Bloemendal Restaurant

Monday, November 17th, 2014

Reviewed by Trudi DuToit

We had my daughter's wedding in the cellar at Bloemendal Restaurant this weekend - what a Kafkaesque experience! The promised welcoming drinks were not served, the promised four waiters were absent (only two men behind the bar, where guests had to go and fetch their own drinks), and the promised bedouin tent (for us a deal breaker as we were going to have the ceremony there) was cancelled the evening before the event. Despite us having five fewer guests than we booked for, not enough bowls for the soup were set out, when I asked the owner to replenish the empty serving bowls with many guests still in the buffet queue, I was rudely rebuffed, and when I enquired about the vegetarian meals we pre-ordered, I was told "they can eat the chicken and fish". Guests who tried to use the toilets in the foyer because those in the cellar were flooded, were chased away ... to name but a few of the strange incidents that convinced me that the managers thought service was something confined to a church. Maybe it was because our 70-odd guests were not as important to them as the 200 or so in the restaurant upstairs, where all the efforts of the staff and management were focused ... and probably most of the food went. Some of our guests left again when they arrived and were told that it is the XXX wedding ... the "upstairs" surname. Another of our guests had a welcoming drink (set out in the foyer) snatched out of her hand after a few sips when it was discovered that she was there for the "downstairs" and not the "upstairs" wedding. Luckily we had fantastic guests who took everything in their stride and laughed the mishaps away - and by all accounts had a great time, despite the lack of service and the Basil Fawlty-mentality of the management. In true Basil Fawlty-style we got the royal treatment when we first saw the venue seven months ago - but, alas, all the promises of extras and assistance evaporated over time and as they failed to turn up for scheduled planning meetings, failed to respond to emails and shouted at us over the phone, we got the full Basil Fawlty-treatment reserved for unwanted guests. PS: we booked the most expensive buffet menu option, and therefore must have offended them in some other way.