Ocean Basket V&A Waterfront - Terrible Food and Customer Service Experience

Ocean Basket V & A Waterfront – Terrible Food and Customer Service Experience

First of all, it must be noted with rejection at how ridiculously smaller the portions at Ocean Basket have become and all while prices have again escalated.

The day was the 27th December 2017 My cousins and I (Table of 6 including 2 toddlers) decided to have OB after an exhausting but FUN time spent at the nearby aquarium.

We were greeted warmly, but unfortunately that was the only thing warm with our experience that day.

As we entered we were taken aback when the waiter advised us that they do not have any baby chairs and that our pram has to be moved to a corner away from our table. We unwillingly took our seats but after a tiring and unsuccessful attempt to get our two little kids seated in the adult sized chairs, we got up and advised the waiter to move us to a table that was nearer to our pram so that we could at least have the one kid seated securely.

The waiter begrudgingly comp**** and moved us and then just disappeared for another 15mins. After another 10 minutes we got someone to wipe the table clean for us. We then sat for another 10 minute, just sitting there with no waiter, no menus, not even a basket with the little bread and preserves. Eventually after some gesturing from one cousin, our waiter came to take our orders.

By now, the 2 toddlers were already getting busy and aggravated so we order kids Fish and Chips and asked him to send that in first as the kids were already agitated and hungry.

The waiter comp**** and returned to take our order. We wanted to order sushi but the waiter recommended us not we not to as the sushi would only arrive after our main meals which we were ok with. We received our drinks rather promptly upon ordering which at least gave us hope that our Mains would be delivered timeously, BOY WAS I WRONG!!! 40 minutes since receiving our drinks had just passed with our waiter nowhere to be found to at least update us on our orders.

A further 20 minutes passed, and with our drinks already up we finally tracked down our waiter (Please note we requested our waiter on more than once occasion in these 60 minutes since receiving our drinks) and at this point with blunt annoyance asked where our food was. To our dismay, the waiter had no clue and disappeared once again. You would think that it is the waiters job to follow up with the kitchen on food orders :-?

Now it needs to be noted again that at this time there had been people who were seated the same time as us that received their food and has left in addition to people who were seated after us and received their orders before us.

Being the civilised human beings that were are, we gave the waiter the benefit of the doubt. However when he returned to tell us that he does not know why we did not get our food and that he is pushing our orders up the line, all civility went out the window.

We were at the point of getting up and staging a walkout when FINALLY after 1hour and 40 minutes we received our food.

Now one would think that this is surely all one could handle in one day, but NO Ocean basket V & A Waterfront outdid themselves.

Our first order for the kiddie’s fish and chips was lost in translation and only brought with our main meals. We were fortunate that the 2 toddlers fell asleep from starvation otherwise I do not know what we would have done. Then every meal that was ordered was cold. The fish, the prawns, the yellow sauce, the calamari all cold and the Cajun was saltier than usual.

At the brink of sounding cliché, things were at a boiling point and we asked to speak to the manager. The manager who called herself Claire (with no surname) quietly snuck up behind us to assist.

After complaining about the fact that this branch had no baby chairs, after describing our arduous wait for our order and then the fact that our food was cold, Manager Claire (with no surname) just stared at us, said there is nothing she can do and walked away.

This was a serious example of poor management and blatant unprofessionalism shown by OB. Not only did Manager Claire not show any interest,conern or empathy to us the customer, she could not even come up with an amicable solution. Manager Claire (with no surname) treated us with less priority than some of the other tables that she made her rounds to which is unacceptable on any level.

At wits end, we knew returning the food for warm food would be a mistake and ate the unsatisfying meal.

Mr Waiter then collected our dishes and has the audacity to ask us if everything is okay and if we would like anything for dessert. With an angry look of disgust we requested the bill.

To our shock, we had to wait a further 15 minutes just to pay them. They only rushed to hand us the bill as we began packing up and walking to the front.

As we paid our bill, we managed to speak to another manager (kitchen manager Adrian) who reeked of the same sentiments of Claire which just left a further bitter taste in my mouth.

Suffice to say, we will never ever enter V&A Waterfront Ocean Basket and will advise all our family and friends not to as well.

This experience has gravely tested our preference for this brand after so many positive experiences down the years, it is SAD that our relationship had to end on this note Regards