Tag Archives: Mastercard

MyCiTi Bus Sweet and Sour Service Awards!

MyCiTi Bus Ikeraam Hendricks Sea Point Whale Cottage PortfolioThe Sweet Service Award goes to the Queens Beach station of MyCiTi Bus in Sea Point, for its patient offering of information about how the service operates, and in issuing the cards. Ikeraam Hendricks is the cashier at the station, and he arranged that I could enter the station, to check the timetable without the entry going off my card.   He also offered us the Atlantic Sun wrap-around about the service, when we asked for information.

My CiTi Bus imagesThe Sour Service Award goes to the MyCiTi Bus service, its bosses at the City of Cape Town, and the Mayoral Committee member for Transport, Roads, and Stormwater Brett Herron, who could not explain why the new MyCiTi Bus stop sign names on Ocean View Drive had such bizarre names such as CPUT, Convention Centre, and Roodebloem Road!  The Councillor is not good at replying to Tweets, Continue reading →

MyCiti Bus starts roll-out onto the Atlantic Seaboard this weekend!

My CiTi Bus imagesThe MyCiTi Bus route in Sea Point (connecting commuters to Fresnaye, the Civic Centre and the V&A Waterfront) will begin operating this weekend (via Beach Road and High Level Road), on 2 November.  The long-awaited roll-out of the service to Camps Bay is on 30 November, about 18 months after its promised start date!  By this weekend 83 MyCiTi Buses will be operating in Cape Town, increasing to 107 buses by the end of November.

News24 reports that the MyCiTi bus service will begin operating in Vredehoek, Oranjezicht,  Sea Point, Melkbosstrand, and Duynefontein this coming Saturday.  On 30 November the route from the new V&A Waterfront Silo (the previous Clocktower area) to the Civic Centre and Camps Bay via Kloofnek Road will commence.  The planned introduction of the N2 Express from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, which was scheduled to be launched in December, appears to be Continue reading →

City of Cape Town/UCT Sweet Service and Theatre on the Bay/Dish Food & Social Sour Service Awards!

The Sweet Service Award goes to the City of Cape Town, and UCT’s Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment for addressing the unfinished freeway on the Foreshore, in trying to find a creative solution for it.  The Engineering and Built environment students will present proposals for the Future Foreshore Freeway Precinct project, based on existing plans, the requirements of residents of Cape Town, and study benchmarks in other countries, taking the future development of the Cape Metropole into consideration.  The City’s Brett Herron, Councillor for Transport, Roads, and Stormwater, described the Foreshore as the most important precinct of Cape Town.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Theatre on the Bay, and its bar and restaurant supplier Dish Food & Social, for charging a 10% surcharge if one pays per credit card. This goes against the rules of the credit card companies, and is a rip-off, as the maximum fee that the merchant pays is 5% for American Express.  Most clients use a Mastercard or VISA, with a 2,5 – 3% commission rate at most!

POSTSCRIPT 26/4: We have received the following reply from Andrea Foulkes, the owner of Dish Food & Social, and are delighted that they have removed the sign: ‘Thank you for stimulating a second look at this issue.   The first time I saw the sign, I – too – did a double-take. I have to admit that the wording isn’t clear (I didn’t understand it first time around myself). Our manager explained to me that this is not a charge for the use of the credit card. As you rightly point out, this is against the rules (which doesn’t stop many establishments from doing it).   The ‘service’ charge is, in fact, gratuity. What was happening, is that patrons were paying for drinks on credit card, but forgetting to add a gratuity. So, this was implemented as a means of protecting the bar staff. We don’t do it upstairs in the restaurant, because diners are accustomed to adding a gratuity.  We used to have the old-fashioned tip jar on the counter, but on several occasions we caught patrons attempting to steal the money inside it – unbelievable though it may seem!  I wasn’t entirely happy with it right from the beginning, and I should have gone with my gut feeling. Until we can find a better way of communicating this we’ll be removing the sign.  Thank you for raising the issue.  Kind regards  Andrea Foulkes’.

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 info@whalecottage.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.

Bosman’s and Zachary’s sparkle in Diner’s Club Winelist Awards

Bosman’s at the Grande Roche Hotel and Zachary’s at Pezula Hotel & Spa were the two restaurants whose winelists were chosen as the best in the country in the Diner’s Club Winelist Awards, announced on Monday.

A record number of restaurant winelists was entered for the prestigious Diner’s Club Winelist of the Year 2010, an increase of 10 % on last year, reports Hotel and Restaurant.  Under the chairmanship of Dave Hughes, the Diner’s Club Winelist Awards recognises the wine range offered, as well as the matching of a restaurant’s wines to its menu.  To be able to enter, the restaurants have to accept Diner’s Club credit cards.

The judges gave each winelist a rating, depicting their winelist performance.  The results for the Western Cape follow:

*  The top accolade a restaurant winelist can achieve is Diamond, with a score of 91 % or more.  The superior winelists are those of the following restaurants: 96 Winery Road, Asara Wine Estate and Hotel, Aubergine, Azure at Twelve Apostles, Balducci’s, Balthazar, Bientang’s Cave, Bistro Allegro, Blowfish, Bosman’s, Bushman’s Kloof, Carne, Catharina’s, Cellars-Hohenhort Hotel, City Grill, Ellerman House, Flavours, Greek Fisherman, Harbour Rock, Hunter’s Country House, Jardine, Karibu, La Colombe, Le Quartier Français, Marc’s, Meloncino, Nobu, Pembrey’s, Pure, Restaurant at The One&Only, Rioja, Rodwell House, Sand, Signal at Cape Grace, The Atlantic Grill at the Table Bay Hotel, The Square at the Vineyard Hotel, The Wild Fig and Zachary’s.

*   Winners in the Platinum category (81 – 90%) were the following: 95 Keerom, Abalone House in Paternoster, Cru Cafe, Den Anker, Durbanville Golf Club, Harveys, Kitima at the Kronendal, Kurland Hotel, Milkwood, Panama Jacks, Pistachio, Salt, Simola Country Club & Spa, Bayside Cafe, The George, The Grill Room, Hussar Grill (all branches), The Marine Hotel, The Raj, The Red Herring, The Roundhouse, The Turbine Hotel & Spa (winner in this category) and Umngazi River Bungalows & Spa.

*   Winners in the Gold Category, with a score of 71 – 80 %, are the following restaurants:  3106 Restaurant @ The Cullinan, Blue Water Cafe, B’s steakhouse in Hermanus, Col’Cacchio (Camps Bay, Blouberg, Canal Walk, Cavendish, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Foreshore and Willowbridge branches), De Viswijf, Hermanos, Jenna Viva, Southern Sun, The Garden Lounge, The Quarterdeck and Yizani.

*   Silver award recipients, with a score of 61 – 70 %, are Bourbon Street, Harbourview, Jemima’s, and Newlands Cafe.

The scores for the above categories seem very high, given some of the restaurants that have been included in them, and one wonders how a top winelist of ex-maze at the One&Only can compete with that of restaurants such as Bientang’s Cave and Harbour Rock in Hermanus, with scores over 90%.

The judges noted a better presence of more affordable wines on the winelists, reflecting the current economic climate.  An increasing number of restaurants offer wine-by-the-glass, the judges noted.  The judges also praised the greater synergy between the winelist and the menu: “Now more and more restaurateurs take a lot of care in assembling a range of wines they believe complement their food and then guide the patron by means of the wine list in making an appropriate choice”, said judging Chairman Dave Hughes.

It is interesting to note that many Eat Out Top 10 restaurants are not on the winning winelist list, and include Rust en Vrede, Overture, Bizerca Bistro, Reubens, Grande Provence, Terroir, and the Mount Nelson.  Other top restaurants whose names are missing are Myoga, Bombay Brasserie at the Taj Hotel, Restaurant at Majeka House, Jordan’s Restaurant with George Jardine, Restaurant Christophe, Waterkloof, the Blonde …collection of restaurants (Beluga, Sevruga, Blonde), The Kovensky Quartet (The Kove, Paranga, Zenzero and Pepenero), and Delaire Graff, indicating that they do not accept Diner’s Club credit cards due to the higher commission this company takes on payments relative to Mastercard and VISA, and/or that these restaurants snub the Awards, in not seeing the value of participation.

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