, doesn’t take payment to show a place, and doesn’t run ads. Karen can’t be bought, and she’s offended you wondered. If a place is missing or out of date, it is missing or out of date on Google too. Take it up with them. Politely.

you’ve read enough. go eat.

let’s pick already

Karen is waiting. she’s not patient. she was never patient.

other cities she gets around. the whole country is her playground.