The Hollow Tree at Old Oak — Restaurant in Bellville

Too late for breakfast at 11h30, we ended up having brunch. What a pleasant surprise. Between us, we ordered different items from the Wednesday specials menu, from steak, egg and chips, to burgers and more. Someone next to us ordered chicken and calamari strips when we saw that, all of us decided that moment, that was what we wanted. The food arrived in less than 10 minutes. At my table, we were all big eaters, but the food was more than enough. No one at our table were still hungry or wanted anything more. Folks, the best chips in South Africa. Trust me, flat and broad, chrispy outside and soft inside chip. My mother has lost her 1st place chipmaker status. Hollow tree won. There are so much to choose from the menu, from pizzas, massive eisbines, steak, burgers even soup and more. The staff was great again. Service was like before, prompt, again. It feels as if I am on a farm, sitting and relaxing under the white willow trees, heavenly...... but still the position is on Old Oak road. Would I recommend this place? Yes, yes, yes. This is not the place for the fine dining experience. No, but man, is my wallet happy? Yes! Not even the fast food burger houses can compete in price, quantity, quality, service, venue or anything as a matter of fact. You should see Hollow Tree,s burgers in comparison! This is the ideal place for friends and families, even on a shoestring budget. Thanx again Hollow Tree,...

I am sorry for the low rating, it just wasn't for me. I am sure a lot of people loves it. It's always very busy when we drive by.

The positives: Our server were a very friendly lady who seems like she has been there for years and clearly enjoys her work, as it showed in her service.

The negatives: The smoking section outside, consists of 3 tables. All three were occupied. One table by 4 people and the other two were moved to make one larger table for a bigger group. It is also full on in the sun with no umbrellas or shading, unlike the rest of the seating outside, which is under large, shady trees. So we had to sit in the bar, which were, to be expected, a bit noisy, as it was very busy.

What I don't understand about this arrangement, is that the table we were seated at inside the bar, was right next to a large, open sash window, with a table right outside the window, and this was part of the outside non-smoking section.

All of our smoke went directly out the window and onto the table outside. We felt so bad about this, that we actually felt uncomfortable smoking.

The food was average for me. I ordered the half portion ribs and it was very dry. It was the worst ribs I have had. It wasn't that it didn't taste bad, it was just too dry. The burger my partner had was average.

So, again, not for me, but it seems...

On our arrival we were seated by a waiter, we were 10 ladies.We ordered our 1st round of drinks and the waiter immediately told us, "it's very busy tonight and all the staff are very tired and things will go slow and she left,we waited 20min for our drinks.After cling her again with no assistance a different waiter came "white male" named Enrico and asked us what do u want to order..we ordered but he wrote nothing down. Then after calling the manager and informing him he said he will help us. It's get evens worse..We were the oy people of colour and white people that came way after us got they food and drinks. I then got up and went to manager again and asked him what type of service is this, he then said sorry and went to fetch our drinks and then he gave us lemonade with a can that was damage and it was flat and he insisted we must drink it it doesn't look flat and I said no. Then the food came orders was wrong and 2 of the ladies food came when we were all basically done eating ,we shared our food with them . Spoke to manager bout it and HD brush us off and then I took and stand and td him we don't want that food ,we want out bill. Cause white people get treated very well here and coloured extremely poor. This is the most disgusting racial place and service I ever got in Cape Town. I'll never sit food in...