Beluga Cape Town — Restaurant in V&A Waterfront

....………As we are always on the look-out for new different, grand, exquisite and extraordinaril-ii exciting restaurants to eat at where they serve insidious-lii delicious cuisine so with my 66th birthday coming up we decided to pay a visit to Beluga as we have heard of the good vibe and food to be experienced here. The restaurant is located in a well renowned area where most of the old solid red-brick buildings have been upgraded to house many well placed businesses and also a good amount of fine and renowned restaurants. They say that first impressions last the longest and so it is, when you arrive at this solid red-brick building where the signage is well placed you are immediate-lii impressed by the sheer size of the area which they occupy, it is huge. The entrance to the restaurant is on the side where you go through a security manned point and the impression on entering the restaurant is one of royal-tii as the bright-red carpet is laid out right-up to the door. Outside to the one-side is a huge area with big outdoor umbrellas covering the tables and chairs provided for outside seating, in-between are big garden-pots with trees in to enhance the outdoor feeling and where at night-time they light-up the patio-heaters to reduce the chill, kind of very romantic! When you get through the front door the first encounter is with the very snazz-ii pub enclosed in glass from floor to ceiling and has pigeon-holes filled with wines and champagnes and the bluish-lights under the bar-counter real-lii put a touch of panache to it! As you venture deeper into this vast arena you get the feel of state-lii-ness as all the pillars and the ceilings are covered in wood paneling. The big yellow light-fittings cast a pleasant dim setting through-out the entire restaurant. Two walls which forms the corner have huge windows towards the outside roads, absolute-lii magical seating. The walls are sober-lii decorated with large live-lii murals one can see the sense in this as the place is big so small picture on the walls would real-lii gel. There is evidence of what this building was used for in by-gone years can be seen with the big “Block & Tackle with the big hook” dangling from the ceiling (nice display). The manager on duty welcomed us cordial-ii and handed us over to our waiter who escorted us to our window seating, then handed us three sets of menus an Ale cart, Specials and a Two/Three course set menu which offers a choice of 7 starters, 5 main-meals and 4 desserts. We went with the 3 course @ R245.00 pp: - FIRST-COURSE were 1. TUNA CRUNCH (8) Tuna tempura, cream-cheese, tempura battered, QP mayo, sweet chilli reduction 2. CRISPY CALAMARI spiced-fried baby calamari, crispy pickled mix-veg, spicy peanut dressing 3. BEEF CARPACCIO Sundried tomato, parmesan, balsamic reduction. All were On-Point and scrumptious. Because we decided on Fish & Meats we got a bottle of D’Aria “Blash-Rose’” fruit-ii and not too dry! SECOND-COURSE were 1. MISO LINEFISH Roasted veg, tomato salsa 2 & 3. FILLETS Roasted baby potatoes, peri-peri reduction, crispy-pickled onions. The fish with Miso was good, taste-tii but a bit dry but the steaks were of the finest cuts and succulent and prepared perfect-lii as ordered. THIRD-COURSE were 1. White Chocolate Beignet (very Yummii and sweet) 2. Coco-Mango Balls (this dessert was quaint in a nice-way but intriguing-lii fascinating, it tickled the taste-buds the juice was mint-ii but not sweet and the choc-filled balls (not sure if it was a chow-pow filled with chocolate) darn-good stuff we will come back here if it’s only for the Coco-Mango Balls! 3. Vanilla Creme Brulee very cream-ii and the burnt-sugar crust was not a solid-block just nice and thin, easy to break-through! Our whole experience here was great the staff was friend-lii even if they were not serving your table they smiled and acknowledged you and the duty-manager even made a point of coming around to small-talk. We will definitely come back here in the...

Looks can be deceiving. The décor was amazing, but the substance of the restaurant is empty. Sad to say that Beluga lost that appeal at its new location. The heart of its Greenpoint branch is missing and I am absolutely disappointed at this new version of Beluga. The restaurant is all show but no delivery. I recommend never booking this place if you want to have a relaxed evening or if you have a large booking of more than 2 people.

I was absolutely appalled by the poor level of service despite taking every effort before hand to ensure a reasonable level of service especially given the number of people in the party.

Description of the issues: The reservation was for 20+ people. When we arrived on time, there was not even a table "reserved" for the party to be seated. What made matters worse was that there was ample space available for them to set up two tables prior to our arrival and absolutely no effort took place on the part of Beluga to make it happen.

Given the large booking, it was requested that our orders be placed before hand and bill settled. We met this requirement and placed the orders a week in advanced of the actual date of event.

The listing of orders by name for each person of the party was also sent to Beluga a week in advance of the event.

As a further control, 2 hours prior to our reservation I sent a printed copy of the food orders (with every name of the individual and what they ordered) and provided to Beluga for the event (in their hand).

The reservation was at 4.30pm. The table was not ready and we waited a further 30minutes to have a table setting completed.

Despite every effort to make sure that the orders were provided in advanced to ensure a timely delivery of our meals (starters, mains and dessert) and despite the seating arrangements taking an extra 30minutes to be arranged, the food only arrived at 6.30pm.

I wish I could say the food was worth the wait, but it was not. The food was undercooked and often caused a further delay because the food was sent back to be cooked properly. It further ruined the appetite of the the party. The menu description did not match what was served, for example the desserts provided and the menu description did not match. One member of the party only received their meal after the desserts were served. Despite providing the orders in advanced, only on the day of event did they let us know that they did not have stock of a particular dessert item. Absolutely no prior communication took place to help plan and adjust the menu prior to the event.

In order for our food to arrive, two members of the party had to physically leave their seats, go to the kitchen and make sure that the food be prepared and served. Those members did not relax nor enjoy the event because they were picking up the slack for Beluga's poor management. I shudder to think how much longer we would have had to wait if those members of the party did not intervene and take responsibility of our food to arrive.

As a recommendation, some honesty would have been greatly appreciated. If they were unable to deliver a good quality they should have let us know at the time of making the booking, but I suspect corporate greed took over. I really thought working with Beluga restaurant prior to the event, especially given the size of the party, would have helped make it a smooth event, but sadly, all of that precious time was in vain.

In conclusion, don't go to Beluga for a booking of larger than 2 people. The restaurant is not at all what I remember from the Greenpoint location days and they have a long way to go to get their service...

So my wife and I decided to try Beluga at their newish venue in the cruise terminal. The service was outstanding and the venue fantastic. Upon walking in, I suggested to my wife that we host our company year end party in their venue. The reason for my poor rating is as follows

1. I don't often see whole baby kingklip on a menu (which I love), so was very excited to see that they offered it.
2. I asked our fantastic waitress if it was a good option to which she replied yes and recommended that I upgrade to the chef's special which included 2 x langoustines with the baby kingklip. I agreed without hesitation as I love lango's too.

My complaint relates to the size of the portions that were pathetically small. I skipped starters as I didn't want to over eat, knowing a whole baby kingklip was on the way. What i received on my plate was a baby kingklip so small, it looked more like a fat sardine. The langoustines were equally pathetic and no bigger than standard LM queen prawns. As an avid fisherman, I have used bigger prawns as bait! I was charged R150 x2 for each prawn and R235 for the baby kingklip. I paid R535 for a single meal that was outrageously priced for what I received on plate, being no bigger than a modest starter. On a positive note, the food was nicely cooked and well presented, but I am irritated that I needed to make a toasted cheese when I got home as I was still starving, after paying the best part of R1500 for diner for 2 people.

I have no problem paying top dollar for great food, but this was daylight robbery (early evening , actually). I addressed the issue with the manager in a friendly way so that I could express my sentiments. She was very nice and completely agreed with my standpoint and candidly revealed that she is aware that the baby kingklip dish is "a problem" which she has informed the owners about. She offered some free drinks/desert which we respectfully declined and encouraged me to write this review, so here you are! To be clear, I will not be returning to Beluga again, unless invited and have decided to have our annual year end party at the grand instead. I feel scammed and unfortunately this experience takes away from your beautiful venue and wonderfully friendly and...