Kream Restaurant Mall of Africa — Restaurant in Gauteng

I didn't want to post this online, so I wrote an email to admin@kream.co.za. It was opened, but I didn't receive a response, so here goes...

We booked a table for our anniversary dinner. I chose to phone in the booking instead of booking online so that I could ask for a quiet table away from the rest of the guests. The lady I spoke with said that she'll see what she can do. To me, this means it's done (Kream has done this for us before).

Not so, unfortunately. They gave us a table right in the middle of the restaurant. We wanted a quiet table so that we could celebrate our anniversary away from the noise, and because we both have sensory sensitivities. I didn't ask for a quiet table to be difficult, there was a good reason for it.

So, when they seated us, I reminded them that I'd asked for a quiet table. A lady came to speak to us and she told us that I must remember that she said she'll see what she could do, and she had other guests that took preference (not her exact words, but she pointed out the important guests so that's what she meant), so she wouldn't move us. She was defensive and I didn't like that. I run a business and you don't become defensive when a client queries something, especially because I asked nicely, I wasn't rude.

The food was excellent, as always. But it wasn't a nice experience overall. The music was loud, the vibe has changed at Kream. I understand that, but would have appreciated a heads up. If you couldn't accommodate my request for a quiet table, you should have told me on the phone so that we could go elsewhere. Instead, she made me believe it would be sorted and I feel like it was a really unpleasant anniversary dinner.

It was also a huge mission to get the bill paid. The waiter took our photo and he wanted to print it for our anniversary. I appreciate that, but all we wanted to do was to get out of there and he took forever. We had to keep asking people for the bill and then it took even longer for them to bring the card machine.

Kream is not a fast food restaurant, but the service last night made me feel like we'd paid R50 for our meal and that's not how it's supposed to be.

One last thing - when I went to the bathroom, one of the hostesses was admiring herself in the full length mirror and taking selfies. I waited but she took so long, I couldn't even check that my dress was ok, I just left. That's really not professional.

I'm sorry to say that we won't be returning to Kream. I remember a wonderful anniversary dinner we had there a few years ago, they made us feel very special. Last night felt like we...

Everyone always raves about Kream but I was sadly disappointed last night, and that on our anniversary. The decor is lovely and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. They had a good wine list, however they could do with adding more wine by the glass to the list. The food was average. For a place that is compared to the likes of DW Eleven in Dunkeld - it really isn't. From starter to dessert, the food was unbalanced. I had scallops for starters, they were quite small and there items on the plate which I couldn't understand why they were there. You could add parma ham to the dish, which I did assuming it would be mentioned for a reason right? The parma ham overpowered everything else on the plate. Steak for main, steak being recommended previously. Taking into account I don't really eat red meat anymore so only order it on special occasions. The meat lacked salt severely, although cooked to perfection. The sides had too much salt. Also, the staff had removed the wine list from table without asking whether we wanted anything else, and after three attempts of ordering the wine, I got it more than halfway through my main. I was impressed that wine was properly chilled for a red so plus points there. Dessert, once again very unbalanced with a lot of items on the plate questioned. I'm not sure whether the honeycomb was supposed to be that butter, but the bitterness overpowered everything else. The food came out quickly, almost too quickly. Will I be back, sure. Am I disappointed, very much so. I'm glad other people loved the food, I really didn't. As mentioned earlier in the review, nothing tasted balanced. I will go compare this restaurant to the Brooklyn...

I’ve heard great things about Kream so finally got a chance to try them out. Unfortunately I found the food quite underwhelming. It feels like they are trying very hard to be a fine dining restaurant but have missed the mark.

Service was very slow, and the manager who explained our specials didn’t seem to quite know what he was talking about (forgetting the specials and having to constantly look at his notes, explaining to us what a radish is, not knowing what certain dishes actually were).

The food however was the biggest let down. We ordered:

• Scallops - completely bland, chewy scallops and an overly-sweet sweetcorn purée. There was also hard peanut brittle in between which added nothing to the dish and was just overly chewy. For over R200 this starter was definitely not worth the money, and the presentation was also quite messy.

• Smoked Pork Belly - the pork tasted like cheap gammon… very little flavour other than salty. The fat wasn’t rendered nicely and was just soft and chewy. The butternut purée was fine but it just mostly tasted like peanut butter. The mustard sauce was quite nice.

• Oxtail - this dish was the best of the bunch. The oxtail was cooked really well and was tender and had a nice flavour. But this was more of a homely dish and something you would find at a pub, not a restaurant that’s trying to be more upmarket. Even presentation-wise it was just a mound of food in the plate.

Overall a very average experience with a high price tag. It’s such a pity because their other restaurant Mad Nomad was excellent, so I was...