Cowfish Lynnwood — Restaurant in Gauteng

Extremely unpleasant experience. We attended a show a Atterbury Theatre last night and phoned yesterday morning at around 11h15 to make a reservation for 17h30. I was told by a lady they take no reservations "because customer book and then the table stays vacant for like 2 hours". Appalled by the fact that you simply make the assumption that all patrons wanting to make a booking are a no show? Perhaps consider taking reservations for up to 50% of your capacity and if a patron does not arrive within 15min of their reservation time, then opening up their table to other patrons.

So we arrive at 17h45. It came as no surprise...you were fully booked. so we waited patiently for 15min for a table to open up. But get this...a couple booking a table after us, gets to be seated before us? We were also just 2 people wanting a table. I immediately brought this under the attention of the front of house manager at which he brushed me off saying I must just wait a few minutes as a table will open up soon! I mean really??? So there is actually no purpose in giving up our names on the waiting list, as you simply pick a choose whoever you want in any order. We were 4 seperate couples on the waiting list.

So we were eventually seated at 18h20 and immediatly informed our waiter we had a show booked that starts at 19h00 so we want to order drinks and food at once. Drinks took 20min. Food took 45min. We literally had to stuff our food in 10min as to not be late. Sorry to say but the dimsum was overcooked, pork and prawn dimsum was dense and dry. Our double crunch sushi hardly had any tempura on, only a simple crunchy sprinkle that hardly resembled tempura.

Really not impressed! We will not be coming back to relive such a horrible service and food experience. Even our drinks were not cold and served warm.

The only positive was our...

I try to avoid using words like "amazing", "fantastic", "awesome" etc when writing reviews such as this one, but in the case of Cowfish all of the above apply, and more. Apart from a tiny glitch in the beginning when we waited a while to place a drinks order after being seated, the service was exceptional. Our waitress Pretty was attentive, knowledgeable and very friendly. For example, when my wife was debating which wine to order, Pretty offered to bring a sample of each for her to taste. Our food was delicious. My wife and daughter are sushi fans, and so a sushi starter was ordered. They said that it was the best they had tasted in Pretoria. On to mains...My rump steak was ordered medium rare and for once it was actually served medium rare. Not many restaurants get this right. The calamari that my wife and daughter ordered for their main course was tender and subtly but deliciously flavoured. When my wife asked the very friendly and attentive manager about the flavouring, he offered to give her a small tub of the oil used to prepare it to try at home. As I said, exceptional service. We ordered sweet spring rolls for dessert, an unusual but delicious end to the meal. The restaurant is located in the Lynnwood Bridge centre, and the design of a central walkway with several eateries around it provides a very cosmopolitan, café society look and feel with a lively, exciting vibe. I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough. Everything was "above and beyond". We will definitely...

This was our first time dining at Cowfish, and we are beyond impressed. There was an excellent variety to choose from on the menu, which is a necessity when you have multiple people with dietary restrictions; and when it came time to order, our requests to navigate our dietary needs were all accommodated without any hassle.

When the food came out, it was all wonderfully hot, and it was clear that the kitchen takes pride in their presentation. Each portion of meat was masterfully prepared to the exact specifications requested, and the Kingclip-Calamari combos were perfect. Everything was unbelievably delicious and we just couldn’t get enough of the lemon butter.

All of the waitstaff were excellent. From the moment we walked in, we were greeted with warm smiles, and despite the busy dinner rush, everyone remained very friendly. The service was brilliant - they were so attentive, it almost seemed they could read our minds when we were ready to order; and the moment we put our forks down, they were ready to clear our plates for us. We’re all impressed with the efficiency and professionalism displayed while dealing with a restaurant with almost no free tables.

A special thank you to Cathy for taking such wonderful care of us this evening, her hospitality was outstanding and we appreciated her...