Cattle Baron Mossel Bay — Restaurant in George

Really poor, and actually really sad unfortunately! The mere fact that we had to pop into the Steers across the road after our visit, is just crazy!!

I was in two worlds - should I or shouldn't I review our recent Cattle Baron visit. In the past the food was really good.

Unfortunately, I must report that during our recent visit, the food was so poor that my wife and I, took a bite from our meat, and could not get ourselves to continue eating. I know it sounds really dramatic - I mean seriously, can it really be that bad. Well to be honest - this was really poor.

After my first bite, I could not understand what can be wrong with my fillet - seriously, it's not hard to get fillet to taste good. I know it's a bland cut of meat devoid of tasty marbled fat, but it's a safe bet, especially if sold under the "specialties" section. I tried to taste the Madagascar pepper corn sauce separately (thinking it may be the sauce), but after a few tries, I realized the sauce is basically tasteless.

The potato chips, though claimed to be house cut, was in my option, the pre-blanced, pre-cut chips from McCain - tasteless and floury inside (not creamy as a good potato chip should be). Back to the steak - all I can conclude at this point is that the grill they made the steak on is dirty, because the weird, foul taste, is far from the flame grilled umami taste expected.

My wife opted for the Chateaubriand, a specialty which Cattle Baron used to be renowned for, and which we enjoyed numerous times in the past. Considering the fact that it arrived with grill marks on the steak, we were perplexed - keep in mind that a Chateaubriand is prepared in the oven and then sliced before being flamed at the table, so it's not prepared on the grill. Furthermore, the Chateaubriand arrived "well done" (meat being white throughout the inside). A Chateaubriand is mostly prepared medium-rare, with medium being a pushing-your-luck-request (which my wife requested). If the chef is not sure when the meat is ready while preparing a Chateaubriand, get a meat thermometer and aim for 55°C, when flamed at the table, it should reach medium as per the customer's request!

At this point, I also Iooked at my steak, only to realize that appart from the terrible taste, the steak is also over cooked - I asked for medium-rare, and at this stage it was medium to well done (me saying "at this stage" due to the hot skillet explanation which I mention towards the end of the review).

The spinach we received tasted like playground grass, so I'm not sure what's up with that! The Béarnaise sauce that's usually the star of the show, tasted old and was clumpy .

Ok - enough said of our food - you get the picture!

I think the fact that the place was basically empty on a Saturday night, should have been the first indication that people gave up on Cattle Baron in Voorbaai. If you pay close to R250 per person for a steak, one would expect the kitchen to be on their A-game. This was not even their C-game.

The waiters were great, apologized, mentioned that the manager is out or something, and that the issues might be the black hot skillet plates we received the food on. We did not ask for skillet plates and usually if the skillets are really piping hot, the creamed spinach will sizzle and the pepper sauce will bubble on arrival, which was not the case. So I do not think the skillet can be blamed for the overcooked meat and meat that tasted bad, or sauces and vegetables that tasted bland.

My effort in spending all the time to write this review is in a honest hope that the establishment will look at the status quo of their offering, pull up their socks. Until such time, it's hard for me to pay over R500 for two steak dishes, which I had to serve the dogs, and to stop at Steers across the road in order to eat something (yeah - exactly, Steers Big King burger after a visit to Cattle Baron must make it clear how dire the food was!).

Let's hope for better luck next time (I will keep an eye on the reviews to make a call to go again in...

We visit Cattle Baron every year when I visit my parents, it's become a bit of a sentimental place for us. It always had a lovely warming atmosphere, play area for the kids, and for the smokers there was a "smoking bar". On our most recent visit tonight it was a very different place. I'll give that our waitress Monique was lovely and the steaks were delicious, it however will not be somewhere we rush back to quickly, or ever. The play area has now gone, making it fairly child unfriendly, this is a big thing when it's one of the main reasons you go there. The smoking area has also been done away with, leaving smokers to stand outside in the freezing weather with 1 ashtray between 4 tables. Not great for the older parental. There's not much atmosphere, and for a fairly large place, having only 3 waitresses/waitrons you seem to be sat all on top of each other. Although the steaks and kids ribs were lovely, silly shortcuts have been made like freezing the sour cream for the baked potatoes ( which are now 3 small new potatoes, I think boiled, instead of a lovely crispy baked potato) so when it defrosts it is half water half grainy white mulsh. The prices seem to have gone up but even more annoyingly there are items like certain craft beers still on the menu that they no longer serve as the draught machines were taken with in the sale (apparently a while ago so plenty time to have changed things) . All in all, if you're going to buy a restaurant and change everything that was good about it, or what it was known for, then rather change the name and start fresh to avoid...

Service great, Chef dreadful, Owner LEON VAN DE HEUDEN... APPAULING. First things first. All steak and nd ribs served cold in hotplate. When receiving back our meals, the steak was expectedly over cooked. Then sent it back again. Whilst waiting, the Assistant manager was sent out by the owner to say that we need to pay for the piece I tasted. This was the first time in any restaurant I've heard someone said this to me. After they messed up the food. I requested to speak to the owner. He comes with an attitude without apologizing saying, a medium steak should be sent out low to cold temperature. Secondly he just feel it is fair that we must pay for the 20 grams (100 grams according to him) that we ate from the same steak he probably heating in the microwave. His ARROGANT and no customer Etiquette, he says he doesnt care if we write a review. I truely hope someone else buys that place and make it the GEM it was before he took ownership 2 years ago. It is actually sad that workers suffer because of arrogant,...