Fishermans Cottage — Restaurant in Overstrand Local Municipality

We visited Fisherman’s Cottage before and had a great experience, and therefore I cannot fault them on the quality of the food or the nice atmosphere.

Unfortunately, our most recent visit, almost two years after our last, was less than satisfactory.

Our waiter took our order and my wife decided on the hake and chips, and I decided to order the snoek and patats.

Our waiter asked me if I wanted rice, chips or salad with my food, and I went with the rice.

In my understanding, I was made to believe that the rice, chips or salad was complimentary to my dish, but when the food arrived, my wife’s hake was served with rice (no chips), and mine came with the snoek and patats, no rice, but a salad.

So, I told him he got our order mixed up since my wife asked for chips with her hake and I rice with my snoek and patats.

So, he apologised and said he’ll take our food back and will return it soon as we ordered it.

The manager also came by and apologised, which we appreciated, but when our food arrived 10-minutes later, my wife’s hake and chips was served, but my snoek was served on a bed of rice, without the patats.

Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed and asked the waiter where the patats were.

He looked at me with a blank expression as if I took him by surprise, and proceeded to tell me that the rice was now served instead of the patats.

This was very confusing to me and I asked him why the patats were removed. He said the rice was extra and I had to pay for it on top of everything else.

At that point I got up and approached the manager, who told me he had them remove the patats, which made no sense as it is included in the meal as per the menu, and I never asked the waiter to remove it or replace it with rice.

He only apologised again and made no attempt to remedy the situation, or rectify the mistake the waiter made. He only said he’ll have a chat with the waiter, after which we decided it best to leave.

I cannot in all honesty recommend them after the terrible way we were treated. No paying customer should be treated with such disrespect. There are plenty of other quality restaurants nearby that I’f...

I have given this restaurant a 1*, not for food, service or ambiance, but because of one inexcusable feature: for the first time in many years we experienced a bill in which a gratuity had automatically been added (not the norm in SA), but to catch the unawary there was an additional line for the customer to add a further gratuity to the bill that already included a gratuity. The restaurant is aiming to trick the unwary into paying +10% +10%, or an extra 21% total, for service. This in a country where 10% is the norm. This service on service trick is a habit that has been stamped out almost everywhere and is, to my eyes anyway, verging on fraud.

When this was prevalent in the UK establishments always blamed the programming of their systems, an excuse also offered at the Fisherman's Cottage, but this is clearly within the establishment's control. I am thankful that we do not see this double tipping prevail elsewhere and I hope it stops at this restaurant (I live in Hermanus). My solution internationally was to default to sending the bill back and asking them to remove the included 10% and then paying no service rather than double, as a pushback, but our server was actually excellent, albeit not...

I'm sorry to do this, but hopefully the other reviews keep your star rating up there. Prices made for ppl earning Euros or Pounds. The starters are really well prepared and presented and tasted acceptable. Now...the mains...we orderd a seafood platter to share for R650. I really hope this was a once off, off night at this restuarant. The platter was totally tasteless. But the after taste of what my wife and myself think is old oil, lasts forever. Couldn't wait to brush my teeth. They must have changed the menu, because I did not see the food, shown in other reviews. Don't know why people are referred to this restaurant, our hotel did for us, I will not recommend it. The chefs (and I assume owner) friends sits at what looks like a bar area where he prepares the food. Let's call them drinking buddies to be kind. I really hope that whoever tries the place out, have a better experience and all the best to the owner. Felt bad posting this, but I'm bitterly dissapointed giving out over R1000 for 2 people and getting the quality of...