Decameron Restaurant — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

I've never left a bad review on any restaurant, or any business ever for that matter - but I'd like to inform management about the service we received from one of the waitresses - tall , blondish brown hair (never introduced herself by name). My partner and I decided to dine at Decameron tonight as we were thoroughly impressed by our previous experience here , however tonight was quite the opposite. Firstly, our waitresses seemed to have an attitude once she realised we weren't ordering wine/alcohol, as if that amounted to our table not being a big bill. Secondly , every single table around us was served complementary foccacia pizza looking slices (not even sure..we didn't receive any). We left it for a while thinking maybe it's just the other waiters serving their tables the complementary dish until two ladies next to us with our same waitress was served these dishes ...even though they arrived more than half an hour after us. We eventually just asked about it to another staff member and she said she'll find out for us. Our waitress then came and dumped bread on our table and said "there's no more to give out." Which leaves me questioning...why give to other customers before customers that were there earlier ? Did they seem more likely to tip well because they were older? My partner and I decided to not let it ruin our night so we moved on as we know mistakes can happen in the service industry etc. We waited..and waited ..for our main dishes for over 45 minutes with no update from our waitress . She eventually came and said "It's coming , food takes long on the grill." No apology or anything. We eventually got our food , ofcourse without any checking in whether everything was alright with the dishes. At this point we were ready to just leave so we asked for the bill and decided to tip her even though we didn't feel as though she deserved much based on her service. My partner and I always tip above 20% on bills , as we both used to work in the hospitality industry and know that bad nights can happen etc - this is the first time we've ever tipped under that - and she then caught and attitude , asked if we wanted a slip and left without saying thank you or common curiosity "enjoy your night further". I'm quite disheartened by this experience and I hope that management can take this feedback to improve service standards among particular staff. If this helps management at all - we were sat at table 15 or 16 tonight, if i...

.....Because of family visiting from Bordeaux, France who was staying at a B & B in Stellenborsch we decided to meet up for dinner here as we heard that there food is good and at fair-lii good prices! But to our Shock and utter Surprise the Service was of the lowest standard ever experienced by us in and around the Western Cape! And we eat out A-lot! We placed our order with the waitress at 19:00 and mentioned to her that certain dishes/meals should come out ASAP cause it was the meals for the 3 children present! At 21:20 Still no food, this poor young la-dii waiting on us came around about Ten Times to apologize for the delays and the story that the Ovens in the kitchen wasn't able to cope with the demand of the night, offering us bread and more bread in lieu of the Long wait and trying to sell us more bottles of wine as by then we had downed 3 bottles of good wines and still No Food!! This is only the first part of the disappointments pf the evening! I ordered the VEAL TRIPPA DELLA NONNA(veal tripe with carrots,onions, celery & garlic) the waitress looked dazed as if to say "what do you want"? and I just knew that, that meal was not coming out of the kitchen and true-lii 20 minutes later she returned to tell me that they did not have Tripe tonight! SO WHY WAS IT ON THE MENU???? Our food only started arriving in drips & drabs at about 21:40! Sadly the Manager of the night did not appear ONCE!!! This Poor young(child) la-dii was in a state of total Panic! Sad! Sad! Sad!.....Never-the-less after all this said and done, when the food did come it was indeed as we expected it to be Very Good! We ordered Prawns which was of the best! The Sirloin's served was decent cuts and properly prepared! The Seafood Pasta's were very Italian! The OSSOBUCCO(brazed knuckles with carrots, celery and served with a very flavour-ii sauce was absolute-lii delicious! It made us laugh at the end and we all had one question or suggestion "MAYBE THEY NEEDED ALL THIS TIME TO PREPARE OUR MEALS"......Its a Beautiful restaurant, very big with loads of tables & they have seating outside on the terrace.....?????? Don't think that this place will see us back here in a hurry despite the good food..........Oh! And Sad-lii They Don't Even have...

24 January 2022 After an extremely hot day here in Stellenbosch, hiding from the heat I went to Decameron to enjoy a bit of fine dining. Service was promptly. Although the entire outdoor seating area was so to say full, there was still no delay in the service. Nikita handled us with the utmost respect which I noticed and enjoyed. She left us to eat when it was time to eat and she was at our service when we called for it. What I especially liked is that she recommended the Tagliatelle pasta with my Boscaiola when she saw I was indecisive. The food was brought sooner than I expected and that is always a bonus for me. The weather allowed me to pick a Simonsig (2021) Chenin Blanc and ample ice was provided as I like my white wine. There was no need for me to ask multiple times for ice. The wine itself was fresh and I think I made the right choice for the occasion. I would recommend Decameron to any senior Stellenbosch student that would like to spend some extra money on a meal, but in return receive a classy evening and classic Italian cuisine with friends or even your parents.

Thanks...