The Gathering Zambia — Restaurant in Lusaka Province

Hello people, I had one of my worst experiences at The Gathering yesterday. I don’t even know where to begin…. I hate trash talking restaurants on social media but yesterday’s experience is an exception. Walked in, and no service for 15/20 minutes till I managed to flag down a waiter, he disappeared before he took my order waited 10min then walked to bar where the owner was. Greeted her politely but she had this rude / sarcastic tone to her. Eeww, as the owner of the institution have some respect for your clients. Anyways. Ordered some cocktails that took just as long as food would to come to the table, they were pretty good (the only good thing i takeaway from the place). I ordered some starters, which NEVER CAME until 40min or so later and not everything. Every dish was coming 15 minutes apart. The first starter came ‘Nacho fries’ that supposedly comes with guacamole sour cream and salsa(it came with neither) there were some other sour/ watery sauces. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Three of my friends got their food. Chicken raw, - the waiter apologized but we never heard from the manager or owners even though they took the plate in. My Friend was put off by the raw chicken so he didn’t really want anything to eat so they offered a free choice of cocktail (which was added to the bill)😂 Truffle fries (k160) I get truffle is expensive but those fries had something other than truffle oil. Then the spinach dip came (that I ordered as a starter) which wasn’t the worst thing. It was OK. Here we are an hour later with no appetite and still no sign of mains l. So we ask that they just cancel the remaining of the order , the waiter insisted that they are plating and should be out right away. ‘One of the managers’ who is actually a waitress came to ask what the problem is, we explained and she just to took the plate of nacho fries back (no apology no nothing) - OK Then comes our Le Bistro burger (k150)I think. Thick patty smaller than the bun. I asked for lettuce in it as it doesn’t come with but no sign of lettuce, but also no tomato no onions, just SLICED cheese pickles and a bun, the bun after a bite just started breaking (had to eat it like naan and meat)😂😂. At this point I am so hungry I eat half of one. It tasted worse than it looked. We asked them to take back the other one bc no ways we were eating that. Now is when I think we had enough 😭 so we just asked them to cancel whatever hasn’t come out and couldn’t wait to get out of there. Bill came- most of the things were removed that we did not eat. No sign of anybody form management to apologize, Or to come talk to us to see what the issue was, nothing. Such disgusting behavior. Especially the owner lady - why do you own a restaurant if you can’t talk to customers without an attitude or being rude? The only thing I regret is not taking any pictures(I was in shock) what I saw online VS...

The table service was awful. We made an order for food and drinks, only to be told one hour later that the the strawberry mint margarita was not available. It took another hour before the waiter could come back and get another drink order. The chicken dish also got cancelled due to availability but the time it takes to know your meal is unavailable is too long. It shouldn't take an hour after ordering to know your meal isn't available. Also other tables seemed to get preferential treatment due to race. Folks that came after us were served first&quicker. The music was also biased but after we spoke to the manager he atleast put on a more diverse playlist. Eventually I got my drink, the La mezcalaria& it was good . The food is good too but the service we got was awful. They have a wide range of drink options and...

Does not accept international cards, debit or credit, though they have mastercard branding / previously accepted international cards. This made for a horrible payment experience. The server said she could accompany us to withdraw money - as if we'd walk 2 miles together in the dark though we had offered to make a bank transfer for the owners.

The food is fine but I think the person who made the menu avoids onions and garlic. Maybe they're just saving money by not adding oil to the food or buying more lemons and limes.

Most of the experimental cocktails with unique flavors are made with liberal use of syrups. Some of them might be infused in-house but a number of them are generic with that nice...