PARADISO — Restaurant in Gauteng

Having recently seen the eclectic and intruiging decor of this newcomer at Montecasino, I was keen to give it a try, and see if the whole experience was on a level with its engaging appearance. I read online about the coffee and cake special, and my partner and I decided to give it a whirl. There began a catalogue of disaster. Approaching the lady on the front desk, I asked if the coffee and cake special was available today. She replied, "Yes, until 5pm". It was 4.45pm, so I said we would like a table for 2, and we would like a slice of carrot cake and a slice of chocolate cake. I asked if we could have tea instead of coffee, but she said, "No, the special is for coffee only." Fair enough. So: one decaf and one ordinary cappuccino, 2 slices of cake. Simple enough, right? Apparently not. The coffee arrived after about 15 minutes... I could hear the lady arguing with the barista and two other staff members but couldn't understand the argument, but it was a bit uncomfortable to be sitting in a big, empty restaurant 3m from a bunch of staff arguing over our order. There were about 10 waiting staff slouching around with no-one to serve, which I always find disquieting. Anyway, once the coffee arrived, I then noticed that they haven't even started cutting the cake yet. I got up, went across to the counter and asked them to please hurry with the cake before the coffee was cold. The three of them looked non-plussed, and started to process of taking the cakes out of the fridge, and laboriously measuring and cutting slices, which arrived on the table 10 minutes or so later. By which stage the coffee was tepid. The carrot cake was pleasant, the chocolate totally dry. We ate what we could and asked for the bill... then the farce started in earnest. It turns out that the special I asked about was not actually available on a Monday. Only over the weekend. I asked to speak to the manager. He came out of the kitchens and didn't even make eye contact with us. Just argued with the 3 staff members behind the counter. After much heated discussion (3m away from us), the lady who was on the front desk came over with a bill for R234, and an instruction that we should pay R130, and she would have to pay the balance since it was her fault that we were told the special was available. I again asked for the manager, but he never arrived. Of course I paid the full amount because I didn't want the poor waitress to cough up over R100, even though she had got the information wrong. I did not however, leave a tip! We just paid R234 for coffee that we didn't want (remember I wanted tea, but they said we couldn't have it with the special), which was cold by the time they brought the dry cake to the table! As we were leaving, the manager on his cell phone outside the restaurant gave us a thumbs up, as if he had solved everything. Very poor service and an obvious lack of good management. A big thumbs down,...

I'll be short and sweet. What a beautiful place to look at. The decor and effort that has been put into that restaurant is amazing and that's what made me so sad to write and rate them so poorly. We were so excited to have lunch with my friends from the USA today as we passed the place a few times and said we would love to experience it. Well what a dissaster and dissapointment. We chose one of the signature dishes as we enjoy the red wine choux sauce and the potatoes cooked in lamb fat. That's sold me on the dish, as it sounded like a proper tasty Sunday accompaniment to the meat. We added prawn aswell so this main dish cost us just on 500 for the dish, which is fine if we got what we ordered.

So when the food arrived we asked that waiter where is the red wine choux sause and he said it's on the beetroot. I studied cordon Bleu cooking many years ago so he was definitely lying to me so we said please go get is some sauce. He dissapeared and I then had to get up 10min later to see if we getting this sauce as the dish is now dry and getting cold, so he said they busy making it. So it arrives and is a light creamy colour and I tast it and it did not have a drop of wine , nor was it red. We tried the meat and we all ordered medium, it was dry and medium to well. When we called the manager about it all he said the headoffice was closed and the chef could not make the sauce. Also he mentioned if we want a medium fillet we should order it medium rare. I mean have you ever. He left and came back with some BBQ sauce. As I was now choking the dish down I notice again there were no potatoes cooked in lamb fat but mearly a normal chip. So I called him again and he said sorry,yes,they don't have that available today either. So, on 1 plate of their Signature dishes they don't have 3 things. All he said his sorry and the chef was not there and the headodfice was closed and the waiter should have told us but they still changed us the 500 a plate. I am shocked and embarrassed infront of my friends. So much money and time was spend on decor but the food was a let down and way below average and they will never see us again and it breaks my heart as it's truely a wonderful and unique...

Repost with a lower rating as I reviewed this restaurant one month ago. I received a message asking for my details so my concerns can be addressed- but I never received a call from anyone! Clearly they are not interested in resolving unhappy customers issues! Repost of my previous review; Our first visit to Paradiso was great but there were ssues as well. We ordered the fire California rolls and it was left on the table by the chef and he was gone. I then had to find out waiter and enquire about why the sushi was not on fire. He then took forever to come back to us to flame it. It was tasty, but as this was our starter order, I was not happy with this, but I let it go. We then ordered mains and I wanted the lamb shank. I was told that there is no 'stock's lamb as it was finished yesterday. I was there on a Saturday night and you have no lamb? How is it that this restaurant has been open for many weeks and could not account for what patrons are ordering? If it was a Sunday, I would have understood, but for a busy Saturday night? No way. I was not happy and he apologised and then I had to select another option. My fish was great and so were our the other meals. The lamb skewers were just 2 skewers and with a tiny salad. This was more of a starter portion and not at all a full meal for anyone! It should have been at least 3 or 4 skewers and came with mash/chips. It was delicious but too small! We left after dinner and sat at the cafe' part of the restaurant for desserts. It was a good special with coffee and cake. The red velvet cake and the chocolate cake were too sweet and the sponge was dry. A moist cake receipe for both would be extremely beneficial for this lovely special. The atmosphere, music and ambience was absolutely amazing. I hope that my suggestions help to make Paradiso an even better place for families and...