Grub & Vine — Restaurant in undefined

There was unfortunately a comedy of errors at this restaurant. The first noticeable thing is that 4 of the white wines we wanted to order weren’t available. The suggested substitutes were all warm at room temperature and not chilled. At this point we should have got up and left. How is it possible for a fine dinning venue to not be able to serve chilled wine.

The service although friendly is incredibly chaotic and interruptive. Apart from your main waiter there are several other runners and random staff that all have a need to talk to you and establish a relationship with you while you are trying to have a nice evening with your partner. It is simply not possible to have a conversation when you are constantly interrupted. A simple pretentious attempt of being fancy backfiring.

We both had the menu of the day/dejour. Which sounded promising, at around 695 rand inclusive of 3 courses and one canapé. Each course and several canapés had additional expensive charges which subsequently were very disappointing and unjustifiable in terms of price point compared to any number of other establishments in the Cape Town CBD.

I have never been served non fresh oysters which have been irrigated to such an extent with tap water that all taste of the ocean has been completely removed. Covered in lack lustred fridge dried pineapple. Poor execution and combination. Would have been infinitely better to be served straight from the delivery team and chucked yourself at the table fresh. Then old and tasteless. Charged at an additional 145 rand. An absolute disgrace and should be removed from the menu.

Asparagus with goat cheese and walnuts. The goat cheese and walnuts, Which are both not made at the restaurant, were a delicious combination, but the bulk of the meal was composed of asparagus which was grilled and then cooked until it was soft as a wet noodle. Having any crunch and texture completed replaced.

Kingklip. Supposed to be a flakey delicacy which dissolves in your mouth with each bite…As to how it was cooked until it was rock hard….I have never seen this before anywhere. Also didn’t help to salt it to a point where a resurrection was taking place.

Scallops…250 rand extra. I think the additional price was paid in an attempt to find the smallest scallops in the world. Or perhaps it was because they were cooked until all the fluid in them had evaporated and the scallops had shrunk and were so rubbery that a knife had trouble cutting through them. How is it possible to take such a delicious item which is supposed to melt in your mouth with each bite and to cook it until it can be used as a rubber stamp. On that note, the chairs slide all over the floor and you constantly slide away from the table. Perhaps the left over scallops should be used on the bottom of the chairs.

Lamb…salted to a point were it could be preserved until next winter. The jus was burnt and ruined the dish as everything was swimming in it. The size of the lamb…perhaps it was the extra salt that had made it shrivel in size, but so small that the sweet bread was larger. A disgrace in portion size.

Thank goodness we ordered the roast potatoes to fill up….unfortunately we didn’t get past one. Never in my life have I ever had such a terrible roast potatoes dish. I can only imagine it must of been reheated from the day before. Roast potatoes…also at an additional cost.

Bread and butter….also at an additional cost. Looked great and the mousy butter was nice, but the bread was stale and dry.

One positive.

Crayfish crumpet was excellent. If only we knew, we would have ordered 3 each and nothing else.

It was nice of the management to comp the drinks and the cost of the additional extras. However, I’d far prefer to pay the full amount for a decent meal and a nice night out. We eat out 2-3 times a week and this was terrible. I was looking for the cameras to check if I was not on a comedy show.

Unavailable wine, over cooked and salty food. This place needs a serious wake up call or it...

We first wanted to go and check out the promoted music band at the culture wine room, but as we arrived we had to notice a DJane played. Well ok... We got a few drinks but then already noted that what you order is NOT what you get. But we are flexible... A CBC Amber weiss was ordered but some stuggy stone or so lager did come... can happen.... But please at least tell us at least when you serve it that we do get something different: but I had to say: this does not look nor taste like a cloudy CBC amber weiss... Anyhow, I am flexible.... Then we wanted to eat something and we were told, they have different options regarding the rooms upstairs and finally ended up in a nice ambient room, where they offer single dishes from grub & vine - as they all belong together. Perfect: that is what we looked for. The menu was not huge, but it sounded interesting. Prices were higher, but ok: lets experience it! Drinks: similar story and now even also with the selected white wine: The waiter came, I think he said like the "house wine", with an open bottle and poured it into the glass: glass being like not even quarter full, but with the last drip of the bottle: he turned around and walked away: so NO question if we would taste it first (especially as he poured it on the table) or like: let me get a new bottle: we even had to say and ask: this glass/drink is not appropriately full! That was already an argument. Anyhow - we ordered mains. As they arrived all looked really good but TINY tiny portions!!! It rather looked like a starter of a tasting menu. I had Carpaccio as per the picture. Again, it looked nice.. But then even the taste: if was completely overloaded with everything, I could not even taste the meat! And it was very salty. We mentioned that to the waiter but basically no reaction. But I had to eat something so I finished it like with 3 bites kind of. Oh we also ordered additional bread: wow: these looked like 2 rolls from checkers with a piece of butter. And they tasted like that as well. BUT ALL this now for really 5-star prices - even the rolls was charged for! But ok: we just wanted the bill but NOW the tip of the iceberg was reached: for us 3 they automatically added 12,5% tip on the bottom line. We called the waiter because of our bad experience - and we did not want to make a big story of it - we asked him to defintily take that tip off. So he said: he cant do so, but we would need to call the manager. hahahaha - off we go, now we talk: get the manager and then the verbal drama started. We discussed now all our bad experience, he listened: but he did not really care either. But he says he would try to take off the 12,5% which took AGES!! Discussions then continued on the staircase on our way out.... What a story.... To sum it up: save your money and time and just try to avoid this group of different rooms on 103 Bree street that belong to Grub & Vine to avoid disappointment unless you like the experience to not know what you get and being tiny and not tasty but for high prices... Pity. Ambience again was nice room...

Dear chef  I had the worst restaurant experience on Christmas Eve Dîner. I had booked on 18 November with the idea of spending a cosy moment with a good meal at the end of the world with my husband... we are French and live in Abidjan. We had been told in advance that it would be a 6-course menu with or without paired wines and agreed for this.

We were seated at our table at 21:20 for a 21:00 reservation.

A waiter explained that he would be looking after us for the evening and asked if there were any food allergies or incompatibilities (so yes: no meat or raw fish).

My husband chose the "national" paired menu and I opted for a glass of French champagne.

We never saw this waiter at our table again!

At 22:00 the canapés arrived... with the first wine problem at this point, we had to go over it three times to explain that we wanted French champagne and not local and that we would be paying in addition to the menu: 2 different waiters served 2 flutes of South African champagne before saying that they hadn't understood our request and ending up serving us the French champagne 10 minutes after our plates had been finished!

And the rest of the meal was just as incompetent ... 4 or 5 waitresses or waiters followed one another, not passing the word on food intolerances: I had an oyster, then a carpaccio ... and to finish at 23:00 a fillet of duck so rare that I couldn't swallow it.

As for my husband, the glass of wine that went with his dish was poured either 10 minutes before the dish arrived or after he'd eaten it.

In short, we ended up fleeing without waiting for dessert, following in the footsteps of our neighbours, a young couple, who were extremely disappointed and asked for the bill and the possibility of taking the dessert away in a doggy bag... to no avail.

We were seated in a mini dining room with no atmosphere whatsoever, with lousy service at one table right in the midst of the ballet of waiters... there were only 2 tables of two and one table for ten people in all, and we had to wait until 11:00 pm for the second course to be served to us.

It was the worst experience of my life: despite our various comments, no one came to our table to understand what was happening. The couple next to us were also disappointed and disillusioned. And we still spent the modest sum of 3.690,40 Rands!! Not to mention the 12% tip that was automatically charged without asking our opinion and the manageress only "really sorry for you"!

What a nightmare evening! We were so disappointed.

I had to...