IL Giardino — Restaurant in George

We had the most dreadful and disappointing experience at IL Giardino on Wednesday 7/05/25 ! We were a table of 6, gathered to celebrate a family members birthday and enjoy a breakfast together! Not only was the service terribly slow but when the food did eventually arrive every plate of food was cold!! Awful trying to eat cold, rubbery egg, cold bacon etc. The plates were ice cold and even the toast was cold! We complained to the waitress who looked at us puzzled, shrugged her shoulders and didn't offer an apology or solution! Then one family member asked the waitress if she could heat the food in a microwave and was told there was only one microwave and it would be difficult to heat all our food! Unbelievable!! 4 of the 6 family members began to reluctantly eat their cold breakfast. I got up and took my plate to the kitchen and asked them to please heat my breakfast up along with the other person's (hers was in the microwave). On returning to the table the two of us waited and waited while the rest of the family politely ate (not wanting to cause a fuss) their awful unappetizing cold food. After considerable time we still hadn't received our 'warmed up in the microwave breakfast' eventually I got up and went to the kitchen to enquire what on earth had happened to our breakfast thinking they might have decided not to bother and decided we weren't going to eat!! We eventually got our food and were the only two out of a table of 6 had that had a warm breakfast because we insisted! Not one apology from the waitress, nor did anyone return to the table to clear the plates! The restaurant wasn't busy and so that can't be used as an excuse for such shocking service and ice cold food! We paid the bill, again not wanting to upset the person who's birthday it was! Absolutely unacceptable service and an awful...

Must say this was the first time I ever walked out of a restaurant hungry and thirsty.

We had a function Sunday 4th May at IL Giardino where we were more than 20 people. IL Giardino said that they will be able to accommodate our function with all you can eat pizza and enough waiters for proper service.

We got there, only one arrogant waiter to see to all the people, an hour wait for our drinks, not enough tables for all the people, we practically had to beg for enough umbrellas for the sun because we had to sit outside and not to mention the "all you can eat pizza" werent nearly enough for the people, some people only had one slice of pizza base with tomato sauce , where is the quality?

When we went to the till to pay for our two beers, no waiter, the arrogant waiter actually had the audacity to charge us a service fee on those beers, I ask you what service did we have to pay for???

In conclusion, if you want bad service with arrogant waiters, bad quality food, and false promises then IL Giardino is the place for you, otherwise there are many quality restaurants in George with better quality...

We have been very frequent and loyal customers of Il Giardino for more than 2 years. Based on our experience on 2 Jan however, I am truly sad to say that we won't visit again. The menu has changed for the worse (also, our favourite breakfast dish discarded :-( ), the size of portions have decreased, the prices have increased substantially (cold servings of panini with various dressings for around R100; pizza's, although delicious, also now just too pricey), the service was really super slow even though the place was not 30% full, and the garden frankly needs a lot of attention (weeds everywhere, the lawn not been mowed for quite some time). A place with lots of potential but seemingly needing a strong managing hand to revive it to former glory. Our rating based on past experience 4, on the most recent 2, average...