Tag Archives: Jenny Prinsloo

Restaurant Review: DISH has dishy food, but service is not!

I had recently been to the Le Franschhoek Hotel, after an absence of more than a year, to try out its Afternoon Tea.  I met Chef Daniel Botha, and was impressed with the menu for DISH, which I asked to see while I was there.  I liked the look of the Chicken liver cognac parfait (R55) so much that I took some with me, and vowed to return for dinner at DISH as soon as I returned to Franschhoek over the Franschhoek Literary Festival weekend.  It was interesting to hear that the restaurant had changed its name from Relais Gourmand, and allegedly faces legal action from Relais & Châteaux, which appears to have trademarked the word “Relais”!

I arrived without making a booking, and the restaurant only had three tables occupied other than mine, out of the 14 in the restaurant – two tables were hotel guests and another was a 10-person party of media from China, hosted by Eben Lassen, GM of the Le Franschhoek Hotel, and Jenny Prinsloo, the CEO of the Franschhoek Wine Valley tourism association.  For the 17 patrons in the restaurant in total, the service from the 4 – 5 waiters and Restaurant Manager Ruaan Spencer should have been far better than that which I experienced on Thursday evening, especially given the fine food that is offered at DISH.

The Customer Services gentleman of the hotel recognised me, and immediately told me that he had passed my feedback form from my Afternoon Tea, where there was a service issue, on to his boss Mr Lassen.  He escorted me inside the restaurant, and asked his colleagues to organise a table for me.  Ruaan brought the menu and winelist, and asked me to choose between still or sparkling bottled water, and I opted for the fresh Franschhoek version, as I always do.  He then told me about two main course specials, but forgot to tell me that they had run out of duck for the main course, which I was told at a later stage by the waitress.  Busi was the waitress that came to my table the most, and we discussed the wines by the glass, a disappointingly small selection, none being a Shiraz.  Busi wanted to please, and said she had an open bottle of Zandvliet Shiraz 2008, from which she could pour a glassful at R40, and I accepted her offer.  She came to the table with a bottle of Nederburg Manor House 2006 Shiraz, telling me that she had discovered that the Zandvliet had run out, and she was therefore offering me the Nederburg in its place, but at R90 a glass!   I felt this to be unfair, and so she kept the charge at the originally promised R40.  The wine was outstanding.  I was not asked if I wanted to order another glassful when I had finished the first! 

The DISH dining room is large, and the tables are far apart from each other, creating a lack of cohesion and atmosphere.  The lighting from the overhead lamps is very low, but there are a number of candelabras which make the room look very romantic.  In the middle of the restaurant was a portable gas ‘fireplace’.  Each table had a tall candlestick on it, but my candle had been exposed to too much sun, and had become bent, and I could not straighten it.  The tables are covered with a table cloth, and material serviettes and Eetrite cutlery is provided.  My table was not laid with sideplates, and none was brought when the rather ordinary looking home-made white and brown bread was brought to the table.   When the food was served, an impressive heavyweight set of Maxwell Williams salt and pepper grinders was brought to the table.  I missed the touch of flowers on the table, or in the restaurant in general, which could come from the hotel grounds that are blessed with flowers.  Decor is bare in this large room, with only one picture of an angel in one lone corner, and a piano, that luckily was not played.  There was no dishy looking food photography or artwork to link to the restaurant name.   Music was typical hotel-like.

There are about ten starters and ten main courses to choose from.  I started with smoked salmon tartar, which was topped with a quail egg, and was served with two minute slices of ‘fennel and orange rye’ – the punctuation in this description led me to expect fennel and I was not sure about the colour of the rye, but I was told that the rye bread was topped with fennel seeds and orange zest.  It was a small portion for R65, not good value, and the strong onion and salmon tartar did not taste as good on the bread when the toast ran out.  The other starter choices include Pernod shellfish bisque and buttered crayfish and prawn tail, Thai chicken noodle soup, Carpaccio of springbok, Caprese salad, and Duck Rillette salad (R85), all costing around R60, with the exception of the duck salad.  For the main course I ordered Green Pea and Fennel Risotto (R95), that was oddly presented on spinach, with a spoonful in the centre of the plate, and another three around this, making the presentation look messy and clumsy.  I wasn’t expecting tomato in the risotto from the menu description, and cooked tomato is one of the food items I do not enjoy eating.  The risotto was topped with two prawns, and I felt it too saucy, and expensive, yet it was filling.   Other main courses include butternut tagliatelle (R95), Glazed Norwegian salmon (R125), Braised lamb shank (R155), Beef fillet stuffed with wild mushroom and camembert (R145), Thai Green chicken and prawn curry (R170), and Glazed Confit duck with Van der Hum jus (R130).  Desserts cost around R55, and one can choose between Hot chocolate fondant with Romanoff parfait and berry compote, Belgian white and dark mousse with Cape Gooseberry compote, Date stuffed poached pear and almond tart served with a Chardonnay wine sauce (but which had run out, I was told), Baked Mascarpone cheesecake, and Cappuccino crusted Amoretti parfait served with Grand Marnier Sabayon and a raspberry and orange salad, which is what I ordered.  I am not sure where the ‘cappuccino’ was in this dessert, and I thought the fruit salad an odd marriage to an otherwise nice dish.  The cappuccino I had with the dessert was made with Avanti coffee, which I had not heard of before, and was served in a cup with a logo that looked suspiciously similar to that of LavAzza.

The focus of the kitchen was to serve the media table of ten, and the Restaurant Manager never came back to the table again, except to wish me ‘Bon Appetit’ when I started eating the main course.  He did not check on the enjoyment of the starter.  He had company, it appeared, and sat himself at a table in the restaurant to chat, rather than focusing on what was happening, or rather not happening, in the restaurant.  At this stage Mr Lassen came over to introduce himself, and he said that he had not been given my Afternoon Tea feedback form.  He asked if all was okay. My feedback must have led him to address the Restaurant Manager, and he was far more attentive thereafter, even spontaneously coming to stabilise my table, but I had not felt it wobbling at all.  Ruaan told me that he grew up in Malmesbury, where his family owned the local Wimpy, and felt that he had experience in the hospitality industry from this.  He went to the UK, where he worked and then studied Tourism at Bournemouth University, he told me, and then returned to work at Beluga, for only six months, due to the poor treatment of the staff by its owner Oskar Kotze.  From there he moved to DISH a year ago.

The light was so low in the restaurant, that I asked the staff to let me photograph the dishes at the serving area.  It was hilarious that the staff let me carry my plates for both the starter and the main course to my table, and I felt like a waiter!  The GM and the Restaurant Manager were in the restaurant all the time, and did not react to this.  The waitress had no idea what the Cappuccino dessert consisted of, and went back to the kitchen twice to check with the chef (unfortunately chef Daniel had the day off) how this dessert was made.   I don’t think she had been asked so many questions before, and said that this dessert was a recent addition to the menu.  

The winelist cover is black leather, and it has no link to the starter/main course and dessert menus in preparation or look.  The winelist is printed on nice silver paper, but the pages are heavily worn.  What I loved about it, but it seemed an odd place to see these, was the old black and white photographs of the hotel, when it was still called the Swiss Farm Excelsior, and I remembered it fondly from many visits there in my childhood.  On the first page of the winelist is a wax seal of the Three Cities hotel group logo, the management company that runs the Le Franschhoek Hotel.  None of the wines have a vintage provided, but the region it comes from is specified, as is the Platter star rating.  The seven wines by the glass are inexpensive, and include Haut Espoir Sauvignon Blanc, Dieu Donné Unwooded Chardonnay and Dieu Donné “Cab/Shiraz” (all three at R25), Beyerskloof Pinotage R32, Pinehurst Cabernet Sauvignon (R36), Pierre Jourdan Brut (R43), and Boschendal Sauvignon Blanc (R45).  It must be noted that the hotel belongs to Mr Maingard, who owns a number of hospitality interests in Franschhoek, including Dieu Donné. Ten champagnes are offered, starting at R340 for Tribaut Brut, up to R3000 for Veuve Cliquot La Grand Dame.  MCC’s start at R170 for Pierre Jourdan Brut, up to R420 for Graham Beck Rosé Brut.  There are about eight wines offered per variety, and the Shiraz selection starts at R125 for Vrede en Lust, up to R290 for Glen Carlou Syrah.

Busi was willing to do what she could for me, but her knowledge about the menu was constrained, and her training poor, as she stretched in front of me regularly to add or remove cutlery, even when I asked her not to.  The final service failure was my request for the bill at the time that my dessert and cappuccino were brought to the table.  I finished both, and it still had not arrived.  My waitress had disappeared from the restaurant, and I asked another waiter to bring it.  The waitress reappeared, left again, and in irritation I got up to look for the bill.  The Restaurant Manager had left, it appeared, and my irritation showed when I waited for the bill at the entrance to the restaurant, the GM coming to see if he could help.  Then the portable credit card machine had to be fetched from somewhere else.  I felt that the waitress was completely out of her depth, and she received no support from her Restaurant Manager.  Mr Lassen did invite me to share a cup of coffee with him when next I am in Franschhoek, and he did offer to comp the meal due to all the service problems, but I refused his latter kind offer.  

I could not help but to compare DISH with Le Bon Vivant in Franschhoek, where both restaurants have quality chefs working hard in creating above average cuisine, but the service from the waiters destroys all this hard work.  It is such a shame, as DISH has good potential.

DISH, Le Franschhoek Hotel, Franschhoek.  Tel (021) 876-8900.  www.lefranschhoek.co.za. (The website is very disppointing in respect of DISH, it mentioning that it has a winelist, but there is no link to it.  There is no mention of the menu at all, and a mix of photographs of the venue and the food at La Verger and DISH restaurants can be seen,  The site is generally out of date, a section referring to events for 2010).  Dinners only, Monday – Sunday.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Franschhoek set to twin with St Helena, Napa Valley

Following a recent visit to the USA by the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association CEO Jenny Prinsloo, a proposal for a twinning relationship between Franschhoek and St Helena in the Napa Valley is to be evaluated, reports the Franschhoek Tourism Bureau in its latest member newsletter.

According to Ms Prinsloo, the proposed twinning relationship is justifiable on the basis of both towns being members of the Great Wine Capitals, their similar demographic profile, their same high-end real estate offering, their compatible tourist target markets, their location in premier new world wine regions, their shared reputation as gourmet destination towns, their similar accommodation offerings, their similar business profiles, their shared niche speciality shops and art galleries (St Helena is one of two top shopping destinations in California), sharing being high quality lifestyle destinations, and a shared focus on wellness tourism.

The benefits in twinning are overwhelming, with a group of St Helena Chamber of Commerce members  set to visit Franschhoek next year.  Marketing information is to be exchanged, and ideas relating to festivals and events to be shared.   Wine estate and restaurant intern exchanges could result; environmentally sustainable initiatives for the wine estates can be applied in Franschhoek, from the experience gained in this regard in St Helena; school cultural exchanges could follow; social media marketing could be strengthened in Franschhoek, already advanced in St Helena but still poorly adopted in Franschhoek;  guidance in setting up a culinary school in Franschhoek, by the St Helena’s Culinary Institutes of America branch; and Franschhoek expanding its focus on wellness tourism, with the guidance of St Helena’s experience in this field.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Franschhoek restaurants acknowledge service deficiencies

Last month The Franschhoek Month asked guest house owners and managers to provide feedback about the service levels of the restaurants in Franschhoek.   The outcome was that there are many good aspects about the service offered by the local restaurants, but criticisms were raised about the quality of service experienced by some accommodation establishments and their guests.  Guest houses fed back that they receive little acknowledgement for the business that they send to the restaurants.

 

We asked all the restaurants in the village to answer to the compliments and complaints that the guest houses raised, and the full article was sent to them.   In fact, 6 weeks ago every restaurant was asked to supply information to the topic, and a paltry three restaurants responded.   Two weeks ago they were requested to respond again, and follow up calls were made to many restaurants.   Calls were not all returned, and responses ranged from “we are so busy”, “if we had 5 minutes to spare, we would spend it on other priorities” and “we are so busy preparing for Topsi’s function”.   Once again, only three restaurants replied.

 

Can the restaurants be serious?   Can they have that little interest about a topic that should be of concern to every tourism player in our Valley?   We are known as the Gourmet Capital of the country – it is not only the food quality, but the service quality too that makes a restaurant outstanding.  

 

We salute those restaurants that did take the time and trouble to provide input to this article.  They reflect a care and interest in their customers which the silent ones do not appear to.

 

One of the newest restaurants is the Italian Allora.  Philip Aplas, the locally based owner, and co-owner of three other Allora restaurants in Johannesburg, is refreshing in his relationship building, and understated way in which he is building his business in Franschhoek.    He says:”We are grateful for every guest sent to us. We are having a dinner on the 4th of May to thank the guest houses that supported us during the season.    We are launching our Allora Miles program, to thank the guest houses that send business to us.”   The reward program will award miles for reservations made, and this will qualify the holders of the Allora cards to receive gift vouchers, and a variety of other prizes, depending on the number of miles they have ‘clocked’ up in referring business to Allora.

 

Haute Cabriere has been outstanding at recognizing the value of the relationship between itself and the accommodation establishments in the Valley, and hosts the establishments just before the start of the new summer season.   “Certainly from our point of view we appreciate the synergy between the many Franschhoek restaurants and the numerous accommodation establishments in the Franschhoek Valley. It is undoubtedly one of our main focuses when gearing up for a new season, to make sure that we take the time to thank these establishments for their support and brief them on any changes or developments planned for the upcoming season. On any given day during season I would say that the restaurant is 90% booked up with guests that have been booked into the restaurant by their local hotels or guest houses and we are certainly appreciative of this fact” says Haute Cabriere’s Nicky Gordon.

 

Gordon would like to see a reciprocal communication relationship between her restaurant and accommodation establishments:  “I do feel though that restaurants should be kept informed, by the guest houses, on a regular basis, about feedback from their guests. It is most beneficial to us to hear what comments are being received (both good but especially negative if any) so that we get an opportunity to rectify or improve on certain areas. It is certainly no help to any restaurant for a guest houses owner to just to stop sending business without phoning to follow up and hearing the other side of the story.”

 

Burgundy has an agreement with some guesthouses and referrals are done between them on a regular basis.  They receive feedback from the establishments as to how the customers enjoyed their meal at the restaurant.

 

“We do not rely heavily on Guest Houses booking at Rickety Bridge Restaurant as we are only open during the day. Our walk in trade has been really good and I think that if we were to open at night, our marketing efforts would definitely have to be more accommodation based” says Cindy Miller, of the company that manages Rickety Bridge, a popular wine estate, wedding venue and restaurant just outside the village.

 

“What I can say about the relationship between restaurant and accommodation is that when we launched a Tapas menu at the beginning of the season and invited 20 guest houses over two days (15 – 20 per day) to experience our Tapas– only 3 arrived”, added Miller.

 

Guest houses and self-catering establishments send their guests to the Salmon Bar for “great coffee, excellent breakfast – freshly baked artisan breads are a big part of this, lunch all day and dinner from Wednesdays to Saturdays.  We are seen as a breakfast and lunch venue of choice, and have more competition at night. We are relatively new (1 year) and are still building relationships” says Judy Sendzil, the owner of the Salmon Bar.   The Salmon Bar invites guest house owners who send clients to them for dinner, to thank them for the business received.

 

Aplas understands how vital service is, and staff training is an important foundation of his Allora restaurants.   “When we train staff at Allora, we always stress that the three most dangerous factors in the restaurant industry are complacency, arrogance, and fatigue.  All need to be managed carefully.   As the newcomers to the village, we are doing all we can to improve our service and quality levels at all times, and hope people will continue to take notice.”

 

Rickety Bridge has seen huge staff movement in Franschhoek.  “I think many of the points raised by the (accommodation) establishments are valid.  I have found a vast difference in the caliber of staff in Franschhoek compared to my staff in town – it has taken us ages to build a team at Rickety Bridge and we had to “import” some waiters from Cape Town and house them on the Estate!   During this time our service suffered (as did some of our guests) and it was a very painful birth from a staffing point of view. “

 

What I have personally found is that good waiters do the rounds – I have seen good front of house staff move around from one good restaurant to another in the time that I have been involved in Franschhoek and since I do not believe in poaching waiters and waitresses, we have endured the long road and trained from scratch” added Miller.

 

Gordon also talks about the challenges of staff recruiting and training:  “With regards to standards of service, this is always a huge commitment and task for any restaurant owner. We all employ largely local staff and the time and challenge spent training is often underestimated. Most of the staff have never eaten in restaurants themselves and have never heard of some of the menu items on offer that they are expected to sell to foreign and local tourists.”

 

“At Haute Cabriere we offer a tasting for staff before each new menu comes out and also focus on pronunciation of the dishes and a general test on the menu before it is launched. This is an ongoing and arduous task. The fact that for most of the front line staff, English is at best a 2nd language provides even more challenges in this regard, especially when they are faced with foreigners with different accents and sometimes limited English.  These are all issues restaurants in the bigger cities do not often have to contend with as there are thousands of university students seeking part time and casual work and they are spoilt for choice! “

 

Restaurant owners and managers are also customers of the other restaurants, and shared their views about the service levels they have experienced in the local restaurants.   One restaurant owner wrote:  ‘Many of the staff of the restaurants that I have dined at have an attitude that is rather poor considering that they are in the service industry.   Most restaurants are manager run and it shows.   The general attitude is that they will be full with or without you. Service levels certainly aren’t up to scratch at the moment.’

 

Are guests and accommodation establishments too critical of the local restaurants?   The owners of Burgundy restaurants think that this may be the case: “We should keep in mind that each establishment has a character of its own. We cannot be everything to everybody.  We can only do our very best to give the customer a good experience. I have heard guests and guesthouses alike giving criticism and tearing apart top award winning restaurants in Franschhoek many times. I fail to understand this”.

 

“I’ve often read that the credit crunch will bring about a new order, where true service will be paramount. It is maybe time for us in the service industry to remind ourselves of the meaning of the word ‘service’, and thus what it means to serve another person.   Franschhoek in general is in need of an attitude adjustment towards its patrons. Tourists aren’t here because of Franschhoek businesses, Franschhoek businesses are here because of tourists.     A continued drop in standards will kill Franschhoek as a tourist destination, and will affect us all” says Aplas.

 

Burgundy‘s owners would like to make a difference, “but we keep to ourselves and conduct our business quietly, ridicule and backstabbing took care of that.    We are willing to work with anyone who reaches out to us. It is my personal opinion that this stunning little town still suffers of a “small town mentality” and that this will hamper its efforts to overcome the difficult times ahead.”

 

Gordon sees it differently:  We are very fortunate in Franschhoek to have a set up that is ultimately beneficial to both the restaurants and accommodation establishments. The food and wine reputation of the valley without doubt brings in hordes of tourists to the area and fills up both the accommodation establishments and as a result the many restaurants. A win win situation for us all!

 

“Is it not possible to create a tourism awareness campaign that is aimed at all residents across the spectrum, to educate and remind us all on how important tourism is (directly or indirectly) to each one of us?” a most relevant question asked by and challenge coming from Allora, which we will ask Jenny Prinsloo of the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association to address.

 

We need to safeguard our priceless marketing point of difference in Franschhoek in being the Gourmet Capital of the country, an attribute that is unique and unprecedented for such a small village.   We do not own this attribute for the sake of it, and will have to work very hard to have more restaurants on the Top Ten Eat Out restaurant list at the end of the year.  It is not the food quality alone that is rated – service quality, from the call being taken for the booking, the service efficiency in the restaurant in serving the food and beverages, to the speedy presentation of the bill, is also an important criterion. 

 

The poor response to this vital topic from the local restaurateurs is most worrying, and reflects a degree of arrogance from our local restaurants, the exact arrogance that Aplas warns us about, combined with the small town politics Burgundy’s owners write about and have been experienced by many, that can lead to our downfall in Franschhoek as far as our gourmet reputation and therefore tourism future goes.

 

This article was written by Chris von Ulmenstein and first appeared in The Franschhoek Month, May 2009.