Sunkist Restaurant — Restaurant in Windermere

This restaurant has lost the plot. Tauted as a "Mozambican / Portuguese " influenced restaurant I have always visited expecting seriously good spicy food. Last night we bought several starters, risoles, springrolls, chicken livers, cheesy garlic rolls and jugs of Sunkist special cocktails. These were decent fresh and tasty. Nothing exceptional. We ordered 3 x half family platters at R550 per pop. Strict instructions were given that I wanted peri peri prawns... Nice and spicy.... but I also asked if the chef could baste the prawns on the griddle with the peri peri sauce. If needed be I could explain my request directly to the chef... the waiter assured me that he could ensure that my request was met. The platters arrived with barely cooked fries... no salt nor any salt on the table. The prawns were basted with what looked like a vinegar, spiced sauce with food colouring. Devoid of salt as well and with zero kick in it that even the two young white young men in our party complained that there was little spicing to add any real flavour or pungency. The chicken was well cooked, but lacked salt nor was there salt on the table. I called for the manager who seemed foreign and all he kept saying was that he was sorry.... then confessed that they ran out of the real sauce. He suggested he bring us another batch and would asked them to add more red chillies. This arrived after 5 minutes but was the same sauce with perhaps another half a teaspoon of red chillies chucked in, stirred and delivered. It was useless, by now all the food was getting cold and frankly the moment was lost. We asked for the owner and were being given the run around until I demanded the owners contact number... and low and behold he appeared 5 minutes later. After explaining the situation he apologised and apologised and apologised .... just like his manager and when asked why his food lacked the peri peri... he simply suggested he was a family restaurant... and that perhaps another restaurant would serve a spicier version. We literally packed half of what we ordered... none in our party of 9 wanted to even consider the desserts. To add insult we were charged for 3 x sauce R15 extra. I queried it with the waiter who insisted it was right. I queried it with a manager and he said it was wrong but i had already paid the bill and refused to discuss it further. I paid it, knowing in my heart that the deeply religious looking owner had just concluded a transaction that was...

An absolutely unbelievable experience. I ordered 2 x prawns only platter with both sides to be veggies, and 3 x potato bake. The prawns were fresh and tasty but that is the only good part of the entire experience. Thanusha took my order via the WhatsApp channel and executed her duties very well. Upon collection, we were not greeted by the staff who ushered us into the restaurant. The owner did greet us and offer us a seat while we waited for our food to be brought to us. When we got home and laid out the meal for our family and guests to enjoy we were embarrassed and humiliated to find that the vegetables were severely undercooked to a point it was inedible, the potatoe bake was grainy and most of the cubes were not cooked at all. I sent a message on WhatsApp to the restaurant and received a call from a man named Abdul. He claimed he has sent out 150 orders from the morning and has had no complaint, he went on to say he cannot take my word for it and what can he do and do i want to bring the items back. When it was time for me to respond, Abdul did not allow me to speak. There was a room full of people to attest to this as he was on speaker. I did not want money or a refund or a second order, I literally wanted to inform them of my disappointment and expected an apology. Instead I got shouted at and treated like I stole the food that I paid for, in full. Very disappointing as I am a regular customer and related to the owner. A real disgusting manner to treat your customer when representing a well known and respected establishment. I'm truly saddened and feel disrespected. I have attached pictures where it is clearly visible that the vegetables are not up to the normal standard. It could have been 1 bad order that would have been settled with an apology and sincerity. Guess we have all learnt our...

Staff member treated us very badly and refused for us to sit at any other table except the one he said was okay for us to sit at - which was a 8-10 seater, this after denying us seating at other 8 seaters. I told him that I had a back issues and couldn't sit on a hard back chair. (The seating we were designated was hard and uncomfortable, this was the only table of this kind as the rest were softer and more comfortable). He said he's not able to help despite other seating being completely empty. The restaurant was stock empty with no other diners or Reserved signs except for 1 or 2 which were clearly designated, and he admitted there were 2 reserved tables. We were then sent away. He said if we wanted to use another table we must "be done within half an hour". For who? I still don't know at this point as the table wasn't reserved.

I've ate at this restaurant and I've had better service before. However I will NEVER return. It is unclear at this point why we were discriminated against or why we weren't good enough for the empty other tables that weren't reserved, also 8-10 seaters. The restaurant was very empty at 17:00.

After conversing with the manager it was apparent they were not booked out. She said she would escalate the issue, but never got back to us. Your restaurant is halal but your behavior is...