Clay Cafe in the City | Pottery Café and Tapa’s Bar — Restaurant in Western Cape

I went to clay café on Sunday 24 April with my friend and her parents to celebrate her birthday in a special and unique way... the plan was a late lunch. We arrived on time, stood around looking at ceramics not knowing where to go till someone eventually noticed us and directed us upstairs...

We were kindy welcomed upstairs and felt so happy with our seats, my name and a pink star as booking indication (I thought that meant something special). Excited and relieved when our waitress told us she will be taking care of us. I requested something special to say "happy birthday" to my friend with her name added but unfortunately I was the one who recieved the good wishes - a bit akward, I must say (This is why I gave a name 🤣).

🤭... Immediately ordered drinks, chose our items and after a demo of various painting techniques by our friendly waitress we started painting on and absolutely loved it... about 15minutes lappsed when I was called - "Hi ma'am, I just want to confirm - will you still be arriving for your booking?", I politely responded and waved at the kind young man who came to apologize for the inconvenience as he read the incorrect number... no problem!

Me and birthday girl continued our painting fun, we ordered starters to share and gave the main meal order as we already had decided what we'd like.... time passed.... we were forgotten, left behind...

After more than an hour of time flying by not one person checking on us, we enquired about our order and the manager personally came to apologize for the delay as there was a "mix-up"... "but can I offer you something to nibble on while you wait?" Thank you kind lady - I do however think this is what we ordered starters for in the first place... "you will be discounted for the inconvenience"...no worries, let's skip to the end.

Our lovely waitress accompanied by the manager brings out our starters two hours after ordering... our late lunch became an early dinner. The mains along with it (well some in any case, the 3 ladies recieved their salads and dad's pizza took another 15 minutes). Waitress makes no eye contact at all, never acknowledged the "mix-up" or apologized herself for what had happened so we still don't know why we were forgotten.

Any case, she promised that our dessert order will not take another two hours so we decided on having some seeing that we have a birthday in the house and all. Not even a little note, sparkler or a candle even after my special request. I had so hoped for a tiny bit more creativity as I even added the suggestion to my booking.

We recieved the bill - got the starters off and discounts on our meals... thank you for that part. Unfortunately we all had stomach issues just a few minutes after arriving back home. I wish I could give you a better review and cast all the nitty gritties aside but unfortunately there was very little of our experience that stood out positively.

To the manager specifically- thank you for your kindness and damage control. To the waitress - it would have made a difference if you had taken responsibility for your actions and explained to the one's you are taking care if what's happening... You still got a tip though just because we were friendly. To clay café in general: well done on a creative setup in a neat and clean environment and an excellent view. Ps. Maybe some form of indication to go straight upstairs in arrival would be helpful.

I commend your space for being unique and hope that this review is taken into a positive constructive light that will help to prevent such incidents in future. Would live to visit again and hopefully not be...

Clay Café has been on my bucket list since I first heard about it so I finally got the opportunity to visit for my mom's birthday. I figured she'd like to do something a little different to the usual "just lunch". I made a booking for a table of 4 via Dineplan, which is fairly easy and you get lots of reminders re your upcoming booking and the "rules" etc. Once we arrived, we were checked in which I found a little odd, given they already had all my information via Dineplan. They asked if it was our first time (twice) and I said yes but unfortunately I feel the service did not match our "we're first timers" energy. We had to ask for a run-down of how it works and after ordering drinks and food (which took far longer than I'd expect), our waitress explained where we could pick our items and paint. We did this and got started on painting and then only 25/30 minutes later did our waitress waltz over with a demonstration of the different art styles we could attempt and explained to us that we needed to do a base coat (at this point my partner and my mom have already painted their whole item because they opted for small items) so our waitress was not impressed with us which we felt was unfair given she instructed us to fetch our items and knew we were ready to paint. From the looks of things she was one of two waiters working downstairs (and there were 5 tables). Perhaps they were short staffed and she was covering upstairs as well? She was difficult to locate half the time and her colleague who dropped off our food was very abrupt with us, asking "is this all you ordered?" to which we replied "no" and he said "oh well I don't know what else you ordered" and walked away. Very odd behavior. The food and cocktails however, were a highlight as they were absolutely delicious, so we were momentarily distracted from the poor service. We took a break from our tragic painting affair and gathered strength while eating. At this point we had been sitting for an hour and we had ordered our food and drinks from the very start because we wanted to eat first and then paint, so we were ravenous. After devouring our food, we returned to our paints and, feeling re-energized, we wanted to try a couple of the arty techniques our waitress had demonstrated. At this point she wandered over again out of nowhere and told us off, telling us that it's "too late" to use the stickers and the stencils. At this point we felt like naughty children and it put quite a damper on our little birthday celebration. This is not at all how I wanted my mom to feel. I had also left a note on Dineplan that it was my mom's birthday, and I'm not saying there needs to be a Chico the Clown with singing and dancing but a little "happy birthday" from our waitress would have been just something special, to show that Clay Café cares about it's patrons. It's not difficult to check who your bookings are before they arrive. After 2 hours, our time was up, and feeling rather over it, we paid and left just as the café was filling up with it's next set of tables for the day. So overall: food was great, drinks were great, the whole concept is great but the service is letting them down. I'd like to come back with my friends next time, and hopefully by then their waiters have had a change in attitude and the service is more attentive because then I'd be happy to change my...

GREAT BUT TOO RUSHED :(

My partner and I had been planning a date for this month. I had heard about Clay cafe and really wanted to come and expereince the restaurant as well as the fun painting experience. I looked online and booked for 3pm. When we arrived we were both super exited! The venue is great the ambiance was very enjoyable and the food looked really good. The waiter was also super friendly. After we were told what to do we went and picked our mugs/paint and tools and sat down. By this time it was about 3.20pm we ordered a drink and were thinking about what to paint. By this time we hadn't thought about ordering food because we didn't think we weren't going to be able to not order. we hadn't even had the demo of how to use different techniques. I asked the waiter a question about the food and he said the kitchen had already closed and that the bar is closing shortly. I was quite confused as the booking sheet had not said anything about this. We were going to leave but the waiter kindly said that he can quickly squeeze us in some food if we give him the orders right away. He also said that the bar would be closing so we needed to order the second round of drinks if we wanted anymore. I was still on my first glass of champaign as it was a special occasion. The food came and we hadn't gotten the demo to paint yet.. it got explained while we were eating and then we quickly started to paint. At 5.30 we were still painting while people started to clean up and scrub the tables around us. This made us feel very rushed and didn't make the expereince enjoyable. We left feeling like we wrote an exam having rushed the rest of our pantings and downing the rest of our drinks before leaving.

I have worked in a few restaurants as a waitress and usually there the time that the kitchen and bar is closed is advertised quite clearly. I also told the waiter that the website should not be giving bookings at 3pm because it causes stress for the customers/waiters/kitchen. I see it's been changed to 2.30, which I still feel is too close to the time you have to order food. It takes about 30 minutes to get your stuff and order a drink. People don't want to order as soon as they sit down. 2pm would be a good time.

I really really enjoyed the food/service and ambiance. I just think the timing is too rushed and ruins a...