Roadhouses are alive and well in South Africa with the East Rand being a particular hot spot. Pull up in your car, park, flick the lights for service and you’ll be served at your windowside. Kota Joe is a new chain, started in 2011, and boasts two locations in Ekurhuleni: one in Edenvale and one in Boksburg. Kota Joe’s restaurants are impossible to miss, with larger-than-life menu billboards easily readable to anyone who pulls into the parking area.

The specialty menu item is, of course, the kota – a hollowed-out loaf of bread (using Kota Joe’s special recipe) filled with savoury foods like beef, chips, polony, and cheese. Kota Joe also offers other traditional fast-food items including pizzas, burgers, toasted sandwiches, a plethora of ice cream cone variations and shakes, and more unusual items like “waffle on a stick”. Be sure to arrive hungry: The waitrons’ uniforms, emblazoned with “Screw the Diet”, say it all.

Kota Joe’s atmosphere is its best asset. Large stereo speakers play catchy rock and pop music. (The Boksburg location also has big-screen TVs.) Service is fast and friendly and the food is cheap. And there’s just something special about being served a tray of tasty food through the car window – messy and awkward but strangely fun.