Mugg & Bean — Restaurant in Western Cape

I have always been a supporterr of Mugg & Bean since they opened their doors in this country many years ago. The "big"food philosophy has always interested me, even though I can very seldom finish all the plate and hope to share with someone which is not often the case as the friends with me never finish theirs either. Yes we could order less food or share a plate of the same, but then we would not be able to taste as many items, so hence the ëach order what you want"and so it goes. Cape Gate Mugg and Bean is generally good, however when it is really busy, the waiting time for a cappucino being more than 15 minutes is definitely not acceptable. I find that service is very slow and staff are not as attentive as they used to be. Often need to look for waitron, for order or for bill and again the wait is long. This happens when there are more than a third of the tables seated. If anything serivce should be quicker, for a number of reasons, people would like their coffee, food and bill in a certain acceptable time, they are busy and want to grab a bite of good (all be it a bit pricey) food and get on with the mall mission, be it shopping , banking, movies etc. The food in general is not what it used to be, even though the menu looks amazing, great copy and beautiful food styling, unfortunately this is often not always delivered on the plate. I have more than once told the manager and waitrons, that the simple sweetcorn fritter that is served with breakfast, is often undercooked and if you ever taste sweetcorn or see any in it, lucky you. I took a chance on it again this time hoping they had made the improvements they said they would, but it was still under cooked batter and no sweetcorn. I have fallen in love with the gluten free bread, baked on site according to their policy, it is absolutely delicious and will keep ordering that without a second thought - that and of course the coffee(when you get it), always excellent. I keep going back hoping that something changes, however I certainly do not go there as often...

My boyfriend and I had lunch at Cape Gate Mugg & Bean yesterday - 19/03/22 - with a friend.

The service was terrible from the start. We were seated and waited at least 5 mins for our waiter to greet and take our order. My friend ordered a five roses tea, my boyfriend and I milkshakes. Her tea came first, but she was served rooibos instead. I called the waiter and told her that this is the wrong tea and she said "are you sure? The kitchen said that is five roses" and reluctantly took the pot away.

We ordered food - I the mac 'n cheese, boyfriend the boss bbq grill @ R180! - he originally only wanted buffalo wings but couldn't find them on the menu so this was the cheapest alternative. Boyfriend asked for steak to be medium and all the meat on the plate came back well over-done! The steak looked like an old choppie they found at the back of the freezer, the fork didn't even go through the wors, the mielie was ice cold, the rashers was so overly salted that it was completely inedible! Only edible thing on the plate was the wings. Disgusting plate of food for R180!! Decided to ask for a takeaway box so that we can take the food home to the dog and waitress brought me the smallest box, it wouldn't even fit the mielie! And she looked very confused when I asked for a bigger one.

Eventually we waited another five - ten minutes for the bill, came down to R449, I told her to swipe for R450 and she ripped open receipt book to see, rolled her eyes at me and sighed very audibly.

I always love going to Mugg n Bean for the mac 'n cheese, but after yesterday's experience they will not be seeing me again soon!

Terrible food and...

Waiters ignoring you because you're not in their section. No feedback on an order. Tea was cold. Serving customers is not a job its a passion. If you don't have the personality or the attitude please go for a cleaning or car guard job. We pay expensively to have a decent meal or cup of coffee at your shop and then one would expect at least standard class service with staff who can pick up their feet and wear decent shoes and not look tired at 10AM. It's a shame that we have to accept poor and substandard service because that is all you get everywhere due to some laws. I stopped feeling bad for any waiter and refuse to tip if the service was not too my liking. Theres no law telling me that I have to tip for bad service. Give me below standard service with a lazy attitude and I will not tip you. I will also tell the waiter why they wont get a tip and hope I will teach them something after being a waitress, restaurant manager, coffeeshop manager, hotel manager, farm manager and now office manager...