Ocean Basket Beacon Bay — Restaurant in Eastern Cape

Our family doesn't eat out at night much anymore, but when a calamari craving appeared, it was time to visit Ocean Basket. Unfortunately this Beacon Bay branch hasn't just gone downhill, it has fallen off a cliff (see my previous 5-star review text which I have left at the bottom of this)!

We arrived to a very quiet restaurant with only 3 tables occupied (Saturday night, Springboks 2nd half still on so maybe that was partly to blame). We were promptly seated by a manageress and then our waiter took our drinks order, which arrived promptly and he then took our meal order. All fine, apart from a lack of atmosphere.

Our food was mostly delivered by the manageress. Every item which she brought, she would stand at the table in silence holding the metal pans containing the food. I would have to lift off my chair to peer in and then tell her where to put it down! Why not announce the meal so I could assist with the placement - she just stood in pause mode?! Kids calamari arrived without chips. We asked if it comes with chips - completely unsure and had to go check with the kitchen. Chips then appeared 60sec later. Oh, she announced a Platter for one - we never ordered that and it wasn't - it was a Calamari Trio which was correct. How does a senior employee not know the correct names of the meals in front of them?

MAJOR problem: We all had calamari meals. EVERY piece of calamari was ice cold. The grilled, the fried, the cajun - stone cold. Nobody checked up on us so we just ate it cold. The chips and Halloumi were hot.

When we had finished our food, a manager came over and asked if all was ok. I told him that all the calamari had been cold. He offered to make another serving which I politely declined.

If you get an entire table of 4's food wrong (read cold), then I put that down to gross incompetence in the kitchen (my wife said that she only saw 1 person in the kitchen - understaffed?). Ocean Basket is not cheap - it should be served right - leave the rookie mistakes for a drive-through spot to make.

Previous Review in the good days: Been there 3 times since they opened. 3 visits of great service, great food and relaxing decor. 3 way calamari platter is my absolute favourite...

Don't even deserve 1 star!

We live approximately 2 hours drive from East London and decided to have a nice meal before we headed back home. Unfortunately we decided on Ocean Basket Beacon Bay.

My family ordered sushi for starters and we ordered a main course each. We were told the sushi would be delayed as there were many sushi orders and we requested the main meals to be served as soon as they were ready. The sushi arrived about 40 minutes later. The main courses took more than an hour. My wife and son's order was wrong and my food was cold. I requested that the order be corrected and that my food be reheated. My food came back about 5 min later and my food was still cold. Not lukewarm, cold cold. I also requested that my wife and son's order be rectified and refill of drinks for the table, which never arrived.

After another 10 minutes of waiting I requested that the manager cancel our orders and requested a bill for the food we ate as well as take away boxes for the food. When the bill came, it too was in correct as we were charged for the food which was sent back/cancelled and the drinks refills that we didn't receive. I also had to request the take away boxes at least 3 times.

I felt the waitress was very unprofessional, calling me "lovey" in front of my wife and family.

During our time at the restaurant, another family that arrived shortly after us complained that they had to wait 45 minutes for their drinks orders. They promptly paid for their drinks and left. Another family left soon after, after not being attended to since being seated.

We left feeling upset and I drove the 2 hours home on an empty stomach.

I would not recommend this establishment for their...

I am on holiday in EL , having come from CT. Yesterday we went to Beacon Bay OB for lunch around 2.30pm. There were no other patrons except for another couple. The restaurant was dead.

Thinking that the service will be quicker, we were still made to wait at least 30 mins for our food. We also noticed that the kitchen staff and the females who were preparing the sushi had no hair nets on and neither were they using gloves to prepare the food. This is basic hygiene at any restaurant. We brought this to the Manager's attention, and his reply was that when preparing sushi, gloves are not necessary. However, this put us off from ordering the sushi, but shortly afterwards we noticed t he staff had donned the hair nets and wore gloves. The kingklip dish that we ordered was not even covered in the crunchy Panko crumbs as indicated on the menu. The rice was very stodgy, almost porridge like. The chips were so few ( I counted 7 only in my pan) and was drowning in the sauce. It was not crispy at all. Everyone had less chips. We ordered the tzatziki and endamame fritters, both were not available. The waitress seemed to lack training, confused as we had to repeat both the drinks and food order at least twice. The only dish that was worth enjoying was the crunchy fish bites. I must say that the quality standards of the OB branches in CT is definitely much higher. We definitely will not be returning to...