BEWARE THE SEARED TUNA SALAD

On Tuesday the 19th October 2021 I had lunch with my spouse at Villa 47 on Bree. Despite his numerous attempts at convincing me to go elsewhere for lunch (it's like he had a sixth sense that something bad was about to happen), it happened to be my birthday that day, and I was determined to satisfy my craving for a seared tuna salad. There was nothing to suggest to us that the food that was served that day was off, but perhaps that was due to the sharp taste in the dressing. My spouse had the seafood pasta and I had a caprese salad and a seared tuna salad. Everything seemed fine until about 6pm when I needed to start getting ready for my long anticipated birthday dinner at Chef's Warehouse Tintswalo. I started feeling a combination of queasy, dizzy, and severe fatigue. Because we'd paid a deposit and didn't want to waste our long awaited dinner, we decided to go anyway, hoping I'd feel better once we arrived. But in the car ride on the way there I started feeling worse and could barely keep my eyes open. Eventually after a car ride that felt like it would never end we arrived at our destination, where we took a shuttle down the hill to the restaurant. Unfortunately I was not feeling better at all, if anything I felt 10 times worse. We notified the manager of the situation, who treated us with kindness and respect. Not only did he offer to simply transfer our deposits, he also got the staff to serve us ****** tea while we waited. Shortly after the tea I found myself running all the way through to the other side of the restaurant where the rest rooms are situated, holding my hand in front of my mouth. I felt extremely sick but struggled to regurgitate whatever it was that was making me feel so ill. Again I had to drag myself into the minivan to take us up the hill to our car - and I was terrified of the long car drive back. I lay flat on the back seat of the car and tried to rest, but my muscles started paining all over my body. At home I kept getting more and more nauseous, eventually reaching the point where I had to jump out of bed and rush to the toilet to projectile vomit about 5 or so times. I'm pretty sure dying felt better than this. Hugging the toilet seat with tears in my eyes, it was now very clear that what had seemed like an innocent lunch had been so off that it had poisoned my entire system. I thought to myself "well at least I managed to get most of it out now and hopefully I'll start getting better real soon". I was wrong. Throughout the night I still felt extreme nausea along with severe muscle aches and pains, and a very high fever. My spouse felt the need to rush me to hospital but I was so weak I couldn't even lift a finger, never mind get up to walk. Woke up the next day finally feeling slightly better, but my birthday was gone. I thought I was finally on the mend and on the road to recovery, but once again, I was wrong. Throughout the day I experienced sharp pains in my chest, as though someone were stabbing me with a knife. I thought it must be heartburn or indigestion, but no amount of Gavison helped. After doing some research I learned this was a common symptom of food poisoning as the toxic gases rise up from the gut into the chest area causing tremendous amounts of discomfort. Around the late afternoon I called Villa 47 to notify them of what had happened. Whoever I spoke to seemed fairly concerned and asked for all my details so that the manager could reach out. That was last week Thursday, the 21st Oct, and here we are 4 days later and I've not had one peep from them. Another red flag are all the stories my friends have been telling me about past cases of food poisoning from the same place. This ordeal has set me back a total of R4,000 in doctor's and medical bills, not to mention the forced sick leave I need to apply for from my employer. Worst of all, it completely ruined my birthday and what was supposed to be one of my best dinners yet. I am utterly disappointed at how Villa 47 has chosen to handle, or rather NOT handle this.