Shockingly bad service

Last night my family and I experienced the worst service ever at Buonvino Restaurant at the Protea Hotel in Durbanville. I am not going to mention the names of the individuals involved because the point here is to name and shame the establishment so that corrective action can be taken. I am however not sure whether the problem lies with management or whether the staff need to be adequately trained. The issues we experienced are as follows: (1) Upon arrival we requested to be seated inside. We were told very impolitely that when the reservation was made we requested outside seating so we would have to sit outside. (2) We then waited to be shown to a table outside but after waiting for a while, we proceeded to seat ourselves at a table. (3) We purchased 3 x 3-course meal vouchers via Hyperli. The e-mail received from Hyperli advised that the vouchers could either be printed or scanned from our phones. When presenting our phones to the waiter (after waiting for a while for him to arrive) for the vouchers to be scanned, he informed us that the vouchers could not be scanned form the phone. We then had to go back down the reception area to have the vouchers printed. (4) Upon returning to our table, our order for starters was taken. The waiter then advised that the amount of starters ordered exceeded the number of vouchers. We enquired as to whether he was sure and, after checking again, he confirmed that the vouchers were short. We then advised that it could not be and after he checked several times he apologised and said that the amount of vouchers is correct. (5) We then proceeded to place our drinks order. My sister and I had spoken to the waiter at the same time, obviously not intentionally. The waiter then says, as if we are little kids, “one at a time, I can’t listen to all of you at the same time”. (6) Another employee then arrives to scan the vouchers. He advised that one voucher had already been used. Neither me or any of my family members said anything because we were then confused. This employee however continues to say that the establishment has nothing to do with Hyperli and that we would have to sort it out ourselves. He however stayed at the table and at least tried to assist with sorting the matter out. BUT what I did not appreciate was the fact that this employee shouts to the waiter “Do not place that order until this voucher is sorted out”. Really?? Imagine how embarrassing so this was for us as the customers!! Eventually we were told that it had been sorted, by the way with NO EXPLANATION OR APLOLOGY! From this I can only assume that this employee had already scanned the voucher and had forgotten he had done so. He unnecessarily embarrassed us! Sorting this “problem” out had taken at least 30 minutes. So our orders were only placed after this unnecessary drama. (7) After sitting outside for a long while, still waiting for our starters, the weather started getting colder. When we requested for the heaters be switched on, we were informed that the establishment had no gasoline for the heaters! (8) Our reservation was for 18:00. By 19:45, our starters had still not arrived. My sister approached the same employee who had scanned the vouchers to advise that our reservation was for 18:00 and that at almost 20:00 we had still not received our starters. He advised that they had other customers who were seated inside whom they had to attend to. My sister enquired as to whether this means that those customers sitting inside get first preference. He advised that this is not the case, that we would have to be patient and that he cannot advise what time our starters would arrive. Again NO APOLOGY OFFERED!! (9) Our starters finally arrived at 20:05. By this time, we had moved inside ourselves because the weather had become extremely cold outside. Our main meal arrived an hour later. This is absolutely ridiculous, to have a reservation for 18:00 but to have your food arrive at the mentioned times!!!! (10) My nephew had ordered his steak well done. His steak was actually done rare. Since we were not sure when we would see our waiter again, my sister took the plate from the table, with the steak and all the other food items still on the plate, and asked the first employee she saw to please have the steak done properly. When the plate was returned to the table, only the steak was on the plate and no other food items. When we asked about the other food items, AGAIN NO APOLOGY WAS OFFERED, the waiter just disappeared and returned with the fries. (11) My brother’s request for a take-away container ended up with him receiving a take-away container with a huge whole at the bottom. YET AGAIN, NO APOLOGY!! The waiter disappeared and returned with smaller take-away containers! (12) By the expression on the waiter’s face, I can safely assume that our request to order dessert only seemed to irritate the waiter. A while after ordering the dessert, the waiter returned to the table to advise that the items we requested for dessert were already sold out so we were now forced to order alternatives! NO APOLOGY AS IN THE OTHER CASES!!!! To be quite honest, I was ready to leave when there was a “problem” with the vouchers (see point 6). I however felt obligated to stay since the vouchers had already been paid for and were already scanned. There was therefore no guarantee that we would be refunded. The major question here is, was this the whole issue that our meals had already been paid for so it did not matter what service we received???? The saddest part of this whole experience is that we, as family, thought that this would be the ideal establishment to spoil my mother on her 70th birthday! Right now I don’t think my mother felt special at all!! To say the least, I am utterly disappointed and disgusted with the ********** service received at an establishment of such stature!!!!!!!!