Mugg & Bean — Restaurant in Foreshore

Wow, haven't had such terrible service in years. When we arrived at the establishment, we were greeted and seated- all good and well, no complaints. After a while a waitress dropped off some menus, she didn't greet/didn't introduce herself.. she said absolutely nothing. Just kinda plopped the menus in an abrupt fashion on the table, and off she went. My husband and I were both startled, but soon brushed it off saying that she's probably helping out the our actual waiter who might be busy, etc. But no, we discovered that she was in fact our waiter when she came back and simply stated "What do you want?" (That's how she took our order.) Anyway, we gave the drinks and food orders. The food took really long to arrive. I looked around to call her, because I had finished my drink and wanted to order another one. When she came to the table, she simply took my order and didn't bother to ask or even look at my husband to see if he wanted something too. (Which he did.) When the food arrived, mine was cold. I'm not a fussy person, you can simply pop my food in the microwave and send it back to me and I will be happy. I tried to get the attention of the waiters in the area, two ignored me while another attended to our table. (Our waiter never even returned to the table to ask how our food was.) By the time my food came back from the microwave in the kitchen, my husband had already completed his full meal- that's how long the whole process took. After a while sitting with empty plates, the waitress came back to clear the table. I asked her to please come back in a minutes time as we just decided that we will order a slice of cake- but wanted to check the cake display to see which one we would take. She came back 15mins later. During that time I had already asked someone else to take the order. Another 10mins later she came back with the slice of cake. Again, displaying a completely uninterested and unpleasant attitude.

It was such a bad way to start our day, especially since it was my Birthday! The waitress was slow, unfriendly and either didn't want to be there or didn't want us to be there. Such utterly poor service and would not recommend...

If there was an option for rewarding a restaurant with zero stars , this Mugg and bean would definitely be on my list . We went there this morning right after they opened and the service was already disappointing from the start . Our waiter was cocky and he kept getting so annoyed while my aunt tried placing her order . Once we received our hot beverages, my mom noticed that her hot milk was sour before she even poured it into her coffee but that wasn't even the worst part . We ordered 2 fruit bowls and a Mugg and Bean "on the go" breakfast . My mom ordered 2 hashbrowns and my aunt only ordered one with her meal . Once the waiter brought our food ; we could see that we fruit was already a day or two old , there were kiwi pips in the bowl but no kiwis were present and the kitchen staff decided to place all 3 hashbrowns in 1 plate for both my mom and aunt . The waiter brought it under the attention of the manager and she had the audacity to tell my mom that everything was fresh . My mom who owns her own business and has been a qualified chef for over 30 years now (she's retired now ) who has experience and knows what she's talking about . This is not the first time - the previous time they tried to serve us cake that had been in the restaurant since the Sunday already and we were there on a Wednesday. This is truly unacceptable! We only came there because every other restaurant was still closed at the time and we still gave them the benefit of the doubt but once again they have disappointed us . If you aren't used to eating 5 star food then you wouldn't find a fault with any of the food that...

I have been a great fan of the Mugg and Bean franchise for about 12 years, and still am. However after a brunch session at this particular one, all I can say to the senior management is, get down there asap and sort the place out. And my advice to anyone who normally likes M&B restaurants is: 'don't go anywhere near it!' Rather leave it to the foreign tourists who probably tell themselves 'oh that's just Africa', which in a way I suppose is correct, but doesn't do anything for Cape Town's or South Africa's reputation.

My main gripes? Having to wait over half an hour just for a muffin, bacon and eggs and an awful Eggs Benedict in a one-third full (if that) restaurant, with an overseas visitor who certainly wasn't very impressed. The franchisees should maybe spend a little more money training up a few extra chefs, rather than employing way too many waitrons who stand around chatting, waiting for the food to appear. Like us.

25/8/23 Responding to the Owner's response:

Sorry, but there's no way I'm going to 'share my details' with you! If you really think you're "working hard to ensure amazing customer service and excellent food" then you're totally delusional, especially if having read other people's earlier one-star reviews, you give them the same old baloney in reply, and then do absolutely nothing to improve your service, as judged by our own experience. There's absolutely no point in me contacting you to get the same nonsense, both figuratively and physically, as boiler plate bulldust just...