Limp Food

I love eating out. I enjoy the whole dining out experience: new restaurants; new food; service; location; ambiance you name it I love it.

So to my horror I report a new trend in curry dishes – that is dishes without crucial ingredients. Two leading indian curry restaurants in the north of Johannesburg are obviously cutting corners. Key components in a Navrattan Curry are cashew nuts and a nice creamy sauce. But these two eateries had either run out on the night or are cutting corners. The result at both establishments was that I walked out disappointed and unsure of a return visit despite being a regular patron of the past.

Swiftly moving on to pizza establishments and their soggy bases. A nice pizza has a good crisp base, fresh and nicely chopped toppings served appealingly. My usual hang out in Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, now slops up soggy based pizzas with wet tasting avos or canteen style curried mince hurled over the pizza base. Byebye! No more patronage from me.

Swiftly moving on to cutlery. I have managed to get my head around the fact that fish knives in general, are a thing of the past, but eating a burger with a butter knife takes the well…burger a long time to be cut! When asking for a steak knife or a meat knife at a mediterranean restaurant in Greenside, Johannesburg, I was met with an astonished stare as the guilty butter knife was held firmly in my hand. Common restaurant sense isn’t it? Meat needs meat knife yo!

Glasses and clearing up. Pet hate for me is a restaurant who does not provide a clean glass for a second order of wine or beer or whatever, just tops up the old clammy one. Blerrrgh! Pet hate number two is when a plate is cleared before the other guests have finished eating – last time I knew, restaurants of good standing waited for all guests to finish before clearing course plates?

Are standards dropping? Is the economic climate making restaurateers cut back on ingredients, service and presentation? If so, then please expect your regulars customers to move on to where they can obtain the quality food and service they used to expect from you!

So if your lettuce leaf limps, or your steak starts to sag, or your pizza looks like the back of a pik-it-up truck and your wine glass is grimey – take your feet and walk!

10 thoughts on “Limp Food”

I couldn’t agree with you more Sue! At the end of the day you are paying for a service and if you not getting what you expect, then take your hard earned cash somewhere else!

Oh yeah. I know some believe in complaining, and on the odd occasion I have – but at the end of the day it is reastaurant that has the expertise to offer or not to offer and to oversee their food presentation and ensure their standards are upheld as they would wish them to be – or not to be 🙂

Well done, Sue, on bringing the issue of poor service and badly-prepared food at restaurants to the fore. One of my favourite restaurants was Mike’s Kitchen in Parktown. Housed in a former rand lord’s mansion, it has an almost 0lde World ambience. Alex and I went there frequently and Qhawe and I ate there at least once a fortnight. Over the past five or so months we noticed that the standard of service was slipping badly. The famed salad bar disappeared. One was not served by a single waiter/waitress but by at least three, none of whom showed any interest in their patrons. The proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back came about three months go. We ordered our drinks (Coke and a cola tonic and lemonade). Twenty minutes later we were still waiting so we walked out. The manager attempted to stop us but we kept walking. I felt a sense of loss – I have frequented this particular restaurant for at least fifteen years and have many very precious memories associated with it. One would think that in these economically straightened times, restauranteurs would be pulling out all the stops to retain their loyal customers. Apparently not. A good follow-up to your excellent and perceptive article would be to name and shame, thereby helping us to avoid a disaster evening! Thank you for writing. I enjoy your blog greatly.

Can’t agree more Sue. I have no problem heading somewhere else. I support my locals very well but I work hard for my money and if they are going to serve me sub-standard food and in a poor manner, I’ll happily replace them with a new local!

@ David: I used to love that Mike’s Kitchen was lovely venue but went down terribly and their salad table which they were famous for became a trough of rubbish
@ Claire: yes replace.. we should complain at times, but what a ball-ache to do so and when you walk out you probably are just sniggered about ??

I have had bad service over here too. I hate the cleaning plates while some are still eating. I firmly believe standards are slipping her and that the state of the economy has a lot to do with it. I would also have thought they would raise standards to keep the customers or risk going out of business like so many have here