Fireroom Zimbali — Restaurant in KwaDukuza Local Municipality

Terrible experience at this restaurant. Nothing was done right the entire night. Booking was made for 4 people. First we were taken to a table that looks like it was shoved in the corner, next to the bar and waiters will bump you every time they passed. We were then moved with no complaints. Side note - floor in the restaurant area was filthy, you could see it was not cleaned, although upstairs bar and entrance was clean. We had a 3 waiters (kept on changing) the entire night. The first waiter explains that she has a house gin but does not disclose the price. Be warned that we recieved a shock in the end for this as it cost R356 for two of these gin drinks. Complained to manager at the end, she goes out as if she is going to discount it (we did not ask for this because it is ethical we pay for it as it was consumed, even though price was not disclosed and we just wanted to leave this God forsaken place), but manager just comes back and says "this is above me I cannot do anything". I am pretty sure this is at managers level to deal with?

Then we order draught beers, and there is no beer on tap available although it is in the menu. Note also the menu online vs in store is different as the prices of the beers are doubled in the restaurant menu. Then we order CBC bottled beer from the menu, there is no stock of this as well. Ladies ordered sushi, there were no stock of certain ones as well. It was as if it was a guessing game until we get something right.

First waiter, the one that sold us the gin unethically, was efficient in getting initial sushi order and drinks to us. Then a second waiter came through because the first one went to another area, which I have never heard of happening before. This was mass confusion he did not know what he was doing. He started asking us about random items that we did not order. He was missing most of the night after that, and there was another assistant waiter assigned to us. When the food came through, calamari main meal was a mighty small portion, similar to a starter calamari portion in ocean basket. The steak was frozen steak, not fresh, as you could see the lines in between the meat. The starter nachos was just dressed up doritos, not proper nachos and cost R120 for about 10 pieces of chips.

The place has these trolleys they use to flame the items, but there is no space to move them around so they keep on bumping chairs. Manager kept on coming and asking us for complaints and compliments, but when we complained, nothing was done. First waiter was brought to the table by the manager and she admitted that she did not disclose the price of the R356 gin to us.

Staff is definitly untrained and kept on dropping cutlery on the floor. In conclusion, place tried to be fancy, but failed dismally. The only thing good about it was the sushi, and my bottled castle lite beer. I get better service and food at a spur or wimpy, for a quarter of the price. This is not for proper dining, not even for a good experience. Will not be back here and do not recommend. This place is for foreigners that want to get ripped of and instagrammers that want pictures of few seconds of food on fire. Would have given zero stars if I could. I included pictures below of the dorito nachos and the R178 per glass gin drink. And before you say "if you cant afford it, you are not the target market", I can most definitely afford it, but this does not meet my expectations for what I...

Deeply disappointed and quite frankly not impressed with the illegal false advertising. We made a reservation prior to arrival and were told there were only tables available outside. When we arrived they told us they had given all the tables outside to guests and we had to be seated inside. It took half an hour for us to even get a waitress to take our drinks order. We ordered the fillet steak that is specifically advertised as being flambéed at the table. Not only was it not flambéed at the table but when they did it in the distance the waitress screamed at us hey to get our attention as if we were in some market. Being an attorney from Johannesburg I find it highly unprofessional unethical and appalling that it is specifically advertised that the flambé is done at the table. Furthermore the steak was not cooked to order probably because a waitress prepared it and the mash was severely lumpy. The pepper sauce which is one of two sauces they have was like sludge and the texture was completely disgusting. Nevertheless I still paid my overpriced bill and tipped the waitress well because I am not a terrible person despite the fact that it was a terrible experience and restaurant. Rather wait till you go to Johannesburg to experience the fireroom Durban’s one should be called the joke room because that restaurant is a joke.

So not only did I have an awful experience but a lady phoned me to enquire and said she would be in contact regarding the poor service. She took down my details and I have never heard from her since. Bear in mind this was three weeks ago, had I treated a client in the same manner they would have terminated mandate. Not sure who she was but she deserves to be fired. Entire restaurant and management are pathetic . So grateful we have better firerooms in Johannesburg. Don’t waste your time and money in Durban it’s sad people are so useless...

We made a reservation online, we then phoned in to ensure that the reservation went through and there was appropriate seating available for us, a party of 5.

today we confirmed our reservation on the phone with the hostess when she contacted us only to get there and there was no table available for us to sit! We were told to wait while they were supposedly preparing our table. How can you make a table when this was a reservation, the table should have been made prior to us arriving, besides that when they showed us our table they brought some tables from outside and put it in the walkway for us to sit.

By the way we waited about 25mins after we arrived to get this make shift table when again we had a reservation. After this we asked to be moved inside the restaurant because we didn’t want to be seated in the way of people walking and yes they moved us. Her reason for making us sit on a make shift table was that they didn’t have enough menus to seat us on a proper table lol. The hostess was very rude she treated us as if we didn’t belong at that restaurant and we all felt very uncomfortable.

We then proceeded to order and after taking our order the waitress then comes back and says they don’t have stock of 2 of the drinks. We didn’t mind that but one of the family members ordered almond milk because they are lactose intolerant the waitress didn’t even inform us that they don’t have this and brought the cappuccino with normal milk, luckily he double checked and then after bringing it she said they don’t have almond milk.

Next we ordered and they didn’t have stock of chicken breasts. So we couldn’t have majority of the chicken items on the menu. What we did order they mixed up the orders but they did bring the correct items eventually. Staff and service is pathetic, food was okay, the sushi is the best thing about them. That atleast...