The Barn Restaurant — Restaurant in Gauteng

I held my sons 5th birthday party at The Barn restaurant on 21/06. I hosted 20 people, of which 8 were kids ranging between 4 and 6. When I arrived, I found that our table was set up in a shady, windy area. There was no available to introduce themselves to myself or my family. It was only 30 minutes later that the server, Aretha, approached me to find out if "anyone had assisted me as yet". In my party, we had 4 pensioners, that felt very cold due to the draft. A gentleman set up the patio heater, he mentioned that there was only 1 heater available per section. The heater in our section ran out of gas after 20 minutes: there was no alternative made available to us after our request, we were not offered to move to another table, neither was the gas replaced. My elderly parents and guests sat in the cold, draft for almost 4 hours. How does one hold a function in winter without adequate heating? In the entire 3 and half hours my party was there, the manager didn't approach me once. The server was truly pathetic. I approached her multiple times to request her to take drinks orders, as did my partner. Each time we approached Aretha she was at the bar area, congregating with the other servers, waiting or chatting, without any idea that customers were looking for her. Why were we not allocated 2 servers, do the management of the restaurant feel that one waitress can sufficiently cater for groups of more than 20 people? She cleared away plates once, without replacing cutlery or the plates or serviettes. She brought no sauces to the table, in spite of us ordering 12 large pizzas and 4 portions of chips. She only brought some chilli to the table after I requested her to do so. She did not approach me once in my time there to check if everything was ok.

At the time of cutting the birthday cake, she brought side plates with no cake forks, or knife to cut the cake. I waited almost 10 minutes after we had started serving the cake to bring cake forks. When hosting a function at any establishment, it is expected that the server will take drinks orders regularly. It did not happen with my party. The table was left uncleared of plates and glasses after we had eaten. In fact, my family started clearing the table at some point so we had space to set up the cake. For the R3206 bill, the R291 in service charges for the server was automatically included. This was outrageous for the lack of service received as service received didnt warrant a R291 tip for the server. Every parent and family member of our party noticed the poor service and commented. From this one exeperience 6 families came away with the distinct impression that The Barn Restaurant is unable to host large groups. I have been a patron of Irene Diary Farm for almost 20 years, however this was the first time I've experienced such poor, disorganized and inefficient service. I will not host another meal with them, when hosting a big group as the service at the restaurant was truly disappointing.

In addition, the menu has changed. The chicken pizza options have been removed. Many people in my party ate no red meat, however the chicken pizza on the menu contained biltong. This was rectified after leaving out the biltong and adding more chicken. There were no options on the menu for gluten/dairy intolerant. Why are no gluten free pizzas offered anymore?

I have come away feeling irritated, when the day should have been memorable and easy, both of which were not made possible due to the restaurant not being able to provide...

We had lunch at The Barn which had ups and downs.

The ups were that the food was very good, we had a burger and the pork belly. The pork belly was crispy but not too hard to cut or eat. The drinks were okay, not too overpowering but also not amazing. We were a bit disappointed with the lack of flavor and sweetness in the Oreo Milkshake.

Another up was that even though you eat close to the cows you don't necessarily smell the cows while you eat which is nice.

However, the downs were that there were so many flies around that while eating we spent more time swinging our arms around to chase flies away than actually eating. We also didn’t get the best table options, the restaurant was not full but our waitress was trying to keep us in one specific area and was hesitant for us to move which we can only assume was because it was less of a distance to walk for her and serve. It would have been nicer to sit a bit more away from the groups of people if you’re just dining for two so you can hear one another speaking.

My partner ordered the snails starter which was presented beautifully but there was so much sauce it overpowered the taste of the snails.

We also witnessed the waiters and waitresses getting very upset with other customers trying to get better seating, we noticed some eye rolls and frustration on their part which was not very professional.

Our waitress only began to smile toward the end of our service which we can only assume was for a potential tip.

All in all, this experience was a bit disappointing as we had heard how lovely this restaurant was but we think it was a...

Charmaine was a terrible waitress when we visited the restaurant on the 29th of January. Firstly, we ask for a jug of water with ice and lemon for the table, and she proceeds to bring us three glasses with just ice and water . After trying to get her attention, we ask her about the lemon, to which she proceeds to say, "Its finished." Which restaurant runs out of lemons? We wait for our food to arrive; she does not even bring wet wipes and proceeds to say again, "it's finished," so I don't know whether you guys do stock take at your restaurant, which I find very hard to believe because surely a place that overcharges for food should have lemon and a refresher towels?

Anyway, the food was average and not worth the price at all. I also then proceeded to keep an eye out to see if any of the other customers were being served their drinks with lemon, and lo and behold, they were! How crazy. We then asked ANOTHER waiter to bring us slices of lemon TWICE, which he did not get for us until my friend had to go up to the bar and ask.

The service was terrible, and the overall experience was unpleasant. I don't know how that restaurant is still running; it's beyond me. Perhaps you could use the money you charge for food to send your employees for...