It was October 1998 when we, Oliver & Tanja started our venture "Oliver's Restaurant" - a little vision that we both shared ever since we were little. To give a better picture of whom we are and where we come from, we would like to introduce ourselves briefly.
Oliver was born into a "Hotel Family" and has always had a great passion for this industry. He finished his 3-year chef apprenticeship in his hometown of Villach in Austria. Tanja, a first generation South African, attended a Hotel & Tourism College in Salzburg/Austria and after finishing this we both set off to gain experience in Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Australia. Unfortunately, the latter did not work out for us quite as we had hoped and while we were "job-hunting" in Australia, we received an offer to manage the White River Golf Lodge in Mpumalanga - South Africa.
Our restaurant only consisted of 7 tables and the menu offered our diners 4 Starters, 4 Main Courses and 4 Desserts, which we changed on a weekly basis. Thanks to great support from the locals, we started filling up and only six months after opening had the first anonymous food critics for lunch. We were selected as one of the TOP 100 RESTAURANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA, which for us was great confirmation that our product was being accepted. We had a marvellous but tough and very dedicated 2½ years at the golf lodge - we also got married in the meantime and had the first baby on the way. Yet we had come to a point where we just wanted to do more. It was then that we were offered the present property by Jordan Properties and on 17th April 2001 started with the building of our own lodge and making our dreams come true. Our son Lucas was born a month later.
On 1st December 2001 we finally opened our doors and with full support from our locals in particular, and so many other wonderful guests, have grown from strength to strength.
Building on the support of our valued customers, we have been able to develop our business and completed an extension to Oliver's by constructing another 6 Luxury rooms which opened in November 2004.
After giving up hope of expanding our family, Santa Claus placed a precious parcel under the Christmas tree in December 2008 and in August 2009 our little princess Isabella was born, completing our family picture.
Our philosophy is to extend a warm welcome to anybody entering our little haven and to let them unwind in a peaceful and tranquil setting, spoil them with mouth-watering dishes together with professional, personalised and friendly service.