Saddles Steak Ranch Bottelary — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

I recently visited Saddles and enjoyed a full meal—starter, main, and dessert. The food was, as always, excellent. I truly can’t fault the kitchen; they consistently deliver great dishes.

However, I’ve been to Saddles a few times now, and while I understand they reopened recently, it’s been over a year, and unfortunately, the service hasn’t quite found its rhythm. There always seem to be new waiters who aren’t familiar with the menu, and it shows.

My biggest issue, though, is the wine selection. Out of around nine white wines, six are Sauvignon Blanc—which I personally don’t enjoy. The only Chardonnay available turned out to be a carb-friendly version that tasted more like water, and this wasn’t mentioned on the menu. If you want to order wine by the glass, your only option is Sauvignon Blanc. You also can’t order a single glass of red wine—they require you to order a full bottle, which is quite frustrating.

The atmosphere also feels a bit cold and lacks character. It’s not as welcoming as it could be, which is a pity given their beautiful location in the heart of the Winelands. The owners themselves are lovely and clearly hands-on with the business, which I appreciate. However, I found it quite uncomfortable to witness managers speaking harshly to staff in front of customers. It takes away from the dining experience.

All in all, the food is outstanding, but the overall experience is let down by the wine list and service. I might return—but next time, I’ll bring my own...

It took rather long to get the drinks out, the food was out almost faster than the drinks. The food is below average for the price, the sauces provided with the food (specifically the tartar sauce) was old and you could see that it was sitting for a while in the bowl (a few days) before it was served, upon tasting it, it was clear that it is sub-standard, the products used in the food items, such as the jalapeño poppers is substituted with cottage cheese instead of cream cheese (making it taste like wet toilet paper), the steak for example is average and can be deemed acceptable (although there is better out there for the same price or even cheaper), the fact that cheap processed cheese is used that does not even melt under heat is also sub-standard for the price, the pizzas is also rather disappointing. We also requested a baby chair which arrived in a horrific state, there was most definitely no attempt to clean that chair by any means before providing it to clients. I must note that the waiter tried her best and also called the manager to hear the complaints first hand, the manager however seemed a bit unfit for the position. Not long after we got home we started feeling sick as well. This was not our first time visiting the establishment and we have had mixed feelings before but after this recent visit I would definitely not recommend this establishment, it is rather...

I have always known saddles to be a great steak house and top quality. When I chose saddles as a date to take my wife (which we dont get often since we just had a baby), I was expecting it to be a memorable experience. When we got there, we got seated outside by the play area. My wife decided to order a strawberry daquiri as the menu literally stated that it is made with strawberry puree. She would never order it otherwise. I ordered a Pina colada. When our cocktails finally came 20min later, we find out it was made with cheap syrup that tastes terrible. Juice cordial at the shops tastes better. We were very disappointed that the menu would lie to us, and we didnt have more than one sip. As we really wanted cocktails, we decided to order a starter and then go have Mains and drinks elsewhere. The pizza starter took 40min to get to us and it was sooooo oily and the tzatziki tasted like mayo with no cucumber in it. We couldn't eat more than one slice each either. We didn't want to make a scene as our time is precious and had to leave our baby at home with babysitter for an extra 2 hrs because we had to go eat at Boer and Butcher (which is much better value for money!!) Wouldn't recommend saddles. We didn't even have time then to play putt putt there like we wanted which was...