Flames — Restaurant in Gauteng

A Disappointing Birthday experience and a waste of time & money

Flames Restaurant, with its picturesque setting and premium pricing, promises an exceptional dining experience. However, for the third time in five years, I left feeling disrespected and deeply disappointed. Despite assuming my previous visits may have been isolated incidents, this experience confirmed a troubling pattern of poor service and disregard for Black patrons.

On what should have been a special celebration—my birthday—I encountered glaring service failures that began the moment we were seated. The waitress assigned to our table seemed indifferent and inattentive. She neglected to provide my sister’s 6-month-old baby with a proper chair and then brought the wrong one, showing little regard for basic hospitality. Bread service, which is standard at Flames, was skipped entirely until we pointed it out to another staff member.

Her attitude was equally frustrating. When I ordered a bottle of wine (the menu clearly lists bottle pricing only), she questioned my choice as if I wasn’t capable of making such a decision. This wasn’t just a misunderstanding—it was dismissive and condescending. Her frequent absences left us waiting far too long at multiple points in the evening.

Thankfully, Neo, who served the wine, and Boitumelo, who stepped in later, demonstrated what good service should look like. Neo was professional, attentive, and kind, while Boitumelo worked to salvage an already disappointing experience. But the fact that it took intervention from others speaks volumes about the lack of training or accountability in the service team.

Outside the restaurant, the issues continued. With a baby in tow, we needed assistance getting to the parking lot. Daniel Moagi, the manager on duty, informed us the shuttle would take 3-4 minutes but failed to offer any practical help. His dismissive attitude and refusal to engage meaningfully underscored the poor treatment we experienced throughout the evening.

The food was equally inconsistent. The pasta was excellent, but the burger was overwhelmingly salty, and the cheesecake was stale with a soggy crust—unacceptable for a restaurant of this reputation and price point.

This wasn’t my first disappointing experience at Flames. Each visit over the past five years has left me questioning whether Black patrons are truly valued here. The contrast in how staff treat Black versus white patrons is glaring and deeply troubling. Flames seems to thrive on its reputation and the patronage of white tourists, while offering subpar service and disdainful attitudes to Black guests.

For those who value respect and equality, Flames is not worth your time or money. My birthday celebration, a day meant to be joyous and memorable, was tarnished by their lack of care and...

My partner booked the Jacaranda high tea experience for my birthday. Upon arriving, we were greeted by the waitress who was quite unsure of herself, had no service etiquette. We were seated but was disappointed with the table as my boyfriend asked for a table with the view. The manager came to explain that they do not reserve the tables as it's difficult to explained to guests that tables are reserved...even if there are reserved signs on the table. Later we saw reserved signs all along the bottom area with couches so not sure if he was just lying about it. Then we waited for a while before the experience was explained to us. My partner woke up to go and get our waitress, when asking her about the experience she was so vague and bland in her explaination. Then she said she would get someone else to explain. She went to the hostess and after much caucasing the hostess made her way to the table to explain that the chef will bring out the trays of sweets and pastries. She said she would go check on our 'welcome bubbles' which we should have received when we got there but that took forever to come as well. The chef came through and delivered our cake stand with all the beautiful purple coloured cakes and sweets a d explained each one which was very nice. We then chose to rather wait for a table at the front with the view before indulging. Our waitress never attended to us with the teas that was promised and my partner had to wake up again to go and ask for the teas. For a high tea, you should not be waking up ask for service for tea. The manager then said he would assign another waitress to our table. The next waitress took orders for our first round of tea, this is and hour into the high tea already, maybe more. Then the first waitress came back to serve us for the rest of the time ...explaining that they did not have the teas that I wanted. Then she had to knock off and handed us over to someone else. Both managers that we spoke to never came back to our table to ask if we were fine, neither did the hostess knowing that we were having a hard time. Overall this place is just for aesthetics and not for great service nor skilled people who know...

Our experience of the service at Flames was rather disappointing. We arrived on time and were seated by the maître d', and given menus. 15 minutes later we were still waiting for our waiter to come and introduce themselves, and take our wine order. We eventually called a waiter who was milling around with evidently little to do, and he called our waiter over. This was our experience for the rest of the evening - we were ignored most of the time, and had to call our waiter over if we needed anything. We topped up our wine glasses ourselves, we had to call our waiter to get a dessert menu long after we finished our main meal, and again to place the dessert order. To be clear, this was not a busy night, and waiters were often just standing around - they were not extremely busy, they were simply inattentive.

When we arrived we also mentioned to the maître d' that this was our 20th wedding anniversary, having spent our wedding night at the Westcliff. She was suitably delighted, but that's the last we heard of it for the evening - there was no mention from the waiter, and no attempt to make the evening special in any way. That was really disappointing. To add insult to injury, 20 minutes after we were sat down by the maître d' I received a call from her on my mobile reminding us that we had a reservation and asking if we were still planning on joining them. I had to point out that we were already sitting at the restaurant, to her great astonishment.

The food itself was lovely, but not fantastic, considering the prices charged. We've had better cuisine at more affordable prices at other establishments. The location and view is of course unbeatable, which is why we booked there in the first place.

So overall a disappointing evening, and I don't expect to be coming back anytime soon.

EDIT: the director of food & beverages at the Four Seasons hotel contacted me to apologise for the experience and offer my wife and me a voucher for brunch - so kudos for following up. I will update the review further once we've had a chance to take him up...