“It was ten months before I threw out my first customer. But I was like a serial killer. Once I'd got the taste for it, I couldn't stop”, said Marco Pierre White in an interview with the Guardian in 2001. The restaurateur famously kicked out customers if they asked for salt and pepper, or turned up wearing bicycle clips.

It seems unlikely that Mr White would get away with that kind of attitude these days. Scandal spreads fast, thanks to Twitter, blogging and online review sites, whether the incident is a burger joint’s ill-managed special, or sushi spot banning a blogger. Now more than ever, the customer experience is under the spotlight. But is service really on the downward slide, or is it just that our voices are finally being heard?

“Customers tend to demand much more value for their money,” says Eat Out reviewer Hennie Fisher. “The recent introduction of the Consumer Protection Act has also brought about a change in consumers’ perceptions of their own rights.” That said, Hennie believes that service has actually improved in the past 10 years.

Eat Out editor and judge Abigail Donnelly agrees. “I have seen a huge shift from good service to spectacular service in the top-end restaurants, and a few franchises have really invested in rigorous training and mentoring programmes.” Despite this, Abigail feels there is still work to be done.

A survey of other industry players suggests this is a commonly held opinion: service in the top restaurants is world-class, but in the smaller businesses and less service-oriented franchises, it’s a different story.

Where are we going wrong?
“Service is only excellent when [staff] are trained and mentored. This takes time, energy and financial investment, plus the owners need to know the intricacies of good service. This seems to be getting worse in all but the most well-run restaurants,” says restaurant reviewer, Charlotte Pregnolato. Indeed, while some restaurants invest in training, others seem rely on nothing more than common sense, good manners and a quick test of the menu.

Then there’s the issue of consistency. “At a particular restaurant you could get brilliant service or terrible service depending on who serves you,” says blogger Dax Villaneuva of Relax with Dax (www.relax-with-dax.co.za). "Service staff see waiting tables as a temporary thing.”

Horst Frehse, GM of the 12 Apostles Hotel, agrees that professionalism is a sticking point. “The problem is that the ‘waiter’s profession’ is still not recognised and paid according to the skills required. In the majority of food outlets, the waiter’s job is considered an inferior job.” This view is held both by their employers – particularly if they are not experienced in hospitality – and by their friends and family.

Who’s getting it right?
Cape Town fine dining restaurant The Roundhouse won the service award at the 2011 Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards for their technically faultless yet warm service. They use the Let’s Sell Lobster training system – a digitised programme of classes and tests – which allows staff to gain accreditation for their skill.

“We teach to an understanding,” says Let’s Sell Lobster’s Fasie Malherbe, explaining that the key is to provide the server with knowledge to allow them to serve with confidence, and to be themselves.

Giorgio Nava, of 95 Keerom, Carne, Mozzarella SA and Caffé Milano has a different method. On any given visit to one of Giorgio’s four restaurants, you’re likely to see the restaurateur on the floor himself. (We’ve frequently wondered whether he has a body double.) “It helps to keep a handle on service, to interact with customers, and to present the menu. The chef is probably the best person for the job,” says Giorgio. While this may be the ideal situation, it’s not always possible. How, for instance, do restaurateurs cope when things get a little larger?

“We work very hard at our culture,” says Rob Laing, operations manager for vida e caffe, which now has 54 branches, both locally and internationally. “We are serious about our customers and our product, but try not to take life too seriously.” The training programme to become a vida barista takes nine months, with staff starting off in cleaning, and progressing through baking to food prep, with theoretical and practical tests run by head office.

Tashas is another franchise that seems to be getting it right, with many Eat Out professional reviewers remarking on their fast, efficient and friendly staff. They have a slightly different method of keeping things together. “I was at one of their new stores recently and they had seconded staff from an established branch to work with new staff. And it works,” says reviewer Janine Walker.

SA vs Europe
Speaking at a recent event in England, Prue Leith, the South African-born restaurateur and cookery school founder, said that she actually prefers to hire staff from countries such as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America in her British businesses. Britons, she says, lack the right work attitude. So perhaps the European model is not all it’s cracked up to be.

“I’ve just returned from a trip overseas, which was real eye opener,” Janine tells us. “We are often so disparaging about service in this country, automatically assuming that anything international is better than what happens here. But our service is often just so much friendlier.” Fasie, whose company trains staff in 38 countries, agrees. While acknowledging the European heritage of the fine dining style we practice in South Africa, he says we are not far off. “European service can be technically good, but we’re far ahead in character, charm and personality.”

This is echoed by Horst Frehse, who says the feedback from international guests at 12 Apostles is excellent. “Maybe a little less efficient and sometimes a little slow – but we win all along for genuine friendliness, kindness and warmth, which is rated much higher.”

It seems then that many of our restaurants have something to learn from these service-led institutions. And while we’ve got a way to go, we shouldn’t be too disparaging of service in this country. As our editor Abigail says, “There’s just something about a friendly South African smile.”

By Katharine Jacobs

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Photographs: Top notch service is to be found at The Roundhouse, The Greenhouse and Azure.