On my last evening to see my girl friends before leaving for France to study, we decided to grab a drink at this french themed bistrot on Dorp Street in Stellenbosch. While I will admit that I had made a mistake in booking for 15 people when I knew that we would probably be a group of 10-15 people, I did inform the owner of the fact that I wanted to know if they could accommodate a table of 15 despite the fact that we will almost certainly be less people. I wanted to be sure that if everyone was able to attend that there would be space for everyone. As this evening was an exceptionally rainy evening and most of my friends would be driving through from the neighbouring towns, it is normal that many people were not able to come in the end. This is wherein my fault lies as I only informed the restaurant of this an hour before our booking when I had everyone’s final answers. In the end we were 5 people who shared a bottle of sparking wine (220) as we were all driving and students, a large bottle of water and a plate of fish (120+/-). We had never said that we would all be eating a meal of our own. The owner came over to our table right after we had paid and promptly begun to verbally attack me, my character and that of my friends. I have never been so humiliated and shocked in my entire life. We were told that we were “young and needed to learn how things are done” and that I will “never ever do this again” and to “never come back” under any circumstances. I was not able to get a word in edgewise to apologise or even to pay an extra amount such as a cover charge for the initial booking (there were never any stipulation about a cover charge of a minimum spend but if the owner had simply asked me and not treated me in such a disrespectful way I would have gladly paid and was about to offer to pay an additional fee). Of course, I was not able to apologise or explain that friends had cancelled due to a multitude of reasons and the owner then told us in so many words to get out immediately. He exclaimed “shoo shoo” at us the entire time as we promptly stood up and exited the building. I am mortified and will never forget how we were treated. What an awful experience, ironically from a Frenchmen on the eve of my departure to live and study in Paris. This is the second and last time that I have visited this unprofessional establishment. I am sorry for the roll that my thoughtlessness played but the owner’s actions were inexcusable under any circumstances and I know that all of my friends and the other tables in the restaurant agreed. Fais gaffe…