'Tasty food can be healthy'

REINVENTION: THE FUNEATERY'S PLAYFUL FOOD, INSPIRED PROPRIETOR

- Hein Kaiser

It's not often that a restaurant lives up to its Instagram posts or, for that matter, the flattering reviews of online pundits. But the Funeatery in Blackheath delivers all that it's been cracked up to be, and more. Because here, the meals are as playful and inspired as the proprietor, the service is good. The atmosphere, well, just fun.

After going once, you'd want to go again. Before even getting to the food, the Funeatery is a wee bit whack and eccentric. But accessibly so. Inside the small eatery, diners have fallen in love with the nested perch seats, a Tetris-like interior seating arrangement against the wall, overlooking the deli-counter like service area.

Outside, the usual table seating. It's a shopping centre diner, but it's no mallrat establishment.

Owner Janie Radford opened her doors two years ago. The restaurant gets very busy. It's easy to see why. Her energy is infectious and so too is her passion for what she does. After all, she said, being a restaurateur runs in her family; her mother owned a patisserie in the Northcliff area for years.

"I grew up in the business and I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life," she said. "Food is my love language, and if I can share it with people, then I can truly be myself."