Blacksmith's Kitchen — Restaurant in Drakenstein Local Municipality

We celebrated my birthday at Blacksmith's Kitchen on Sunday, April 30, and what a lovely experience it was. I was flying back to Johannesburg that afternoon so we arrived at 10:45 am which is 15 minutes before the restaurant opens. However, the wait staff welcomed us in a very cordial manner despite the inconvenience, which was surprising. (In my experience, arriving before opening time results in being chased away by disgruntled staff.) This impressed me. The restaurant is set in tranquil surroundings above vineyards which I found instantly relaxing. We had not booked a table and all of those that seemed to be in prime spots were reserved. This was not a problem, however, as all of the tables provide the same exquisite view of the mountains of Paarl. We sat under a massive and ancient tree (Oak, if I remember correctly) and time seemed to stand still for a bit. I enjoyed a glass of wine and we ordered falafel to start. The dish was fairly good but the caprese pizza that followed was excellent. I enjoyed being seated at a large wooden table in magnificent surroundings. Blacksmith's Kitchen is a very special venue which proved to offer really good value for money that even ordinary South Africans can enjoy; this is unusual. The restaurant staff were very kind, attentive and efficient. I hope to...

Great view, shocking service! I called the restaurant to make a booking the day before our arrival and advised the person on the phone that I had a puppy and would need to bring him along. She said no problem as long as we sat outside. No problem. When we arrived to an empty restaurant, the waitress approached us shaking her head. Not even greeting us. I told her we had a reservation and she said no dogs were allowed. I explained the reservation call and with so much attitude she says, “well who did you speak to?” - how would I know the name of the person that took my call?

We were eventually seated and ordered 2 drinks off the menu that were out of stock. We were not even advised about these shortages when the menus were handed to us. Very unprofessional. We were surprised that the wine farm the restaurant is situated on doesn’t even feature on the wine list. We waited an extremely long time to get our food order placed even though there were only 2 tables in the whole restaurant. It was very obvious to us that the waitress did not like us after the dog incident - she was tentative to the only other table there and yet we hardly saw her. Such a pity as the pizza was good and the view lovely. Will certainly...

We booked here for my dad 70th birthday dinner. What an absolute disappointment. All I can say it the view is spectacular. The food was mid , the beef burger soggy, from what we presume the long wait before serving, the risotto was horrible, the one cocktail we send back as it was bitter but the absolute worst was the service. We are not locals but have been to quite a few places in Paarl with great service. The service here was extremely slow and our waitress was very bad. She had to be called every time we wanted something, told us at one stage to wait when we called her , had an attitude the whole night and when we complained at the end of the night she told us to lodge a complaint online. So a word of advice. Maybe drink a coffee here for the view but save your money and...