Spek & Bone — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

Our recent experience with Spek & Bone and Chorus left us deeply disappointed due to poor management and a confusing booking process.

Here's what happened: When reserving a table at Spek & Bone, we visited their official website to book and pay. The process seemed straightforward at first. You select your time, confirm, and proceed with payment. However, there’s a crucial step where you indicate where you want to sit. This step, unfortunately, is poorly explained. Instead of choosing between seating inside or outside at Spek & Bone, you unwittingly end up selecting Chorus, another restaurant under the same management.

Unaware of this, we paid in advance and arrived at Spek & Bone at the time of our booking, ready to enjoy the meal. To our surprise, there was no record of our reservation. Why? Because we had mistakenly booked Chorus instead. Initially confused and disappointed, we explained the situation to the staff at Spek & Bone. They acknowledged the issue and assured us they would call Chorus to try and resolve the matter. Their reassurance gave us the impression that the situation would be handled, so rather than driving to Chorus, we decided to stay and take the available table at Spek & Bone.

Unfortunately, despite their promise to follow up, nothing was resolved. Our payment remained with Chorus, and no effort was made to transfer or refund it. This left us feeling misled, as we had stayed at Spek & Bone based on their assurance that they were addressing the issue. While we enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere, the unresolved payment issue overshadowed the experience. To the management: please fix the booking system and provide better customer service when these situations arise. Experiences like ours should not happen, especially when your food and atmosphere have so...

The menu is compact but well thought out, a mix of warm and cold dishes with contrasting flavours: sweet, sour, grilled, fried, and raw. The ceviche leche di tigre is good, gnocchi has loads of richness and flavours and meat with risotto all had excellent flavour, texture, and presentation.

Dishes arrive hot and well-plated. Keep it mind the warning though, they’re not big.

Most plates cost R120–R220, and you’ll need around three per person to be satisfied. 4 for some to be full. Expect to spend R600-800 each easily, which feels expensive for Stellenbosch considering the portion sizes. (This doesn’t include drinks)

The wine/drinks experience drags things down and is everything opposite of what a good hospitality owner should want.. (I hope the owner reads this) no printed drinks menu, you have to walk to a wall to look at the wines wines and you can’t taste before ordering.

You end up walking to the bar to pick wines based on a label, and the cheapest glass is R100, which is steep for South Africa.

I have been to some of the restaurants within the same group and if this is the way the group is run, it is no surprise to me they are struggling. Look at your...

Even though the entrance is a bit hidden, it's a place for tourists with tourist prices and quality. I saw no locals eating, and that's always telling.

At 50% of their current prices - and without all the pretenses - it would make a funny little restaurant.

Now, it's just a pretentious place with overpriced average food. The ingredients are cheap and the flavors out of balance. For example they offer steak with "basil pesto" (is there any other type of pesto?). The steak itself was very average for South African standards, although a European tourist might think it's OK. They still ask a premium price for it, and that's not OK.

Then "the tomato salad with Gruyere" was mostly bread soaked in balsamico, and a teaspoon of some type of grated cheese on top of it. It could have been any type of cheese since it was impossible to taste any of it. Obviously, genuine Gruyere is expensive, but now you end up paying 90rands for a plate of toasted bread and vinegar. I'm sure it's profitable, but not something you'd enjoy eating.

Pleasant atmosphere though, and decent service. It all looks and sounds nice, so tourists will be happy. No way it's 4.x stars. Funny...