Cargo Hold Restaurant — Restaurant in Point

Not one to slander a place but when I get treated in a rude manner by a "top notch" establishment especially one that serves overseas guests, it gets my blood boiling.

Arrived in Durban for a holiday with my fiance on Thursday night. I tried calling the cargo hold day in and day out from 12pm everyday on all three of their numbers they give, to make a booking as we thought this was the place to eat and get the full Durban experience.

Eventually Sunday afternoon around 3pm someone decided to answer. Now I get it places can be busy. But so busy that you can't answer, at least 20 calls a day on three different numbers, especially when your website says book in advance.

So after explaining to them we have been trying to get hold of them for 3 days now, we ask the person who answered if we may book for the evening and they reply very rudely that "we don't do a sunday dinner service". I then explain to them not a problem can we please book for 4pm. And once again I get a very annoyed rude reply back "we are closed". Trying not to annoy the person on the other side of the phone call any further I mention to them as a general bit of knowledge for them to correct so that other people don't get confused that their web site is then wrong and says they close at 5pm. And that their google business account says they close 3pm and reopen for night service at 6pm. So they might want to change it. I then get a very annoyed rude and I'm done with you toned reply "that's because we are not busy so we are closed".

I was not arguing. I was just mentioning that maybe they should change their website and google business accounts hours to rectify confusion of other patrons.

If you don't answer your phone calls stick to your hours you are going to be quite. We were really looking forward to enjoying this once in a life time experience but after being treated like this I won't even set foot...

I am not one to usually give a really bad review but unfortunately feel I have to. Only plus is the uniqueness of the venue. As for service I actually give them a zero. I emailed them on the 23rd January for a copy of the menu (since it is not on their website) as well as availability for the 26th as it was my 50th Birthday. As of yet I have received nothing....I ended up ringing them and making a booking for 6 people. Last night was disappointing though....the menu is very limited.. the 2 steak dishes were overcooked had an odd flavor basting/sauce on it. My prawns were tough and over cooked and the accompanying rice was dry and flavourless. The puddings were just as bad and limited. There were about 4 pudding options... chocolate pudding, lemongrass ice cream, an apple creme brulee dish and seasonal fruit. Definitely no wow factor. So we ordered 2 chocolate volcanic, 3 apple dishes, and one ice-cream with chocolate sauce. The 3 people eating the chocolate volcanic and the ice cream said they were really not enjoying their meals and it seemed bitter. On investigation we found that balsamic vinegar had been drizzled all over them instead of chocolate sauce. When we showed the waitress she went to the kitchen and said the 2 bottles looked the same and it was their error. No major apology, no manager or chef came to apologize. Needless to say they did bring us 3 new desserts and they were enjoyable when the right sauce was put on them. Due to such a bad error on their side I really feel the manager/chef should go to the customer and apologize and at least one of those replacement puddings could be given for free or they could have given us a free drink...anything to "sweeten" the experience. So yeah... won't go back......

This rating really should be a 4-star rating because the food was good and the ambience with the marine life swimming right next to our table was amazing. But the pre-dining service and the waiter's service was way below par. We booked ahead of schedule via email and received a very prompt response for our 17h00 booking. Now being from out of town, we called ahead to find out where to park and which entrance to use. We were also running slightly late as we were driving from Ballito and got caught in a rainstorm. Firstly, it took three times before they picked up their phone. And when they did, they proceeded to tell us they were closing at 18h00. Now their website advises that they close at 19h30 and we raised this, only to be told that their website had not been updated. It was only upon our insistence that they agreed to "accommodate" us. When we arrived we received a very cold reception as the restaurant was almost empty and it seemed that the staff had wanted to close early. We were unfazed because we had booked and based our booking on information on their website. Our waiter was visibly sighing and did not have a welcoming attitude. And the manager did not come and check in on us, not once. Now as we were sitting and ordering our food, we observed as three other sets of diners were welcomed and sat down for their meal. We were highly disappointed and dismayed by how we were told that they were closing at 18h00 but now other patrons were being seated after 18h00. Really disgusting service! Despite all that, we still stuck to our practice of tipping generously. We had made the most out of the experience and had created lovely memories, despite the saboteurs and...