île de païn - lunch & breakfast restaurant & artisan bakery — Restaurant in George

By “vegan” they mean altering one salad off the menu, perhaps 2 at best to accommodate your dietary needs. My husband and I recently took a trip to knysna, île de païn came HIGHLY recommended to us from friends and the Internet! Trip advisor pretty much sold it for us both. The menu sporting things for both he and I. On arrival, we were greeted by the hostess who took our names down for a waiting list. “This place is booming, so it’s got to be great” Excited (and starving) we persevered and braved the wait. FINALLY our name was called. We were led by a waitron through a beautiful, fun, vibrant setting, to our very cool little table out in a courtyard. Sitting down and opening the menu, I don’t see the word vegan, I don’t see the leafy symbol, I wave down the waitron and ask her if it’s possible to make the focaccia that clearly states “with Parmesan shavings” WITHOUT Parmesan shavings. To which she replied “NO” confused I then said, “alright, could you show me what my vegan options are”? To which she pointed out a salad on the menu and said “I can make this vegan for you” That’s it? That’s my option? That’s my only option? “Yes” I then thanked her stood up and walked out, along with my hangry husband. I walked up to the hostess standing outside and said to her “advertising that you do vegan is untruthful and dishonest” ANY restaurant can make a vegan salad. Anyway, my complaint is this. The service wasn’t bad. The food is obviously amazing. But as for vegan eaters. Unless you’re okay with having a salad altered to your needs, this is not the...

I have been to île de païn more than once and the food and the staff there are always exceptional. The interior of the restaurant is very cosy despite the high ceilings. The bread is fantastic and the food hits the spot with tasty, home-made comfort classics like oxtail. The wait staff and host/greeter are so friendly and helpful.

What I could have done without, though, was the condescending attitude of what I assume is the new owner, as she was walking through the restaurant chatting to patrons and going in and out of the kitchen, but was not in uniform. When my partner asked for tomato sauce for his chips, she coldly replied "No, we don't serve food with chemicals." While I am fully behind the sentiment of home-made-from-scratch, it does not discount the fact that that is NO way to speak to people who pay money to eat at your establishment. It's not like he specifically asked for All Gold or Heinz - how are we supposed to know you don't have a homemade version? We don't live in your town, or in your head. She could have easily said "We don't offer tomato sauce with our chips, but we can offer you some of our home-made relish instead." (Which she eventually did offer us, sulkily I might add, and it was delicious.)

Side note: most people would expect something saucy with their chips, whether that's mayo, aioli, relish, tomato sauce. It's not the most outlandish request in the world and there is no need to shame your customers for asking, either.

Staff and food -...

We visited ile de pain on the 17th December 2022. My wife Nicole has looked up nice places to eat and being the foodies and coffee-holics that we are we decided to sample the cuisine.

Upon arriving we had a 20min wait which made us more excited to visit as it seemed popular...however when we finally got a table the experience slowly declined.

Positives: Beautiful decor and layout. Lovey vibe reminding us a little of the quaint coffee shops in London. Americano was nice.

Negatives: Almond Croissants were out of stock as were most of the popular items. So we ordered chocolate ones expecting light flaky warm croissants only to receive cold leathery ones.

Service was very poor. We had to constantly ask other waitresses for service as ours had disappeared. When we requested the 2nd round of croissants to be heated the waitress rolled her eyes shook her head and took the croissants to be warmed.

To be honest if it wasn't for the nice looking place I would have given a 1 star just based on service and the food.

Based on our experience today I would recommend just having coffee but nothing else.

Service: 1/10 Food quality: 4/10 Decor:...