My girlfriends and I wanted to do dinner at a ‘never been tried before’ restaurant and decided to try out Sophia’s Bistro in Illovo. The evening started out with loads of laughs, engaging banter and what promised to be a great culinary experience. The food was nice enough (let’s just say my taste buds weren’t twerking), the service acceptable, although it could definitely be kicked up a notch or two - everything was going ok. Enter one ol’ Nick, the manager of the establishment. Not so ok. Towards closing time, we are finishing off our last round of drinks; my friend goes to the restroom. After some time she comes back looking distressed and close to tears. Apparently some Einstein switched off the restroom lights and locked the door while she was in there. She called out to say that there was still someone inside, but got no response. After a few minutes of banging and shouting, the panic set in. She’s in the dark, locked up and doesn’t have a phone. The waiter who had been serving us, happened to go to the men’s restroom and heard my friend’s distressed calls, and summarily came to her rescue. Turns out the manager, good ol’Nick, turned off the lights and locked the door without checking. When the story is relayed to him, instead of an apology, he becomes defensive and tells us that he always checks, but probably forgot to do so this evening. Oh sorry, excuse us, just tonight huh? Well you have a patron banging wildly and screaming for help, and all you can say is ‘I usually check, but I probably forgot to do so this evening”. Really? (And why anyone would lock up while patrons are still in the restaurant is beyond me). The way in which he handled the situation was completely disappointing and unprofessional. Some people suffer from claustrophobia, you know. All he could offer us was some half-baked response. Needless to say, we let him know in no uncertain terms that we would never be back there again! It would seem that the waiters are the only redeeming factor of this establishment. Nick, you give Sophia’s a bad name…and a really bad taste!

A beautiful evening, I guess inspired by Ms. Loren turned into a terrible experience with one of my friends being locked in the restaurant's outside bathroom. After screams to get someone's attention she was eventually saved by one of the waiters. The worst part was the reaction of the Manager Nick.. Oh dear, what would it hurt to apologize to the patron. We were met with arogance and shifting of blame...

We had the perfect Sunday lunch at the new location (in Illovo) of an old family favourite! No miskateks on the food, wine or service side, as we have become accustomed to over the years in Rosebank. Calamari and scallops starters very good, Kingklip and Duck mains both exquisite! And the children were ecstatic about the addition of a sushi menu...

Very impressed, and it takes a lot to impress me normally. Food was fresh and delicious. The atmosphere had a nice buzz without being loud. Waiters were attentive, polite and knew their menu well. Highly recommend.

My husband and I decided to celebrate our anniversary at Sophia’s Bistro on the 26 June 2012. We ordered the seafood soup, which is supposed to be a signature dish, and although the liquid was very tasty, every piece of the seafood was tough. The manager did come over and ask how it was and we were honest with him, and he said it had been overcooked. The main dish I ordered the gnocci, and the sauce was just plain old white sauce - pretty awful. But we didn’t complain as by this time we just wanted to go home. I was very surprised that even though he knew the soup was inedible that he didn’t even give us a discount on it. We will stick to Mastroantonio in the same building, we will not be returning to Sohpia’s.