Disgusting experience

A warning to all persons who intend to spend time at the ****** Valley Resort Restuarant.

I have sent the following email originally without reply, I then phoned and the receptionist confirmed the email address and asked for me to resend, I did so but again without response, I have now sent it again and warned that I would place my message on hellopeter. The email is self explanatory, please be warned.

"To whom it may concern, On Friday 27 December 2024, I phoned ****** Valley and asked the restaurant to book an inside table for 4 persons for Saturday 28 December, inside for 19h00 but since we had guests visiting with us from Pretoria, I asked if I can book a table outside for drinks at 17h30, so that we could arrive early, enjoy the view and sunlight and then move in when the temperature dropped, this was agreed. We arrived at approximately 17h25 and I spoke to the lady that was behind the front desk at the restaurant and she found my booking under Peter and confirmed both the outside table and also the inside table for 19h00. We proceeded to our outside table and noticed that there was no issue with the amount of waiters/waitresses present. We enjoyed the drinks and the view, at about 18h40, I asked our waitress to check if our table was ready so that we could start moving inside, she did not return and at about 18h50 I went inside to find out for myself. The front desk was not manned but one of the waiters assisted me but was quite vague on his reply to me so I then walked into the bar area and proceeded to speak to Africa whom I had identified as the manager earlier on in the day. I told him about the 19h00 booking and asked if our table was ready, he also then started checking the bookings and I went back to our outside table, not feeling confident that things were progressing. Africa then came to our table and apologised that he was a little confused and that had given our table away, I then explained how the bookings were made and I suggested that he makes a plan, but the temperature was dropping and we were not going to sit outside to have dinner. ±15 minutes later, Africa informed us that he had organised a table inside and we proceeded in, this was about 19h10. The same waitress that was serving us outside, also served us inside but now it was obvious that there was a waitress staffing problem as she was run off her feet. Everything was now taking excessive time, from receiving menu’s, ordering more drinks, receiving our drinks, placing orders, etc. Nothing seemed to run smoothly and it was obvious that there was an ongoing problem. We placed orders for 4 main course meals, nothing really special, i.e. a pasta, line fish, Chicken Corden Bleu and a fish and chips. At approximately 20h30, we asked where our food was and due to the time it was taking, I asked the waitress if a ‘pita bread’ would take long, she said no and we placed an order for one. At about this time we noticed that a family with young children, who was seated before we arrived, and that the waiters were bringing incorrect meals to them (at least a few times), eventually without any food, they left. The waiter arrived at their table ±5 minutes later with a single meal and then found that the family had left in disgust. One must understand that they must have been desperate with young children that needed to be fed. Another person verbally complained to Africa about the shoddy service and experience she had. She said that they had come on the recommendation of her brother who had previously visited the restaurant whilst in SA from the UK. On this occasion, she had come with her friends, from Johannesburg, and that their meals had taken excessive time, some of the meals were incorrect and that it was embarrassing that they had come all the way from Somerset West to have this very bad experience. At ±21h30, Africa delivered our Pita Bread to our table (AN HOUR LATER!!!), we had basically forgotten that we had ordered it as a starter but we then proceeded to complain bitterly about the time taken to get our food and Africa went away to check on the progress of our meals. My wife then decided that she was no longer hungry and went to the front desk to cancel her meal. At about 21h50, 2 of our meals arrived, the pasta and the fish and chips, about 5 minutes later the line fish and about 15 minutes later the CANCELLED Chicken Corden Bleu arrived. Which was sent back as no longer needed as explained before. We found that the meals were extremely average, not like on my previous visits to ****** Valley Restaurant, and in fact the line fish looked like it was less than a 150 grams, and it looked like an extremely small portion for the amount of money charged. We ate our food and left. We all agreed, that we have NEVER waited for ±3 hours for our meals before and we all agreed, that it was our worst restaurant experience, ever! We cannot fault the waitress who was trying her best, we cannot fault Africa, other than he should have been managing the situation. All were apologising but no one was explaining. It was obvious that something was very wrong, either the kitchen is too small for the amount of guests in attendance and this should be controlled by the amount of seating available, however, the restaurant was thinning out by 21h00, so size of kitchen could not be an excuse. We discussed that could also be understaffed kitchen staff or high turnover of kitchen staff and new persons just did not understand the processes, etc. thereby causing delays in meals coming out. Whatever the problem, there was no explanation, we were just left to sit and wait. This surely could have been managed better. Communication is always key but actually it would not have helped in this case as things were too excessive! In addition, there was definitely a waiter/waitress lack of staff issue as it was obvious that there was not enough staff. All in all this was my worst experience in my 63 years and you should be ashamed that you still took money from patrons after such an experience, others left in desperation, we needed to at least have a meal as by then most restaurant’s would not allow persons to arrive so late, so we had no choice but to wait it out. I fully understand that it is season but this is not an excuse. I trust that you will take cognisance of this experience and fix whatever needs to be fixed before persons vote not to visit your restaurant in future as is my intention from now on."

Regards Peter