A'la Turka — Restaurant in Gauteng

Gravely Disappointed. I phoned 2 weeks in advance to get a romantic dinner table booked for my husband and I. Upon arrival, everything seemed lovely, and we loved our appetizers. This night was very important to us both and we wanted to spend some quality time together. When a larger group of 10 people arrived, it was clear their needs were a priority, and our waiter stopped checking in on us and even forgot to place the order for our main meals. The evening took a terrible turn when loud music started playing and two belly dancers came dancing among the tables. Just when we thought their performance was over, they continued to come back. In the middle of this inappropriate performance, our meals were brought and we did not enjoy any of it, as we could not even hear each other, despite the fact that we are right next to one another. What was supposed to be a lovely, intimate, and romantic dinner turned into a nightclub. We both got very irriated and angry by this, and after their lengthy performances, they kept the music loud and began dancing with the customers, as if this was not a restaurant where people were trying to enjoy a meal with their loved ones. At the same time, we were not able to get the attention of our waiter. We were not pleased with how things turned out and asked them twice to bring our bill because we wanted to leave. Please tell me what restaurant charges you R100 per person for entertainment that you did not even ask for, and you were not even told about??! I am appalled by the experience we had and would not go back. Everyone to their own, but if my partner and I are choosing to have a special night together, neither of us want half naked people dancing around our table while we eat, where we cannot even speak to one another because the music has turned the entire restaurant into a club. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking to have a lovely and intimate date because the priorities of this restaurant are elsewhere. What a waste of a...

If I could give this place a -minus 0 I definitely would.

I have to tell you that I have been begging and pleading my partner for almost a year and a half to go there.

He ended up reserving a table for us. They had a friendly woman greeting us as we entered, we went upstairs and barely greeted by a gentleman showing us to our table.

The barman did not acknowledge me by looking up, I was right in front of him with a smile and said hello, he simply just ignored me.

We got to our table, in a very awkward place and small right up against the wall. We asked to be moved to another place, right opposite us, but the waiter claimed it was fully booked (which wasn't true)

We seeked advice regarding the menu, and went according to his recommendation. Our drinks came first, mine was warm with no ice at all, and my partner's was full of slush ice. The drink (mojito) was so strong and distasteful.

Food came! Everything and I mean absolutely everything! Tastes like the sea. It's just salt on anything and everything. Small cuts of meat, they seem to cut corners everywhere.

No quality food at all. All I had from the set Emperor's menu of R295 per person.

Was a 3cm long Dolmada ... Terrible. And a phyllo pastry stuffed with spinach and feta.

That's it!

We asked them to take everything away and bring us the fruit supposedly on menu. We go a quarter slice of pineapple to share, and papaya slice to share and a time price of watermelon each.

I was horrified.

We ask for the bill, I literally just wanted to run for the Hills. We have been charged for entertainment!!! R60 each.... Belly dancers were lovely, but I assumed it was part of the place, like an experience... And then they tell you what to pay your unfriendly waiter too.

A bill of R918 for two people just having a cocktail, and two slices of fruit, as well as a vine leaf and spinach spring roll.

Disgusting.

Wouldn't recommend this...

I visited A'la Turka many years ago, and it was awful (the waiter didn't show up for more than an hour and we ended up leaving hungry after the entertainment ended).

We ended up going again this year to celebrate a birthday party. Half the table never received menus despite the waiter coming to take our orders. I ended up Googling the menu so I could order food and drinks. You have to constantly walk around to find a waiter to place orders.

Then it's quite a long wait to receive food orders. Everyone else around the table received their food, and I had to watch them enjoy their meal while mine was brought after everyone had finished eating.

The entertainment was great, except that our table was so close to dancers and clientele that they danced on top of us, and bothered us while we were eating. The dancers were excellent and very entertaining, and our table enjoyed this part of the experience.

The food was okay. However, the haloumi salad is basically the typical lettuce-cucumber-tomato with fried haloumi blocks (something you'd expect from Panarottis) for R110, which is ridiculous. To top everything off, we ended up asking 3 times for the bill, which took some 20 min to finally arrive. It was a painful experience but far better than my last experience at A'la Turka. We eventually left one hour later than originally planned and had to miss the rest of our scheduled activities for the evening.

The food is a hit and miss, depending on what you order. The venue is good overall, albeit a bit convoluted in its design. The entertainment is excellent. The service is still bad and definitely juxtaposed to the rest of...