Cattle Baron De Waterkant — Local services in City Centre

Visited in December 2024. South Africa. Capetown.

A friend touted this establishment as Cape Town's premier steakhouse, with their chateaubriand a must-try. The recommendation proved partially accurate. The restaurant itself is undeniably impressive; a spacious, light-filled interior, stylishly appointed in dark tones and accented with the richly grained wood one expects in a high-end steakhouse.

The Food:

The food lived up to expectations, mostly. Our meal began with a perfectly executed pan-fried calamari. Exquisitely tender, it practically melted in the mouth, a buttery delight complemented by a well-judged accompanying sauce. The main courses followed: the signature chateaubriand with mushroom sauce and fries, and pan-fried king prawns. The steak, as anticipated, was beautifully presented, boasting a gloriously crisp crust and achieving the desired level of doneness; juicy and intensely meaty. While the centre was tender, the outer edges suffered slightly from the searing process, resulting in a drier texture. Nonetheless, it was expertly prepared, impeccably tender, and entirely free of gristle. The accompanying fries were golden brown and perfectly crisp. The prawns, while skillfully cooked, presented a slight challenge in terms of de-shelling; a minor inconvenience given the flavour and the generous garlic butter which perfectly complemented their sweetness.

Service: Service, however, lagged. While not disastrous – and, admittedly, reflective of a general trend in Cape Town hospitality – the pace was leisurely, bordering on languid. Even with the restaurant virtually empty, our food took approximately 35 minutes to arrive.

In conclusion:

This is a commendable steakhouse offering a delicious culinary experience. While the chateaubriand was excellent, a slightly less lean cut might offer a more luxuriously succulent experience. I would recommend this restaurant for a high-quality dining experience, just be prepared for a somewhat slower service than you might...

I am in shock and awe of how terrible it was 😂😂 I did my vega showcase night and came to eat after with family.

The restaurant was semi busy. The waiter was very sweet!

Firstly, there were not single clean glass in the whole establishment. I got a grapetiser in an iced coffee cup with no straw, and my partner got a cappuccino in a tea cup with a most of it spilled out. The spoons weren’t teaspoons. There weren’t any proper glasses or cutlery, apparently everything was dirty. My grapetiser tasted like dish soap as I think my glass wasn’t rinsed properly.

For starters, we had a salad. Once again, no proper cutlery. Got two forks as a salad spoons for a table of 5.

Then we had mains, took over an hour. The people that didn’t have steak were lucky, as it was chewy and severely undercooked. When the food came out, one plate got sent to the wrong table which resulted in another 30 minute wait. My steak was supposed to be medium rare and it was basically blue (still alive at this point), so I sent it back for it to get more cooked, and when it came back, one half was still raw and the other side was well done 😂 the other steak eventually came and the chips were raw raw, and his steak was basically still alive as well. We asked for mash potatoes but it never came either, so we just left it.

After dinner, we waited for 2 krafts of wine for easily 30 minutes, after speaking to multiple people about it. Turns out they were out of the wine we wanted.

Honestly, this wasn’t even sad anymore 😂 I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time, it was absolutely embarrassing.

I won’t be back - spend your R250 steak money somewhere else, i.e. the fat butcher, that is good money and service.

Pictures attached of the spoons that were...

While I was lucky enough to have a good burger that was very pleasant as well as the waitress being amazing, so much went wrong that it is enough to never go back again.

The night started well with our orders being taken but then 15 minutes later we are approached to let us know that the ribs are currently out of stock. Ok no problem, we ask if the lamb chops are available to which we are told yes. 15 minutes later the manager approaches us to inform us that they are in fact. Unavailable.

Now 30 minutes in and no other persons food at the table has been started because of this.

My mother orders a rib-eye 400 grams and it arrives and to my horror is the worse cooked rib-eye I've ever seen in a steak place. It looked as if it had been microwaved from frozen and was the toughest piece of meat I've come across. Sent back to the kitchen for the chef to say "Yeah, this is pretty bad" as we're told but never see him for any type of apology. (Was removed from bill for being of such poor quality)

The manager is sauntering around and listening to our complaints as if he had been dealing with complaints all day, apathetic and overall not of any help besides saying "yeah we can work on that".

Over and hour waiting till we eventually get all our food as well.

We were also informed the owner was there but instead of coming to the table to see what was up, when he noticed the complaints he walked into a backroom where he remained for the rest of the time I was there with my group.

Disappointing from a restaurant that used to take such care of it's guests, if you go there you may have a good meal but the problem is they don't care...