Oppiplaas — Restaurant in Gauteng

On Sunday, 20 July 2024, I took a guest to Oppiplaas for lunch - we were excited at the prospect of a genuinely "Boere" Sunday lunch, accompanied by Boere hospitality. On entering the establishment, we were greeted by a row of chairs, upon which several of the waitrons had seated themselves, awaiting their next customer. This in itself should have been a warning to me of what was to follow. Those seated (about 5) were not sitting upright, but splayed over the stools, clearly tired and disinterested. This was early, at 12:00. As the saying goes, first impressions are the lasting impressions.

What a let down the rest of our visit turned out to be. Firstly, the only real Boere item on the menu was Kaaings and pap, which is not considered a meal, but rather a snack and way too rich for a meal. As much as the memory of kaaings as a child and the very fond memories brought to mind, we were thinking more along the lines of a proper Sunday roast, "rys, vleis, artappels en groente." On one of your advertised menus I had noted that you serve roast pork belly - another favourite memory from our childhood. To our disappointment none of the traditional Sunday fare was offered and the menu read the same as the next steak house/hamburger joint. Nothing out of the ordinary or very "Boer" about it. Putting aside our disappointment at the unwelcome welcome, we opted for beef schnitzels with cheese sauce. This proved to be an absolute disaster. The schnitzel was tougher than tough and the steak knife could barely cut through the meat. The meat itself was totally devoid of any flavour and as for the cheese sauce, well it looked as unappetising as it was - just a thick, old white sauce, barely coloured cream just to give the impression of a cheese sauce. Unfortunately, the unappetising meal and apathetic welcome left us cold and I, for one, will not recommend your establishment to anyone. You may serve the best cocktails and drinks - this may well be your claim to fame - but there is nothing "Oppiplaas" about your...

Something has changed at Oppiplaas...

Tried our favourite restaurant a second time this week. Second disappointment..

Service has become non-existant.

Today we were a table of six celebrating a birthday.

What a letdown.

We were there just after 11h00 but told we could only order breakfast and lunch only after 12h00....

The pizzas were on special but the wood for the oven arrived late so the oven was still cold at 12h00.

The Young inexperienced manager blamed the waitress for not informing us of the situation...

He was nowhere to be found. I eventually found him sitting smoking with a friend in the boma over lunchtime..

Pizzas arrived after the others had finished their steaks. After the table of 6 next to us (who arrived after us) were already served there food.

Our pizzas were baked a second time in the gas oven so was so hard and dried out I managed two slices and left the rest at the resto.

Then it was explained to me (30 years a chef) why there was nothing wrong with it. Why I should take it home with me...

The hake was sent back and left uneaten because the flour (no batter) wasn't cooked through. Still white and smelling like wet fish.

Again the fryers weren't hot enough. Again we were spoken down to "as ons hierdie vis nog langer in die fryer los weet ek nie mevrou".....

The presence of a capable manager and motivated staff is sorely lacking

After a year of eating there 5 times a month, we...

I always have been raving a lot about the good price and good quality food at this place, but yesterday my hopes where dashed, first when we ordered The cow and cow with most delightful glaze, the waiter came back there is no Biltong, so we asked just replace with bacon maybe. Nope can't be done, so we order with no biltong x 2 and order the other option flatbread and then it's was also short items. The communication between chef and waiter where not up to par. Went it came it looked like a flat pizza, overpowered with feta and cheese not the same what we had in December. It was so disappointing. We where so looking forward to that. The onion rings were divine with that sauce and the big Ben burger was made superb. I just wish it was not such a long time that the waiter took to attend to our table, I'm not going to name and shame but that was not up to par. The little kitchen lady that was collecting the dishes was so much more friendly and so helpful, she really went out of her way even though it wasn't her allocated work. I don't know if I would recommend your place again, I know it was a bad experience but for what we pay you would except not to get so slow comebacks from the kitchen, where was the manager on site to explain the situation of shortage of products. We all know about shortages, just offer a alternative, the waiter was not very...