Wijnhuis — Restaurant in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

We recently visited Wijnhuis and had a very mixed experience. On the positive side, the food was absolutely delicious. The quality of the dishes was not in question.

However, the service unfortunately let the evening down. I ordered the steak but was not given a steak knife. When I asked for one, along with mayonnaise, and my girlfriend asked for salt, we were assured these would be brought, but after more than 10 minutes nothing arrived. In the end, I got up to fetch salt myself and was left using a butter knife for the steak. My girlfriend’s ravioli portion was also very small – just seven pieces for over R200 – which felt disappointing given the price.

We understand that restaurants can get busy, and we weren’t expecting flawless service. But for a restaurant in this price range, we expected a little more attention to detail. What made it worse was the feeling that, because we are students, we were overlooked and treated differently. The manager visited every table around us, some more than once, but never came to ours. Our plates were only cleared about 20 minutes after we had finished, which left us feeling ignored, especially as we had chosen Wijnhuis to celebrate a special moment.

For a bill of over R1000 for two, we had hoped the service would match the excellent standard of the kitchen. Overall, the food was fantastic, but the service needs to improve so that all guests feel equally valued and the experience truly lives up to the quality...

I visited Winjhuis in April 2017 on the advice of a friend who previously worked at the restaurant as a waitress. After having visited other restaurants around Stellenbosch and Cape Town on our holiday, Winjhuis ranks the lowest in terms of the taste of the food, waitress knowledge of the menu (had little knowledge of some of the food on the menu), and the ambiance wasn't what we expected. I ordered a lamb shank which came with mashed potatoes, and it wasn't the best I've had - the gravy had a very 'soupy' taste, it just tasted too rich and wasn't that pleasant to eat. Wife ordered a seafood platter, and she said it was average. My 8-year old son ate Calamari, which he said was 'ok'. The worst of the evening was when my son ordered dessert, and the dessert the waitress recommended is finished by pouring vodka on top of it. Our son kept on saying it tasted weird, and when my wife tasted it she was horrified about the strong taste of alcohol on a dessert recommended by our waitress for an 8-year old boy! Unbelievable restaurant and waitress! We'll probably never visit the place again, the alcoholic dessert capped a very unpleasant evening...

A lovely atmosphere and friendly waiters, but the food was simply ridiculously overpriced and the quality was sub-par. We could get better quality food from Java and that is saying a lot. Paid R185 for a 7x10cm piece of dry fish with no sauce, no side, no garnish, nothing, and this was one of the cheapest dishes on the menu. Then they have the audacity to charge you an extra R35 for a sauce, R55 for chips and it goes up to R95 for other sides. If you charge that amount for a partial meal it bloody well must be amazing. Watched 3 cockroaches running up and down the wall and brought it to the attention of the waiters who did nothing about it. Would not recommend to anyone and certainly wont be visiting again. Only visit if you feel like wasting money and leave hungry and disappointed... Sad to see such an iconic restaurant underdeliver. To the owners, your prices are comparable with Fat Butcher and Cavalli and unfortunately isn't even remotely in the same class, lower your prices or improve on...