Nando's

Running a restaurant in Soweto means dealing with load shedding like everywhere else in Gauteng, but the stakes feel different when you're serving hundreds of customers daily. Nando's operation here relies on keeping chicken marinated and ready, managing heat without steady electricity, and making sure the kitchen can pivot fast when power drops. The cooking method—flame grilling—actually plays in their favour during outages compared to kitchens dependent on ovens or induction. They've built systems around what works reliably: prep stations that function regardless, delivery partnerships through Mr D and Uber Eats for customers who can't visit during load shedding windows, and a menu that doesn't demand precision timing. The restaurant stays open, but how they operate behind the scenes shifts constantly based on the grid.