Whether you need a small room for a family gathering or a big space for corporate events or grand celebrations, The Forum’s Campus can be a good choice. We say this because this venue has 2 auditoriums, 6 conference rooms, and 6 banquet halls.

Its banquet halls are composed of a courtyard, a conservatory-style dining space, a gallery bar, a tent space, and a triple-floor foyer. With these many options, you can have intimate gatherings of 60 people to large crowds of 800 guests—all in The Forum’s Campus location.

With such diverse venues, Campus by The Forum offers both the best outdoor and indoor banquet halls in Johannesburg. While not all halls do, most of The Forum Campus’s halls have dedicated sound systems, stages, projector screens, and fully-stocked bars.

Aside from its venues, The Forum Campus also offers in-house catering with award-winning and healthy food choices. It also offers other event management services to help make the planning less stressful for its clients.

All these qualities have made it possible for The Forum to achieve a 5-star rating from the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa. We also like that it’s highly recognized and well awarded by other institutions like The Lilizela, SAACI, and ICCA.

The only minor issue we see with The Forum’s Campus venue is its Sandton location. Luckily, this venue has spacious outdoor and underground parking to cater to all guests driving up for a celebration.

If you want the best banquet hall in Johannesburg with a distinct personality, then The Living Room may be a good choice. 

We recommend this venue for personal events like weddings and birthdays as well as corporate events like networking and product launches. That’s because this rooftop banquet hall is a combination of the freshness of the outdoors and the elegance of urban life.

It has an average seating capacity, estimated at 100, and a 220 cocktail standing style. It even offers secure basement parking, but only up to 10 cars.

The Living Room also offers flexible catering services, thanks to its in-house chefs and partners that can serve everything from canapés and platters to full buffet and plated meals. It also has a fully stocked bar.

And if you want to choose another caterer, you can still use the hall’s kitchen. However, this will come at an additional price.

Aside from catering. The Living Room also helps with event preparation. Its added services include DJ and entertainment, decor services, bar services, additional furniture instalment, and even full event coordination.

But since it functions as a restaurant on weekdays, The Living Room is not as available as other venues. On the bright side, we like that this banquet hall has its calendar posted on its website, so you can easily check if it’s free on your preferred date.

If you plan on booking this as a banquet hall, then you should be prepared to pay the full costs first, via credit card or Zapper.

The Venue is a big company offering over five venues in the Gauteng region. Among these venues, we found the Melrose Arch venue, located in the city itself, to be among the best banquet halls in Johannesburg.

The first thing that caught our attention is its diverse rooms—from conference halls with work tables, chairs, podiums, and projecting screens to event rooms with stages and formal tables. 

With over 4 rooms, The Venue Melrose Arch can hold a maximum of 120-350 pax for banquets and up to 250-800 pax for cocktail arrangements, depending on the chosen room. All of these also come with lights and sound systems for your convenience.

The floor plans of these rooms, including stage dimensions, are even posted on its website. We like this as it gives you room to better plan and estimate.

Speaking of posted details, we should also tell you that The Venue at Melrose Arch has its buffet, cocktail, and plated menus posted on its website for easier referencing.

Besides, The Venue also has a large and diverse team of in-house caterers, DJs, barmen, and banqueting managers that can handle any type of event. However, since it has in-house catering, this venue doesn’t allow outside catering.

We also like that The Venue at Melrose Arch is conveniently available every day of the week. This just adds to this hall’s availability for social and corporate events alike.

Do know that most of its pre-set menus mainly offer juice, tea, and coffee—beverages which may be more suited for more formal and less personal events.

If you’re looking for another banquet hall with a breathtaking view, then Emoyeni should be among your top choices. That is because this banquet hall overlooks the city.

We also like that Emoyeni doesn’t simply rely on its high-ridge location for aesthetics as it also has an elegant early 1900s architecture and design. With its design and spaciousness, Emoyeni can cater to corporate events, personal affairs, and photoshoots alike.

Overall, it has 11 rooms for rent, with dining capacities varying from 10 pax to 200 pax. So, if you want the best banquet hall in Johannesburg for a small or private party, then Emoyeni may just be the right choice.

It doesn’t even just cater to private events. Emoyeni can host corporate functions as it also offers equipment like data projectors, flip charts, and screens as well as amenities like free parking and WiFi.

Do know that Emoyeni’s corporate packages don’t include lapels, microphones, and PA systems. You should also know that for personal events, DJs and decorators aren’t covered by Emoyeni.

We also gave Emoyeni a perfect score for scheduling and booking because it has convenient online reservation forms. In this form, you can simply input your reservation date and time, estimated number of guests, and basic contact details.

Once you submit these reservation forms, Emoyeni then provides a quote via email. This way, you can check all sorts of expenses clearly before paying any down payment.

Now that we’ve covered intimate gatherings, we also have a choice for big gatherings. For banquets good for hundreds to thousands, Focus Rooms has the best banquet hall in Johannesburg.

All in all, Focus Rooms has 17 venues for rent, with differing floor spaces and capacities to cater to all types of events. Whether it be a formal conference, a promotional affair, or a personal occasion, Focus Rooms can handle it.

For banquets, we recommend Focus Room’s Galactic, Cosmos, and Universe rooms as these have capacities ranging from 250–750 pax. 

Universe, the biggest venue from Focus Rooms, even has numerous projector screens, a sound system, and a loading bay for convenience. Previous visitors also praised this venue for having spacious parking.

Aside from providing a venue, Focus Rooms also assists its clients by assigning designated coordinators. These coordinators, along with the company’s long list of catering, entertainment, and design partners, make event planning a bit easier.

But what’s unique about Focus Rooms is that it offers onsite inspections on weekdays. We like this because it can give clients the chance to see whether Focus Rooms’ venues are up to standards.

You can book an inspection through its online forms. Do remember your schedule because visiting Focus Rooms requires a bit of a long drive to Lethabong.

All of these amenities and services are likely the reason why Focus Rooms has achieved a 4-star certificate from the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa.