SOFIA — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

A Nightmarish Gastronomic Odyssey - A Tale of Misery and Frozen Limbs

Prepare yourself for a story that could rival a Shakespearean tragedy, only this one unfolds on a plate of pasta pizza at Sofia. Oh, the horrors we endured during our visit, as we navigated a gauntlet of neglect and deception!

With eager anticipation, we stepped into the realm of this pasta pizza paradise, dreaming of a culinary adventure that would tantalize our taste buds. But alas, our dreams were dashed the moment we set foot inside. The initial warmth of the restaurant's ambiance gave way to an ice-cold reality as we were relegated to a frigid, desolate corner outside the establishment.

"Your table will be ready soon," they said with feigned sincerity, leading us on a trail of broken promises that stretched for what seemed like an eternity. Two hours! Two long hours we stood, shivering, our fingers and toes turning into icy popsicles. Were we waiting for our table or auditioning for a role in a survival reality show?

We pleaded with the owner for respite, hoping she would rescue us from the icy clutches of Mother Nature. But, alas, the owner was nowhere to be found! Her invisibility cloak must have been more effective than Harry Potter's.

As the minutes turned into hours, our hopes plummeted like a bungee jumper with a snapped cord. The tantalizing aroma of pasta and pizza taunted us from afar, mocking our agony. We gazed through the frosty windows at the lucky souls seated inside, basking in warmth and culinary delight while we were left to fend for ourselves in the Siberian wasteland.

Communication? Oh, what a novel concept! Apparently, the staff at Sofia had never heard of it. Their complete lack of updates or apologies made us wonder if they had forgotten our existence altogether.

The phrase "customer is king" appeared to be an alien concept to this place. Instead, we were treated like peasants banished to an Arctic outpost, unworthy of even a nod of acknowledgement.

My fellow diners, take heed! If you value your sanity, taste buds, and body temperature, steer clear of Sofia. Save yourselves from this culinary purgatory, where promises are shattered, warmth is a distant memory, and the owner is a master of invisibility.

As we trudged away from this nightmare of an experience, we vowed never to return. A word of advice to the management: if you wish to avoid culinary damnation, act upon your customers' needs and learn the art of communication. Otherwise, your pasta pizza paradise will remain an icy wasteland for unsuspecting souls seeking a hot meal and...

We arrived, ordered coffees which arrived in a few minutes and weren’t too bad - but that is where the mediocrity ended.

We then placed our food orders - a simple order of an almond croissant and the “V Brekkie” (essentially just hummus, mushrooms and avo on toast… shouldn’t take too long, right?). 45 minutes later, after seeing the food sitting on the counter for about half an hour, our server managed to pass our food from the counter to our table (no more than a metre away). Immediately, the croissant was possibly the smallest I have ever seen - not in South Africa, but ever, France, London etc. In addition to this, it was stale. We called our server back and explained that we would like a new croissant that hadn’t been sitting around or been so small it would disappear with two small bites. The server took it away, and 10 minutes went by, after which time a man in a cap with a beard appeared (presumably the manager or head waiter), and asked what we were waiting for. I answered and he said that he saw a croissant fresh out the oven keeping warm which he knew “had somewhere to go”. He disappeared and shortly thereafter came back, with the same exact tiny stale croissant, but now with the addition of a tablespoon of icing sugar covering it. At this point I asked for a plain croissant instead, and after hearing they were “10 minutes away in the oven”, I gave up and left it all together.

Following this, my partner was into her 3rd bite of her R95 avo and hummus on toast, at which point she discovered a very obvious hair in the hummus. We called the manager over and he simply told us that “it happens”, and then after mentioning the croissant situation he tried to say that they bake them fresh each morning and that almond and chocolate croissants are simply this small (one might disagree at Schoon over the road, Hygge Hygge next door, or any other establishment anywhere across the world)…

We decided to drop it because neither the management nor staff seemed to care in the slightest, and reluctantly paid and left.

Overall terrible service, a reluctancy to take any accountability, incredibly mediocre and overpriced food which could be had at any other restaurant in Stellenbosch within walking distance or quite literally next door or over the road - far better and far more reasonably priced.

The decor is lovely, but unfortunately that cannot be the backbone of an otherwise mediocre, rude, and below-average restaurant.

Give it a miss and head to Schoon, Hygge Hygge, Juvenate, Shift, Java or virtually anywhere else in...

WORST RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE EVER Unable to rate foof since we didn't have any. AVOID AT ALL COSTS - Unprofessional, Disrespectful, and Completely Unreliable Where do I even begin with this disaster? My wife and I made a reservation via WhatsApp for Saturday at 12:00 PM at their pizzeria location. The booking was CONFIRMED. We showed up on time like responsible customers, only to find the door LOCKED with staff casually mopping floors inside. After knocking, staff rudely gestured for us to use "the other entrance" - no apology, no explanation, just dismissive hand waving. By now it's 12:05 PM and we're already frustrated. At the second entrance, a waitress had the audacity to tell us the pizzeria "isn't open yet because they're still moving tables around." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You confirmed our reservation but couldn't be bothered to actually be ready for customers? The absolute worst part? When we complained, the owner/manager looked at our WhatsApp booking confirmation with visible irritation - as if WE were the problem! This person made ZERO effort to apologize, explain, or even acknowledge their massive screw-up. No customer service skills whatsoever. We left immediately and took our business elsewhere. This place clearly has no respect for customers' time or basic professionalism. The fact that they can't coordinate between their two restaurants or honor confirmed reservations shows complete incompetence. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY HERE. There are plenty of other restaurants in the area that actually care about their customers and know how to run a business properly. Management needs a serious wake-up call about what customer service actually means. Absolutely disgraceful experience that ruined our Saturday plans. NEVER GOING BACK - YOU...