Ocean Basket - Vredenburg Mall

01/05/2018 Went to Ocean basket today 1/5/18 at the mall in Vredenburg, closest Ocean basket to Langebaan. My experience there as a first time customer at that branch was appalling, we got there and were the only 2 customers in the whole of Ocean Basket, yet our 2 glasses of wine that we ordered took 21minutes, leading for me to fetch it off the sushi bar myself, and when my waitress saw that I was pouring my own wine she told me “oh I was looking for the wine”... too late Thembisa, wine already poured. It came to us ordering starters, which wasn’t a problem, starters were magnificent, pans were hot and bread was fresh. We ordered mains – orders weren’t even that complicated, (1 x platter for 1 , calamari fried, ½ rice 1/2chips ; 1xplatterfor 1, calamari an fish Cajun, ½ rice 1/2chips) and in my opinion your staff members managed to mess that up. Our pans in which our food was served in, was ice cold, we felt our calamari and it was ice cold, needless to say, we requested new platters with fresh, hot, food... specially that in the whole shop, it was only my friend and I... When the platters arrived for the second time, it was still to our dismay, one could clearly see that the prawns was re-fried, it was burnt black, and when I had notified the waitress that my prawns had been re-fried, her and her colleague had denied it and made me feel, as a customer that I was being wrong in complaining about my prawns that were burnt – it felt almost as if I was going to get lashed for telling them that I can see my prawns had been refried, by your two employees. To top it all off, we requested fried calamari and we got slimy, ice cold , GRILLED calamari, which also wasn’t RECTIFIED on the second attempt. I had still asked my waitress, why does she have 2 x dishcloths hanging at the back of her apron!! As in my “practical” training I had learnt that pans “are Hot” as seafood never gets served on a cold plate! My waitress carried it with her bare hands!!! Now.. in my personal opinion... My first job ever, was with Ocean Basket. . . I remember I had to beg the manager, to give me a chance... to prove myself even if it was in the kitchen, (we all know how hectic a kitchen pass could get), whether it were cleaning prawns or calamari tubes. As I was just 1 month and a week short of 18 He eventually gave me a chance! I remember I had to study for my test. . . studying for my test wasn’t that bad, except for the practical, where I had to stand and watch and absorb with my eyes, from making seared salmon to sushi rice, all the way too frying a perfect piece of hake. Tonight, disappointed, won’t even cut it... I cannot explain to you how it hurt my heart to be served the way I was.... My ex boss, Mr Richard Key, he is my idol.. and he personally checked in on our training, to ensure that we understood what was going on, and if we were “getting” the training program.. He only wanted the best for his future employees, because he and Gillian , treasured N1 City branch with a passion. To me, that is true loyalty and passion for the franchise. This is why, I feel strongly heart broken about the fact that it seems they wear their uniform with such pride but yet I received such bad service and ice cold food at this specific branch of ocean basket. As I say again, what I experienced tonight and the way I was treated, I feel that it was a total disgrace to the franchise, I was looking forward to ocean basket all day, my friend recommended we go out for dinner as we hadn’t been out in a while and I suggested Ocean Basket, she knew how proud I am of Ocean Basket and didn’t even argue for the 1st time ever!! I guess what hurts most is the family values I learnt, working at N1 City and the fact that we were a family & worked as a team, sad to say I didn’t see that tonight. After our haloumi & salmon cake starter (I wasn’t warned that the salmon cakes would be so oily that if I bit into it, that the oil would squirt onto my shirt/table/side plate). After our starter I had to stack the dirty plates & request for it to be removed from our table. I also had to request on 2 occasions for new cutlery & serviettes. I am not complaining because I expect anything back from this franchise/restaurant/branch. I am complaining because it is mind boggling that I had to be the lucky customer that had to go through this... I suppose I only learnt from the best. Who knows how many others there might be. So I just felt I needed to voice my concerns as I feel this is necessary criticism to hopefully save other customers this disappointment I experienced tonight.

Julez Wessels ********** 229 **********