PONTO's — Restaurant in KwaZulu-Natal

Disappointing Experience – Needs Serious Attention to Service and Bias We visited Ponto with high expectations, and while the venue itself is beautiful and the food (once it arrived) was great, the service we received left us deeply disappointed and uncomfortable. From the moment we arrived, we felt ignored. We had to go ask for menus ourselves, no one checked on us, and we waited nearly two hours for our food, with no apology, no updates, and no questions about how we preferred our meat cooked. What stood out most was the stark difference in how we were treated compared to other patrons of a different race, who received attentive, prompt service. This disparity was hard to ignore and left us questioning whether unconscious bias or racism was at play. What’s even more concerning is the inconsistent and defensive responses to negative reviews by people of colour. While other patrons receive professional and empathetic responses, complaints from people of colour seem to be met with dismissiveness or even legal threats, citing SAPS investigations and calling them fake reviews. This response pattern speaks volumes and only reinforces the feeling of being unheard and unwelcome. A restaurant that prides itself on quality service must also reflect that in its treatment of all customers, regardless of race. Perhaps it’s time for management to consider asking SAPS to investigate something more serious: the ongoing issue of racial bias in how guests are treated (as if we don't have enough crimes in SA).

We hope Ponto takes this feedback seriously and makes meaningful changes, because no one should leave a restaurant feeling...

Ok here goes Part 2 , the Owner of pontos made contact and explained her deepest apologies for the bad experience and without making it an excuse, her heartfelt disappointment with our bad experience, she really wanted to make it right.

I'm not normally an over reactive person, but omg ..... CHALK AND CHEESE moments from the starters to the main meal , chef Shan is a passionate, talented, and overall amazing chef , and it all showed in her food.

When she or her manager are there (they were not there Saturday night ), every single detail of your experience is top notch.

Starter mussels 10/10 Creamy , lemony, buttery, and perfectly seasoned sauce drowned the plump, fresh tasting mussels , lick the bowl worthy 😋

Peri peri chicken 9/10 Omg, so tasty compared to first experience, every crevice of that moist chicken was covered in their sticky , spicey peri peri sauce.

Prawns 10/10 I'm normally a peri peri fan when it comes to my prawns, but god damn chef Shan has me craving that lemon butter sauce of hers.

Final words Given the opportunity to push out their best from Pontos , they tick all the boxes with amazing service, outstanding food , and exquisite in-house sauces created by chef Shan herself. Thank you chef Shan, for allowing us to truly experience your passion of food and you now have a customer for life. I'm going to be tasting the...

My first visit to Pontos was, sadly, a terrible experience.Despite there being only 2 families there, my family and I waited for 1 and a half hours inorder to get our food. The delay seemed to be due to miscommunication between the waitress and the manager! Which made things more frustrating. We ordered a combo meal from the menu and was brought out a complete different order then what we ordered!!!. The prawns had a weird plastic and chemical taste, which was terrible!!!!..We spoke to our waitress and she said "oh shame i will let them know".When the food was brought out it was cold, however waiting for 1 and a half hours we was extremely hungry and had to eat it.Our waitress Pretty, never checked in on us during that waiting time, advising why there's a delay.Pretty, was pretty slow in getting us a good service and food!!! The waitress was unsure throughout the process. On a positive note the view of the restaurant was amazing.However the service was poor enough and I would not consider visiting again.Do...