PATHETIC SERVICE

My sister had her birthday on 5 March 2022, and as 3 sisters we decided to celebrate at Grand Africa Cafe. My sister Lauren, made the booking and we were all set. As it got closer to the day, we all got so excited, not only for my sister's birthday, but because another friend of ours recommended Grand Africa Cafe, as she had a blast when she was there. Our booking was for 16:30 and we arrived at the entrance around 16:40, due to the fact that we were looking for parking. The policy says that if you are not seated within 30 minutes of your booking that you forfeit your booking. When we arrived, our table wasn't even ready and we were told to wait, so we did. A few minutes later, a female employee showed us to what we thought was our table, so we sat down. A male employee came up to us and we thought that he was there to take our drinks order, but he told us that we are sitting at someone else's reserved table. We explained that we didn't know, as we were seated here by his colleague. He showed us to another table, which also had a reservation sign, and we asked if he is sure, he said yes. Then another female employee came to us to tell us that we are sitting at someone else's reserved table and those table cost R400 per table to book. Of course being at Grand Cafe for the first time, we were taken aback at that comment, but asked her to please show us to the table that is ours. She told us to stay there and that she will go and get the table ready and come get us.

A few minutes went by, she never came back. Another male employee came up to us to ask us to move as the customers who booked that table, arrived. We were embarrassed to say the least as we have now been told to move twice. We explained to him that the other lady was getting our table ready. At that point my sister, who's birthday it was said that she wants to go somewhere else, as she was very irritated. We said no, we booked, we came to have a good time and that is what we will do. We got up and waited at the bar area, thinking we'll see the lady who said that she will get our table ready. We never saw her and wanted to speak to a manager, but we really didn't want the drama and so we left. I won't say that I will never go back, because I loved the vibe, so I probably will, but it won't be anytime soon. A friend of mine wants to have her Bachelorette party there and asked me to let her know how it is as she has heard good things. I gave her my honest opinion, but also told her that it doesn't mean her experience will be bad as well, especially considering it will be her Bachelorette. I have never in my life experienced such bad service. Everything seemed so unorganized and just utter chaos. We were hungry and just wanted to have a good time with our sister on her birthday. Thankfully we did, somewhere else.