The Sweet Service Award goes to the Cattle Baron in Hermanus, and its owner Antonie Lombard, for his excellent service recovery when one of his waitresses displayed every symptom of not caring about her job (she did not tell me about the butternut that is served with the steak when asked; she did not check if I was happy with the food, when I wanted to send back the cold and distasteful mash; replaced the mash with baby potatoes and sour cream instead of with butter as requested; brought luke warm water when a glass of cold water was requested; went into a long menu discussion at another table after I had requested the bill; and did not bring the credit card machine for the payment). I spoke to the owner, who listened attentively, apologised for the waiter’s poor service, and reduced the bill by 50% when I paid at the counter.
The Sour Service Award goes to Burgundy Restaurant in Hermanus, and its affected and arrogant Manager Pieter Nel, where I popped in unplanned after 21h00 on Saturday evening for a dessert after my Cattle Baron dinner. I sat down at a table outside, and had a waiter shouting at me from a lower level. I told him that he could take the order at the table after he had brought a menu. Pieter came to the table and said that they were fully booked and that I would have to leave. We send (or did from now onwards) most of our guest house guests to the restaurant as a first choice, and I told Pieter that. He said that he knew I was from Whale Cottage but that it made no difference, as he was expecting a table of 19 in ten minutes time, and that he did not want to stress the kitchen. He gave me a lecture about capacity, and how I should understand that from a guest house perspective. Had I pre-booked, he would have gladly assisted me, he said in a parental finger-pointing kind of way! When I told him that I just wanted a dessert, he relented! It was a delicious chocolate mousse nut cake, but poor value in being a sliver with one ball of ice cream at R45! I ate it slowly deliberately, and took great amusement at how many walk-ins were turned away in the 40 minutes while I sat there, Pieter became more and more nervous about the table of 19 not arriving. The Burgundy is a good example of a business not acknowledging the lifetime value of a customer, greedily giving preference to a large once-off table compared to a regular customer.
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at whalecot@iafrica.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.
Chris von Ulmenstein. Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
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Talking of food, last season’s Master Chef SA is now being shown in the UK. It’s a most enjoyable series & some of the young chef’s are astoundingly talented. However, what is it with all the SA men bursting into tears every few seconds? I thought that they were built of much sterner stuff. 😉
Discuss!!
They are supposed to be Nick!
It wasn’t just the guys though – the girls turned on the tears too in MasterChef Season 2!
Maybe it’s the cricket against Australia that’s distressing them!!
I think they milked every opportunity to win some sympathy points Nick!
I hope that Season 3 contestants don’t follow suit!