Skilpadvlei Wine Estate — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

I had my wedding here last year September and although it is a very beautiful place there were some very problematic things that happened on the day that made it turn out to be not a very "beautiful" experience: The trees where we were supposed to have our ceremony did not have a single leaf on them. I had very specifically asked if they were evergreen as we were having a winter wedding. I was assured that they were. This was the sole reason we chose this venue and it ruined the ceremony. The sad part is I had a long conversation with the consultant about how we wanted a wedding that included nature and trees. Secondly, the weather on the day was not good, there was slight rain. Now the weather is not in their control, however, again we inquired before we booked what was the alternative and they said we could rent a tent if it was bad. On the day they told us we could not put it up because the ground was too wet. They should have thought about this and advised to set it up earlier! We ended up having a makeshift ceremony in the reception hall. On the day I had arranged to meet the organizer at 9 am to speak with her about important details, but she had double booked with a viewing and only showed up an hour later for which I had had to leave to go to do hair and make up. This was incredibly unprofessional. Lastly, the starter did not taste like the sample dish that we had had and some guests got starters that were missing items. (The original had salad included with the fish but the item served was just a mix of fish and mayonnaise which was not as nice as what we had had. ) I will comment that the rest of the food was amazing and this was probably the only thing that I was really happy with that day from the venue, bar the starter.

They also did clean the honeymoon sweet in-between the groomsmen getting ready and the end of the evening which was nice. I do not only want to mention the bad parts.

Over all, the food was nice, the service for the accommodation was really great, but the service for the venue was terrible. To sum it up because of the first two points (especially the first) I would not have chosen this as my wedding destination and do regret it, which is a shame. I wish I had complained earlier but we just wanted to try and...

I've been to Skilpadvlei restaurant before and enjoyed a delicious breakfast, taking in the beautiful view while dining outside. Today my wife and I decided to have lunch there with our children. We ordered Skilpadvlei Deluxe burgers expecting to receive something delicious among other things, considering our previous visit there. From the first bite we discovered that the burgers unfortunately were very dry, somewhat scorched and lacked what I thought would be a "Deluxe burger". I could easily have expected and received higher standards from any burger takeaways. The manager initially was helpful to hear out our concerns and offered to deduct the cost of one meal from the bill. We accepted apologies at first as well as the manager's remediation, the burgers however seemed to get worse as we ate our lunch. I really couldn't eat another bite and noticed my family couldn't eat theirs as well, "wrestling" with what tasted and felt like bark in our mouths. Our food was returned back with most of the food still on the plate at which stage we asked the waiter for the bill. Considering our bad experience we had at Skilpadvlei restaurant we approached the manager again to give feedback and expressed the fact that I felt robbed having at pay for the lunch, given everything that happened. Our dissatisfaction was met with irritation and disdain from the manager. Instead of acknowledging what we had to say, she pointed to the fact she already remedied this and we already had the opportunity to speak up at that stage. The manager lacked empathy at our situation instead gave the impression that our concerns was more of a bother to her. Without giving any further attention to what my wife and I had to say, the manager walked off to the cash register leaving us standing there in shock at absolute poor customer service. Our bill was reduced to halve what seemed like a take it or leave it approach from the manager. I felt whatever we had to say at that stage fell on deaf ears, paid the bill and left. The whole experience left us disgusted that in today's life and time such treatment exists, unfortunately now in this case is a reflection of...

I use to be a fan. I still am of the wine tasting, the staff there are lovely! But the restaurant let us down badly the last time. We took my grandmother there for a thank you lunch, she's 85 been there before and liked it. She then ordered some afval since it's her favorite BUT not only did the food taste bad, the service she got about it was poor. The taste of the afval curry was poor, when we told them they just said "yes it's not that popular" - so it's okay for it to taste bad??? - AND the vegetables were basically raw, which many people like but when this old lady asked about it (and one would think they could just cook it for her a little more), they just said "people complain if it's cooked long". I have never seen a restaurant respond like this to a customer. THEN there was the service my friends and I got - we were seated separately at the wine bar. We were having wine and chatting and planned to go inside to order after. We then saw a group of tourists order food right after their tasting so we inquired if we could as well since we were still drinking our wine. The ladies said sure but when I asked the restaurant they said they don't really do that - well, you just did for the bunch of foreigners? And it was quick service! We then spoke to the lovely ladies as the wine bar and they said ofcourse and then proceeded to call the restaurant to send someone to take our order. That person probably took more than 30 minutes, she had to call twice and then remind them since they agreed. My fish was great but I couldn't even enjoy it properly because it took so long and we had to leave. And I DON'T THINK ITS UNFAIR TO EXPECT THE SAME LEVEL OF SERVICE YOU SEE OTHERS GET. this was becoming a popular place for my family, and we often come with groups and recommend it to others but I think that has come to an end now. My poor granny was so disappointed. This happened before Christmas (~the 21st) and she literally asked me if I told them how bad it was now on the 12th of Jan, because it...