Moka Social Club — Restaurant in Gauteng

Enforced KFC meal after a shocking dinner tonight at Meat on Milner in Pretoria:

The line fish was a tiny, thin cut and cold; the mussel starter was tasty but cold and the "blue" steak was inedibly way overdone to "well", whilst the potato chips smelt/tasted of fish.

In the patently obvious absence of a manager, a senior waitor was left to advise in response to my complaining, that the restaurant's food was usually very good, and that, whilst they were going to close at 18h00, on that evening, due to the power failiure in their building, they did not do so to avoid disappointing their diners.

We should, in fairness to all, have turned on our heels when we discovered the establishment in darkness, with the chefs using candles and their mobile phones to navigate in the kitchen, but regrettably did not do so upon the assurance by our waitress of business being as usual.

The net result: A most disappointing spoilt occasion; a redone steak to take away, (which we did not want) ; a bill paid in full at the insistence of the establishment; and an enforced stop at KFC to get something to eat.

Just not good enough to have our occasion ruined in this manner.

Sent from...

I recently had dinner here, the manager/owner (not sure what his role is) came around to ask how everything was. I asked him to please ask our server to put a face mask on as he was only wearing a face shield, which is completely ineffective, especially when the server is standing over you and breathing straight down on you. The manager/owner launched into this long explanation about how the government hadn't been clear on their mask mandate and recommendations kept changing and he thought it was fine and wasn't going to ask the server to wear a face mask. Regardless of the fact that his technical explanation was completely ridiculous, the fact that he was unwilling to take extra precautions to make his restaurant patrons safer, mandated by the government or not, made my experience uncomfortable and I will not be returning anytime soon.

It's a shame because our server was excellent and the food was delicious, but the management's response in the middle of a pandemic to wearing a mask was completely...

I'm in two minds.... food was good, although my steak was a bit overdone. My daughter's pizza was excellent and my wife's line fish was really good. The zucchini fries (side order) are exceptional and worth trying. The menu is small but quite comprehensive, and prices are reasonable. The bar is well stocked with everything from old brown sherry to Glenlivet 15 year old single malt Scotch. Service was a bit disappointing but none the less acceptable. Atmospere is almost non existent. Bland lighting, no "vibe" and nothing special about the decor. Location is convenient, off a realively quiet street in the old east if Pretoria. Street parking is plentiful and obviously free. The reason for my two minds is that there was nothing exceptional about this establishment, nothing that shouts, "Hurry back!" It's good but not great, and although I won't never go back, I won't make any special effort to do so. Management needs to up their game to lift this establishment above its very plentiful...