Turn ʼn Tender Steakhouse — Restaurant in Mbombela

When Turn n Tender opened years ago they set the bar high but that has changed. Fancy prices for mediocre steak. We ordered: 2 steaks, calamari and lamb potjie. Calamari was enjoyed. Lamb potjie gravy didn't have the depth of flavour to justify the price. (IMHO was unnaturally dark, a slightly synthetic taste) Steaks were both very disappointing! One was tough. The other was tender but had virtually no fat. It was supposed to have fat for flavour. Later, after much thought ,I got the impression that my steak had been rinsed. There was no Mailard reaction from the grilling, leaving it virtually bland. Steak should not need an expensive sauce to give it flavour! On the upside the waiter gave good service. The vegetables were tasty but cold...

I visited Turn n Tender September 2018 and I was completely blown away by the staff and how well trained they were. I visited in 2019 February and I was soarly disappointed. I made a reservation, I had to wait for 20minutes before getting my drink (a simple double whiskey and tonic).. When it finally arrived, it was a single and I didn't have tonic. It took them ten minutes to correct that. My wife's drink was incomplete(didn't have berries). It took a bit of debating with the manager for them to offer her an alternative, partially because the waitress who was serving us was very tipsy so they couldn't verify the order. I can really go on the whole day about the horrible service we got this time around. The food on the other...

The service was great. Our waiter was very friendly and attentive, our food also arrived rather quickly. The steak special is nothing special in my opinion, there wasn’t enough basting. I ordered a medium rare but received a very rare(however this could just be one of those restaurants where medium rare is more rare than at others). The chips could’ve used a little more spice. Their bacon and cheese burger was incredibly delicious though, very juicy and flavourful. The Ribeye was also good, very soft, juicy and nice basting. The atmosphere is in between formal and casual. Not a very noteworthy vibe. Their prices are average for a restaurant of this calibre coming to about R130 pp...