Silver Orange Bistro — Restaurant in Madibeng Local Municipality

I heard a lot about Silver Orange Bistro and probably built up an elevated level of expectation. They may however be a victim of their own success.

We arrived at19h40 on Valentines day. Jonathan our waiter brought bread rolls after about 5min, advising he will come back to take our orders. The rolls came with a flavored butter which was good. The decor is quaint, with seating looking very crowded. Jonathan returned 10min later to take our orders.

We were not in a hurry, so all good. However he was unable to place our starter order unless we were ready to order the mains and dessert at the same time. Apparantly that's the resturants requirement, to order your starter, main and dessert once and at the outset so they can get your mains out quickly. We were not in a hurry so I advised Jonathan that we're ok to wait and to go ahead and place our starter order in anycase because we had not looked at the mains as yet. I also advised that dessert is usually a "how we feel at the time" for us, so we can only order that later. I assumed the same is the case with everyone.

But for Silver Orange Bistro unfortunately, they need you to know up front what your starter is, your main will be and your dessert, all at once. Something to do with the chef needing 1 ticket to speed the order up. Jonathan left and returned 10min later with another waiter called Pearson, who explained to us the resturant rules about placing 1 order. He went on for about 5min as to how this is in our best interest and how they are really worried about taking long with our main. Incredulously, they wasted 20min waiting because they needed our entire order end to end in order to start! Pearson stood there and went on and on about how they are trying to help us by serving us and trying to make a plan for us which confused me terribly.

Peason had also offered to call the chef himself down to explain to me why this process is required. I had to ask Pearson to stop talking for just 2min so my wife and I could discuss our mains. He left and we rushed to decide on our dishes. We were however ignored for the next 15min with both those waiters coming past but not checking on us.

Frustrated, we decided to pay for the water we ordered and leave.Team Silver Orange, please take note that it was not fun to be rushed like that. We felt under pressure and struggled to agree on our choices while the waiter stood there waiting for all 3 courses. We have never walked out of a resturant before, but if you're giving Mc Donald style processes, then I would rather go somewhere that makes me feel more comfortable. Dinner for us is supposed to be enjoyable and a place to unwind...not to get more stressed.

Any case, not a resturant for me. Yes, we did bring it to the managers attention who said he's sorry. The manager was brought to us when we asked for the owner. The manager seemed nice but unable to do anything about...

I so badly was hoping for an experience worthy of 5 stars. Booked a table to celebrate a birthday after reading all the great reviews.

Pros: Complimentary glass of bubbles for the women in our reservation (was women’s day) We got a lovely table in a corner with a bench and windows allowing us to enjoy the views of the greenery outside I ordered the seabass which I’d give a 4/5 - the parsley sauce was the star of the show and complemented the dish well. I hear the pork belly starter was tasty Got a complimentary scoop of ice cream for the birthday person

Cons: Sadly the 3 lamb shanks on the table weren’t too great - they were ok to be fair but one was expecting more, flavour wise. Just seemed like a simple meat cooked in wine but no other complexity in terms of flavours and I’ve tasted much better lamb shanks so a 3/5 on that. They didn’t have the salmon they’ve listed on their website which was disappointing - please update your online menus. Inconsistent mixing of drinks - so maybe rather stick to the wines and juices if you’re looking for well made mixed drinks for every round. Had to get up from my table twice to get assistance - the waiters disappeared for too long and despite us being there for 3 hours, they actually never came to check even once if everything was to our satisfaction or if we needed anything else. They cleared up the tables ok but just didn’t have that additional touch of good hosting and making sure we’re not in need of anything.

Definitely hoped for more at R400 per person for food and drinks (we didn’t order alcohol). Couldn’t even have their expensive dessert (R105 for a slice of cheesecake) cause I was nervous about being disappointed - some of the best cheesecakes I’ve had cost much less.

I think it’s worth a visit shem. But with my often high standards, I sadly won’t be a...

We had lunch a few months back.. 10/10 on that occasion. Couldn’t stop telling everyone how great our experience was. Lunch today was quite the opposite.. barely 3/10 and regrettably forgettable. Service was slow, took a while to get drinks order in. Food presentation was lacking in imagination. Pear Salad tasted great.. Chicken Livers were served with stale bread.. Marrow Fillet was underwhelming and I had to return my Ribeye ordered medium rare, was served pretty rare. It was returned after quite some time, my partner had already finished his fillet. Ribeye was now cooked medium - but tender and tasty. The Jack Daniels sauce lacked flavour and probably Jack Daniels. No one checked on whether I was happy with my returned meal. Dessert was hit and miss.. Cheesecake tasted like it was a week old - dry, tasteless and not sure where the Lemon Curd was. Crème Brulee was not exceptional.. strange to serve it in a small bowl instead of ramekin. Poor waitron struggled to serve the Cuppacinos, she couldn’t manage to pick them up from her tray to serve.. she took the cups from the saucers, we then took the saucers from her tray and placed them down and she put the Cuppiccinos back on the saucers. There was a gentleman that visited our table, but his enquiry was barely done and he had already turned away, no real interest in our actual experience.. he did remove the Cheescake from our bill - again no real apology or concern about the actual dessert. Attention to detail was sorely missing.. and if I may comment : we felt like being put through the mill.. Silver Orange Bistro simply going through the motions not hearing us, your customer.. Considering todays experience.. I will be hesitant to suggest anyone make the effort to travel from Jhb to visit, was not worth the effort.. I certainly...