Fishaways Lorraine Gardens Centre — Restaurant in Eastern Cape

The Fishaways brand is dead to me! Dear Fishways, some months back now, we had food delivered from Fishaways Lorraine, Gqeberha. What incredible packaging, but the food however was an absolute failure!

The chips were flowery and cold. Absolutely tasteless, dry and hard to swallow.

The fish was nothing special in flavour but was rendered inedible due to the oil it was swimming in. Though warm, the calamari was also dripping in oil.

So the meal was such rubbish, that it sat in the fridge, uneaten, to give away to someone less fortunate. Way over R300 literally down the drain.

To the owner; we just don't know how your franchise is still in business, with the lack of standard of the food you offer.

To serve that quality of food and receive payment for it is tantamount to fraud. By your and your staffs defensive nature I can only assume that this wasn’t a once off mistake.

I took this up with Fishaways customer service. They let the franchise know about the situation. I received a call from the manager who said that it’s not their problem its Mr.D’s problem and Mr.D must sort it out. I explained and re-explained that Mr.D had nothing to do with the oil on the food and the cold dry chips. She continuously blamed Mr.D despite me saying that the fish was warm, the chips cold and Mr.D had actually arrived early. She stated it’s in their service agreement with Mr.D, that Mr.D handles all complaints and that I have to complain through Mr.D.

MR.D sent me an apology and a R50 voucher. Of course I would never use the voucher as that is just bullying tactics of Fishaways, why should Mr.D suffer for what was very obviously sub-standard food from Fishaways.

I gave the establishment plenty of time to put this right. This went back and forth until months later the owner of the Fishaways Lorraine franchise called me. And then he turned things personal.

He was rude abrupt and condescending on the phone. He also had the audacity to blame the delivery people for the inedibly oily food. He claimed that he watched a video of the food being prepared. I’m not sure how he can ascertain the oil soaked fish from video footage. His words were “We cannot take responsibility for our food once it leaves our premises!”

You Mr Fishaways owner, don't define your brand. Your customers do! The Fishaways website clearly states that their food is the healthier choice, it also mentions crispy batter???

Fishaways belongs to Famous Brands, whose statement reads: Grow capability and capacity to deliver unique customer experiences in the branded franchised and food services space. Well I must say the experience was indeed unique.

Swallowing your pride occasionally will never give you indigestion, Mr.

Initially simple apology from the owner for this blunder, would have been nice, but he and his staff did the cowardly blame game, instead of taking ownership of what was their problem

A powerful way to make food outlet shine is to focus on customer service, clearly not in this case with this establishment, as you can see the trend through the owner and staff to apportion the blame to an absolutely innocent party.

It’s about as shoddy an operation in separating people from inexcusable amounts of their cash as I have seen in a very long time.

It is, all things considered, the worst food outlet in the world, every order should be served with a barf bag.

Fishaways Lorraine is an insult to our city. Don't eat there!

PS. And it's true. Customer reviews have become so important to people that now 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. And 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That's a lot!

Truly disappointing

Bruno Herselman

Port...

I am incredibly dissapointed in the FishAways located in Lorraine. I had 2 vouchers (1 of which I revieved as an apology from a different FishAways) but was unable to claim either. I placed an order via phone call and upon arriving and wishing to claim both vouchers, the manager did not allow me to. He stated that I was only able to claim a voucher while the food was being rung up. This annoyed me because I was never told this, nor have I seen it presented anywhere. I ended up having to pay full price for the food, where I had specifically travelled further to purchase from them and use my vouchers and was unable to. I am also in the restuarant industry and know that my restuarant chain allows for vouchers to be claimed at anytime before paying. So this "rule" sounds extremely idiotic and should have been told to me when I recieved my...

Quite disappointed in what I got vs what I paid.

R280 later for 2 medium hake and chips, a small grilled hake (just the hake), and a small portion of "squiggly pops" I received my food that was mediocre at best (stock standard hake and chips that you can get at any other fish shop).

The hake and chips were 2 small pieces of hake with toddler's handful of chips at R90 each.

The R55 squiggly pops were so overcooked and drenched in oil that it was border line inedible.

The only thing that I was happy with (got what I ordered), was the small piece of grilled hake that I paid R45 for.

I have had much better for much cheaper elsewhere. Won't...