1855 Lynnwood — Restaurant in Gauteng

I would like to formally express my deep dissatisfaction and serious concerns regarding Johannes, the manager of 1855. During a recent visit to Pretoria, my lovely girlfriend and I chose to dine at your establishment, hoping to enjoy a peaceful breakfast. Unfortunately, what should have been a pleasant experience quickly turned into an appalling display of unprofessionalism and outright disrespect.

Among our order was a mixed berry smoothie, which turned out to be extremely underwhelming—bland, poorly made, and frankly unpleasant to drink. We immediately flagged down our waitress and politely informed her that the smoothie was not satisfactory and requested that it be returned to the kitchen.

Instead of resolving the issue gracefully, the waitress said she would fetch the manager. That’s when Johannes approached our table. From the moment he arrived, his attitude was nothing short of disgraceful. He was rude, dismissive, and hostile—not only to me, but to my girlfriend as well. Rather than listening and offering a solution, he chose to argue with us, insisting the smoothie was fine and showing absolutely no regard for the customer experience.

Despite our clear and respectful communication that the smoothie was not to our taste and that we were simply requesting it be removed, Johannes escalated the situation further. He stormed off to the kitchen, only to return with a cup of the yogurt used in the smoothie. Shockingly, he shoved it in our faces as if we were there to entertain him, expecting us to taste it like we were some kind of joke or spectacle. It was demeaning, humiliating, and completely unacceptable.

This experience left both me and my partner deeply upset. The arrogance, immaturity, and blatant disrespect displayed by Johannes were absolutely inexcusable. His behavior was not only unprofessional—it was disgraceful.

Let it be known: 1855 will never receive another cent of our money, not as patrons, not in any capacity. A manager who treats customers with such contempt has no place in a hospitality environment. I strongly urge that Johannes be held accountable and reprimanded for his inconsiderate and childish conduct. His actions have cost you two loyal customers and damaged your restaurant’s...

11.02.2018 What an absolute disappointment for breakfast. Friends and I decided to meet for breakfast just to catch up like normal people, as we are always together for some or other function, tweeting and Facebooking etc. We arrived quite early and the restaurant was till empty. As each one arrived we ordered coffees to get us going. They have a reasonable selection of food but most of us were drawn to the Salmon Eggs Benedict and one friend needed some more after Ultra the night before so he ordered the Jaffle (which brings so many memories for all of us)

After an extremely long wait and the whole restaurant being filled up, and all other patrons receiving their meals before us we asked what is going on. Only to find out that they ran out of the roosterbrood which they use, so by then only half the table received their food (cold) and some of us waited even longer.

Eventually we also got ours, but our next observation by everyone is the size of the food which is probably more like a kiddies portion for R85. The one piece of roosterbrood was probably the size of 2 of my fingers. The amount of Salmon on them was a few leftover scraping which is totally non acceptable. We were also asked how we wanted our poached eggs but we all just ended up with the same eggs.

We called the manager (Johannes) and explained our issue firstly that we were not informed that they had run out of ingredients for our order until we had inquired as to what was taking so long. And secondly the minute amount of Salmon that was given on an already small piece of bread. He dealt with it, and apologised for the inconvenience and immediately discounted the value we paid for the Salmon Benedict's. Communication is key, if you run out or have a problem inform your customers as it's easier to be understanding when something arises versus being left in the dark and getting annoyed. We could have ordered something else off the menu (with a bigger portion size) as we all left really hungry.

Thank you to Johannes for rectifying the situation, even though I would be...

The longer I was there, the worse things got. I went to the restaurant with mom on a public holiday. The restaurant was full but we still got a table. The service was okay initially but starting declining after we received our starters. Lerato, our waitress didn’t check on us. The starters were soooo good and mom and were happy. I had the chicken wings with chips and mom had tempura prawns. We ordered mains. By this time, the restaurant probably only had 8 tables, a lot of the customers had left. The mains took so long to prepare. Mom ordered a fillet and chips. We received our mains and mom enjoyed hers. My mains was the seafood platter that came with hake, calamari and prawns. I wished I had a salad and not chips again cause I already had chips during my starter. The calamari was overcooked and quite rubbery and tough to eat. Half way through the meal, I found a white hair in my food. The manager helped sort the problem out and asked to fix me another plate. The second plate of food was better, the calamari wasn’t as overcooked as the first, but the food took forever to get done. But overall, the food was good. We spent R680 including tip. I barely took a look at the bill. I could’ve been be charged for my second plate of food without knowing it. But knowing that we basically spent R700 for that experience is saddening. I’m not sure if I’d go back there, but the service wasnt up to par. The waitress was not appreciative of the tip she received, considering the poor service she gave. Also the waiters’ uniforms are discoloured and worn out. Also, I tried ordering the lasagne for mains, but they didn’t have any in store.

Money not well spent. There’s a lot mom and I could’ve done with the R680 we paid. It was a...