La Parada V&A Waterfront — Restaurant in Foreshore

La Parada is our favorite spot for our monthly dates. Myself and my husband went to visit La Parada Waterfront for the 1st time on 15 August 2021 and it's been our favorite spot for our monthly date ever since. We have been welcomed by Sanele for our very first date and always received only the best service. The service and the food was so great that we had to go back for more, we had the massive T-Bone Flambé, Sanele suggested it for us as we would be wowed and we were, whenever we do go to our favorite spot we are very well looked after. If Sanele cannot be our waiter he would always make sure that we are well looked after by the next waiter/waitress. We have had the opportunity to be served by your greatest, whether it's Veronia, MK, MB, Brian or Aiden. Then there's Jade, he would always check up on us to make sure we are still having a good time and ALWAYS go that extra mile for us. Jade and my husband will always have a chat about anything in general and that makes us feel so at home here. We recently met Jesse, who now also comes and says hello when he knows we are around. We love the current menu as I always felt like sushi was missing, and guess what? We can now have the BEST sushi at our favorite spot too. We always order the Deep fried Prawn Rolls as a starter. My husband totally loved the Beef Short Rib with Patatas. I enjoy the beef fillet with the House Salad. My husband also enjoys his Shisha and they make the best pipes, he says. Great service from Azola at all times. We have celebrated my husbands birthday with them and recently our 3rd wedding anniversary and having it all at La Parada, Waterfront made it all extra special. We are always treated like family, and that's the most beautiful experience.

This lengthy review is just a token of appreciation for your staff's great work ethics by always trying to serve all your clients with such a high standard and not being too uptight about it. We always feel give credit where it's due and this review has been long overdue coming from us.

Thank you La Parada V&A Waterfront for ALWAYS going the extra mile, for making us have the best experience from month to month with you guys. Thank you for your welcoming and warm hearts for us at all times. Thank you for making us apart of the La Parada Family. Here's to many more monthly dates, birthday celebrations, and wedding...

On 13 January my friends and I decided to celebrate our friends birthday, because La Parada was the birthday girl wanted to be.

Let’s start with the service, it was so poor..we were allocated Queen as our waiter. Our drinks took forever, and as for the hospitality, there was none or whatsoever. Funny enough, she was very hospitable withe 3 tables of people who arrived after us. They got their drinks first, their food first, and she constantly checked in with them whether they were still ok or not.

After moons of waiting, we got our food. The prawn pasta my friend and I ordered was so tasteless. We asked about the garlic, chillies and parmesan cheese, and were told they come at an additional cost. After waiting for the chillies and garlic, both were freshly chopped and dry without any olive oil as per normal presentation in the hospitality industry. When we asked Queen about it, she said “You can just add it yourselves because that’s what they were going to do in the kitchen”. We decided not to argue or ask any further questions because we were already annoyed with the pathetic service and no amount of the chunky garlic, chillies and S&P made it taste any better. My friend’s burger was also very dry. The food altogether was so horrible, but we finished because we were so hungry. We asked her about other options that we could possibly enjoy, wings….we could just see she was not going to be helpful because she could not even recommend anything for us to tried on the menu, she just told us how much the wings were, no explanation on how the wings are and what they come with. All she did was take our empty glasses without even asking if we wanted more of the drinks we were having or something different. We left for the restaurant opposite La Parada because the service just did not allow us to stay and spend more money at a place that made us feel as if they were giving us free food and drinks while we were...

La Parada is perfectly situated in the bustling tourist attraction of The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town Foreshore. I have visited this location many times when the restaurant was run by previous owners right back to the good old modern jazz days of The Green Dolphin.

I recently visited for a year-end business function and have to say that the food was very disappointing (well, the rib-eye steaks to be specific). A number of other patrons at my table (and I learned later many from other tables) also returned theirs. We ordered medium rare. The steaks were overdone and cold! The restaurant's solution: Warm up the cold over-done rib-eyes. We ended up with dry (but now warm) rib-eye's to consume with our now cold potato wedges and Rupert & Rothschild red wine, expensive whiskeys and cognacs.

Since food is what differentiates a restaurant from other venues you expect them to get that right. They didn't come close.

As a side note, patrons are prepared to pay a premium and allocate time to spend time with family, friends, colleagues, etc. For many companies it is once a year, for friends and family, it may be a fleeting visit by a loved one from abroad. The last thing you need when you entrust your experience into the hands of a restaurateur is for that moment to turn out to be a disappointment!

It just goes to show that it is not only the venue that contributes to an experience. Service, food, ambiance, value, etc. all play important roles. But of course, the quality of the food at higher priced restaurants is expected to play the greater role. Get that wrong, and you may get reviews like this one.

I guess that it is ironic that if someone took the time to prepare my meal that I took to write this review, this review may have been as positive as most of my...