A disgrace to the Julio's Franchise

Whilst returning home from a 4 hour road trip on Monday, the 27th of December 2021, my wife came across the extended Christmas special for R120 on Facebook. We are frequent customers of the Umhlanga branch, and knew that this was exactly what we needed after a long drive! We did however decided to visit the Wilson's Wharf branch for a change in scenery.

Upon our arrival, we were welcomed with chaos. Standing at the entrance, waiting to be seated, a patron was arguing with staff near the bar area, regarding a missing or incorrect reciept. Now I know this is the "crazy" season, and decided to overlook this argument. Another patron wasn't as patient, and decided to cancel his order. Still not getting anyone's attention to get a seat at the entrance, I decided to go to the bar area, and politely requested for a table for 2, which was then done swiftly. Starving, my wife and I knew exactly what we wanted to order. My wife ordered the peri peri chicken and prawn combo, and myself the hake and prawn combo. To my dismay, the waitress returned to inform me that there was no hake available. Now, after feasting on chicken over the past few days, I needed something different, and asked what that hake could be substituted with. Chicken was the only option, so I obliged, and also settled for the chicken and prawn combo.

Our meals arrived swiftly. And things just got worse. The chicken must have been precooked and reheated. It was overcooked, dry, and stringy. The prawns were the same. Meat stuck to the shell, evidence that it was also overcooked.

At this point, I just wanted to eat and leave. But I did need some portugese sauce to digest the dry, stringy chicken. Guess what!? A portugese restaurant didn't have portugese sauce! Or any peri peri sauce. The only sauce on offer was tomato sauce. This was the final straw for me. We ate because we couldn't wait any longer, and quickly requested for the bill shortly after.

Upon reciept and payment of the bill, we requested for wet wipes. 10 minutes later, they hadn't arrived. I had to go to the bar and ask for wet wipes myself.

Julio's has always been an authentic portugese restaurant that's Customer focused. Your Wilson's Wharf branch is a disgrace to your franchise.