The Sweet Service Award goes to the Greek Fisherman restaurant in the V & A Waterfront, which generously hosted members of the Camps Bay Accommodation association, as well as other guest house owners, for a dinner earlier this week.   Partnering with Asara wine estate, who sponsored the wines, the restaurant kept a steady flow of Greek specialities such as souvlaki, calamari, mussels, spinach and ricotta ravioli, haloumi cheese, and prawns coming to the tables.   Efaristo!

The Sour Service Award goes to the V & A Waterfront, for its lack of customer care.  As if its lack of concern about the regular feedback in newspapers about its high parking fees, and the resultant public declarations from locals that they will not return to the shopping centre, is not enough, it now has a new way to ensure that Capetonians will stay away from the Waterfront for the next month.  An upgrade of its airconditioning, which commenced last week without warning to customers and tenants, is scheduled to last until 16 November.   During this period an operational level of 20 % airconditioning has been promised.   On Sunday evening a customer picked up the incredible heat in the passage near Melissa’s, as if one had entered an oven, and was told by the Melissa’s staff that the airconditioner was broken.  Thereafter the customer bought a movie ticket for the 3,5 hour long ‘Last Night of the Proms’ at the Cinema Nouveau, and was not told by the staff that the airconditioning was not working there too.  The staff referred the cinema-goer to the notice from the Waterfront’s retail management company Lexshell 44 General Trading (Pty) Ltd., which was stuck on each movie house door.   The Manager at Cinema Nouveau, Liziwe Maningjwa,  was not interested in discussing the matter with the cinema-goer, and in fact told the customer to go to the media, as she was not interested in sorting out the problem.   A visit to Belthazar on Wednesday evening was unbearable, in terms of the extreme heat inside the restaurant, despite all efforts by the restaurant to open all its doors to cool things down.  The restaurant’s biggest concern is keeping its customers, but also importantly its large and expensive stock of wines, cool.  A call from the V & A Marketing department expressed surprise that the customer’s message should go to the media, and communicated that a media campaign is to be launched, to explain to customers that there is a problem with the airconditioning, and that the retail center will set up 25 temporary airconditioners for the next month.   These units have yet to be installed!   The aircon problem affects the whole of the “old” section of the shopping centre – i.e. the wing that was developed originally.  This includes the Red Shed, the food court, both the Nu Metro and Cinema Nouveau movie houses, the offices, restaurants such as Belthezar, Cape Town Fish Market, Krugman’s Grill, Haagen-Dasz, San Marco, Sevruga, Santa Ana Spur, Wang Thai, 221 Waterfront, and Ocean Basket, the Post Office, and all the shops in this wing.   Not only is the V & A Waterfront ripping customers off in terms of parking fees (it cost R 30 for the parking fee to see the movie), but now one can also endure a free unwanted sauna in the V & A Waterfront!