Lemon Butta (Tyger Valley)

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

Reviewed by Elmarie Stodart

Yesterday, we had a table booked for lunch at the Willowbridge branch. It was supposed to be an early birthday lunch with my family, who I don't get to spend much time with.

We arrived and ordered drinks and sushi to share as starters, which took a bit of time to arrive. We placed our main course orders and whilst waiting for it, the chef started screaming at one of the staff to get out of the kitchen. This continued for a few minutes and made it impossible for us to have a conversation. After waiting 45 minutes and still no main courses, I asked the waitress how long it was going to take. She went over to the manager who was standing around looking unsure of how to handle the unpleasantness. At this stage, the atmosphere in the restaurant was so unpleasant and staff all walked around looking miserable. The manager eventually came over and said that some of the kitchen staff arrived drunk at work. They would start preparing our meals now.

Whilst I can sympathise with having staff issues, it is surely not paying patrons' problem if the restaurant's staff shows up intoxicated? And how incredibly unprofessional of the chef to start screaming at staff so everybody sitting close to the kitchen could hear and see what was going on. Surely you take the staff outside and send them home, without your customers having to witness the situation? All the manager had to do was inform customers that they were short staffed and food would take longer than usual to prepare. But to stand there in front of me with a mouth full of teeth, made me even angrier. We asked to cancel our main course orders and at least he had the decency not to charge us for the drinks and sushi we had up to that point. But my birthday celebration was ruined and we ended up going home.

It was the worst experience I've ever had in a restaurant. I cannot believe that such poor management and behaviour by a chef is allowed. This is the kind of unbelievable scenes you see on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares show. Suffice to say, I will never set foot in Lemon Butta again and I will advise those who plan on doing so, to steer clear as well. There are more than enough wonderful restaurants in Cape Town to support, without having to be subjected to such an unpleasant experience.