Cattle Baron Tokai, terrible service lately

<p>My family and I have been regular patrons to this restaurant for over 20 years. We’ve always experienced great food and wonderful service. Over a month ago, my wife and I booked for their sunday carvery and noticed that the cutlery on the table was still dirty, it had old dried food on it. We pointed it out to the waiter but we shrugged it off as a minor irritation. Unfortunately, our irritation increased when the manager on duty came to tell us and other patrons that we need to finish our meal within 2 hours as they had overbooked. To rub salt in the wound, our waitress brought us our bill, taking the liberty of including her 10% tip to the bill. We always tip generously and understand that this is usually done with 10 or more guest but we were only 2, so we thought it to be quite a cheeky gesture.<br /> <br />However, it was our first bad experience so we overlooked it and went back last Saturday. <br /> <br />What a huge disappointment! After waiting a long while, I was finally served my seafood combo. The prawns and calamari looked extremely dry and once I tasted it, it was obvious that it had either been fried for too long or the oil was too hot. Either way, it was hard and inedible. I complained and the waiter took my meal back. That’s when we were approached by Faith, the manager on duty. She apologised for the mishap and agreed that the meal was definitely inedible. <br /> <br />To my surprise, she asked me to please choose a different meal on the menu but I questioned why the chef could not cook another seafood combo. Her reply was that she’d prefer me to order a steak as this was the restaurant’s speciality. My wife then asked if she was scared that the chef would overcook the seafood combo again and her reply was that the chef did not overcook it. According to her, the Cattle Baron is a franchise and has specific recipes that the chef has to adhere to, which he did. My wife then told her that what she was saying did not make sense because we had been to the Cattle Baron in Cape Town the previous week and their calamari was fried to perfection. I then asked her to cancel my order but she quickly changed her attitude and said she’ll get the chef to do a better job. I accepted but after she left, I realised that I might have to wait a long while again, so I got up and went after her to cancel the order. <br /> <br />I returned to my seat and after I had a sip on my beer, the waiter walked over and handed us our bill. Agitated, my wife asked our waiter why he rang up the bill before checking if we were finished. His answer was that Faith, the manager, told him to do it. We sent him back for another Latte and while we sat their with our drinks, Faith walked up and down but deliberately ignored us.<br /> <br />I am appalled at the decline of quality service My family and I will definitely not return.</p>