Ocean Basket East London — Restaurant in Vincent, East London

Mediocre at best. Was there for supper and it wasn't really busy but the waitress had no sense of urgency and really lacked the personal touch... Like I get its COVID but it seemed like her mission was to avoid the table at all costs. Complementary rolls wer warm but tasted like they have been reheated repeatedly. No new plates or cutlery given when the main platter arrived. Our order was the Full deck platter with 2 extra squid heads. The rice and chips was cooked perfectly and the grilled fish and prawns were delightful. The calamari strips and tubes were disappointing .The crumb was salty and the calamari was overdone but palatable. One squid heads arrived but seems the forgot the other. The extra order of squid heads were amazing. Chalk and cheese compared to the rest of the calamari. No finger bowls or wet wipes offered . The waitress when clearing the table wasn't considerate of the people still eating my mother felt slightly rushed. Whilst cleaning she ...left without a place /dish/shell bowl to dispose of prawn shells. Mind you eating out of the tiny side plate we had those rolls mentioned earlier..along with prawn shells piling up and the actual food took some skill but we made it work nevertheless as we couldn't get her attention for more plates. By the time she came back 3/4 of us were done eating and it was futile. We requested wetwipes and the bill. . Levels of service needs to be addressed as it was clear the waitress lacked service training and the knowledge to do her job...

Just got back home after what was supposed to be a great birthday meal…but, quite the opposite. The staff were in a tense mood. It felt awkward, until I overheard the manager shouting and swearing at the kitchen staff about some issue. Had to ask 3 times for some ice for wine, but that was still okay until hearing swearing from the manager from the kitchen which I recorded and will send to head office. The food was really good, but the staff were not friendly and a supervisor was also a bit cocky with me when I asked about our ice (probably because of the tense atmosphere set by the manager’s shouting and swearing loud and audible enough to hear bellowing from the kitchen right onto the restaurant area). Some of the decor and lighting also looks in need of attention. Franchisees clearly do not care about their restaurant at all. Ocean Basket, you have disappointed me and you’ve spoilt my birthday with such shock and utter regret for having chosen your restaurant. Please do not reply with the same standard “we hope we can turn this around” generic message if you really care about your brand. Customer service has dropped at this branch. It seems like owners have dropped the ball big time and staff morale is at an all time low, including the aesthetics of your restaurant. Where is your pride...

Not good at all, got there at 11:00 as they only open at this time and have found, to my disappointment, how dirty the floors and tables were.

Worst of all was the “bread rolls” - these looked (and tasted) like 2 week old pieces of dough that was slapped with flour after being stepped on and kicked around the floor.

The waiter (bless his soul) was very embarrassed when he had to inform us that they are short staffed and as a result we had to unfortunately wait a little longer for our food. After about another 15 minutes the waiter returned to inform us that we would have to wait another 3-5min (which was already 10 minutes ago as I am sitting here writing this review)

We were still waiting for our food (starters) at 11:54 when the waiter came again to apologize so we decided to pay for our drinks and go somewhere else. The manager then came around to apologize and asked us to wait an extra 2 minutes. I wasn’t prepared to take the chance as these 2 minutes could be another 20 minutes.

The table across from us were also not very happy about the quality of the food as they had undercooked fish with no caper sauce.

This is very embarrassing for the franchise and disappointing for...