Queenstown firefighters had to postpone their visit to the annual Emergency Services Ball on Saturday night when a kitchen fire broke out at Botswana Butchery Restaurant.
Restaurant patrons were evacuated when the fire started in the kitchen at the rear of the building at 6.50pm.
Three appliances were sent to the fire and it was out by 7.20pm.
Restaurant operations manager Sarah Stacey was "devastated" by the incident.
She said the fire may have started in a ventilation shaft in the kitchen and spread to the first floor.
The flames spread through the walls and caused interior damage to the roof.
A week earlier, the Queenstown brigade was called to extinguish a fire at the same restaurant when kitchen ducting caught fire.
A full investigation into the cause of the fire began on Sunday morning.
