This is probably my all time favourite fusion restaurant - must have the spinach har gau, crispy beef and the salt and pepper calamari.

This is probably one of my all time favourite restaurants... must have the spinach har gau, the salt and pepper calamari and the crispy beef.

It’s not the restaurant it used to be and it seems to have been left behind in the wave of new and exciting restaurants that’s hit Cape Town. Paper serviettes, disposable chop sticks and poor service. You shouldn’t expect that when you’re paying a decent amount of money. The food however is still good.

Haiku - Asian Tapas and an Attempted Fleecing I have been a regular diner at Haiku since they opened in Cape Town in 2005 and a staunch supporter of the Bukhara Group over many years . I will not be be back ! Celebrated a birthday dinner with a table of 5 last night . The food was everything one expects from the Group ; good, innovative, stylish, not cheap and accompanied by slick and attentive service . My issue came with the presentation of the bill. A ten percent service charge was added (not disclosed on the menu) and “ hidden “ above the sub total line . I have no problem with this practice in itself but personally prefer a tip to be discretionary based on the overall dining and service experience (in this instance it would have been more than the obligatory ten percent) and do not really feel mandatory service charges are warranted on small tables . But by far my bigger problem was a fraudulent and dishonest attempt to encourage a further and additional tip, by the Waiter highlighting a second tip line ( after the bill had been totaled with the mandatory tip included )and the and the construct of the bill, which encouraged further tipping over and above the mandatory charge already pre printed and billed . In addition, the waiter failed to disclose that a tip had been included and the unsuspecting would simply have tipped twice , encouraged by the highlighting of the secondary vacant tip line . When challenged on the issue the Waiter advised that “ the senior Waiters had told him to do it “ . I took the issue up with the Manager who advised me, with an air of indifference that it was simply “the way the till slips were printed and there was nothing he could do”. I did say that a disclosure by the Waiter and control by Management on what was hand written on the bill may be a partial solution to their apparent printing issues . I expressed my displeasure and left a business card with an invitation for someone to contact me.

We went to Haiku on 28 December for dinner and were told that we had to leave the restaurant at 9pm. The restaurant was only half full and obviously not fully booked for the evening. The waiter was not very interested, showed us the menu and insisted that it was different from the one at Haiku Waterfront, which in fact is identical. We know, because we had dinner there the evening before. We started with Thai coconut soup and that was okay, nothing special, we prepare a better one ourselves in a blink of an eye. The prawn tempura was soggy, the Japanese garlic fried rice was not fried and was delivered stone cold. We sent the rice back and it was heated (probably in the microwave). No cutleries were offered, the assumption was that we were eating our entire meal with chopsticks. The wine was not poured at the table, we were not offered a look at the wine bottle prior to pouring. The beef dish, the vegatables and the chicken dish that we ordered tasted good as well as the ice cream we had for dessert. As we were not at all impressed by the unattentive service from our waiter and had to send back the rice, we left a small tip. On the way out the waiter came after us, asking if there had been anything wrong. we explained to him that we didn't feel very welcome, we were not impressed by the service and as an example we told him that the rice was served cold and had to be sent back. he replied: 'So, it was just the rice?' We were appalled by the remark and were not going into further detail. We just left. The food is not bad, although very much overpriced, but they should really improve on their attitude and their service! At the Waterfront we received a better service and the staff there is more friendly and attentive.