Verdicchio Restaurant and Wine Cellar — Restaurant in Gauteng

I hosted my baby shower at Verdicchio Wine Bar, and I regret ever choosing this establishment for such a special occasion. From the moment my guests arrived to prepare, the experience was nothing short of frustrating and disrespectful. What was meant to be a joyful celebration was instead marred by hostility and poor treatment, led primarily by Chef Sawan, whose behaviour was not only inappropriate but outright disgraceful.

Chef Sawan’s actions were shocking — he was rude, confrontational, and unprofessional, with no regard for customer service or basic respect. He took it upon himself to approach and chase my guests out in a manner that was completely uncalled for. Not only did he bring up irrelevant information about losing business from 11am (which was not our problem), but he also made it a point to repeatedly remind us — paying customers — that we had to leave.

Our reservation was from 13:30 to 17:30. Mains were only served at 16:55 and dessert arrived at 17:45 — after the supposed end time. Yet, we were being rushed and harassed to leave even while packing up and settling the bill. At this point, no one was seated, the table was being cleared, and I was still being rudely interrupted by Sawan, who insisted we had been told "several times" to go. Why a chef was even in the front of house aggressively confronting guests is beyond comprehension. His tone was hostile, and his attitude completely unacceptable — almost as if he was doing us a favour by allowing us to be there.

As a Black woman and paying customer, I felt deeply disrespected and discriminated against. Sawan’s behaviour bordered on racist, and he made me feel unwelcome in a place I had paid in full for — including a fully paid set menu for 15 guests and a separate bar tab that was settled without issue. And yet, I was treated with contempt.

I want to be clear: Verdicchio Wine Bar ruined my baby shower. What should have been a beautiful memory was turned into a stressful, embarrassing ordeal. My guests were shocked and equally disappointed by the treatment we received, and none of us will be returning.

I would, however, like to commend the waitresses, Sinegugu, and the floor manager Dali, who handled us with grace and professionalism despite the chaos. They deserve recognition — but unfortunately, their efforts were completely overshadowed by the disgraceful conduct of Chef Sawan and the overall mishandling of our event.

Verdicchio should be ashamed of how this was handled. You lost the business of 15 guests and more — not just for today, but...

I had the most disappointing experience at this restaurant on the evening of 14 December 2019. Earlier on in the evening when I requested a wet wipe from our waiter I was given a long story of how he had a box which finished due to a hectic lunch crowd and that he would have to borrow from the neighbours!!! I was in shock at this statement and requested a finger bowl instead.

My friend and I thereafter ordered the seafood platter for 2 and at the time of us placing the order, I enquired what starches come with this meal. It was rice and veggies which we were happy with. When our food arrived, we noticed that there were no utensils for the 3 different bowls which the meal was served in. We waited a bit for our waiter to return to our table as we were also waiting for the correct amount of rice and veggies. We requested the utensils from him together with the rice and veggies as he never brought these to our table at which point he said that we would have to pay extra for the rice and veggies. At this time another one of my friend's meal (pasta) was brought to the table and she very quickly noticed that her meal was not fully cooked. At this stage I was highly annoyed and asked to speak to the manager who turned out to be very dismissive of all our queries which we raised with him. He didn’t charge us for the uncooked pasta meal and for 1 dessert which my friend had afterwards.

To make matters worse, the word quickly spread to the other waiters about our queries to which we had to endure uncomfortable stares for the rest of our time there. We also noticed another gentleman amongst the waiters who may have been some sort of management, who approached another table of guests to enquire if everything was fine with their meal but did not approach our table. He too continued to stare at us until we left. Due to the disgustingly horrid service we received at Verdicchio Restaurant, we will never visit this...

The whole experience was a complete disaster. I got the real deal promotion so that my wife and I could celebrate her birthday doing everything at Monte.

We arrived and the host was extremely friendly. The waiter didn’t even greet us, just said he knows we doing the promotion and what do we want in a rude and abrupt manner. We told him and he just left.

After a while we realized that he wasn’t going to ask us if we would like to have anything to drink. We asked for the drink’s menu and he just gave us the binder like we were inconveniencing him and like we were like peasants eating in the restaurant.

The food came before we could even order our drinks. My wife had the calamari which was “grilled”, it was tasteless and had zero colour on it, it was most likely boiled.

I ordered the sirloin steak(medium), the chips weren’t properly cooked and the steak had zero seasoning on it. I had to ask the waiter if they seasoned their steaks when cooking and sent it back. When it finally returned, they gave me the exact steak I sent back, presumably with seasoning but it was so over cooked it was inedible. So I asked to speak to the manager.

I presume the owner came to the table who was so rude and didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. It seemed like I was inconveniencing her as well, not that her manager was any better looking down on my wife and myself like we were a piece of gum under his shoe.

When my steak finally arrived back, it was like a steak I could cook at home, no love, sear or anything remarkable.

Thank you for ruining my wife’s birthday dinner and our evening. For a restaurant we were so excited to go to all week, this was utterly disappointing.

And for the owner, manager and waiter to treat a patron with such contempt and disrespect, I am...