My girlfriends and I wanted to do dinner at a ‘never been tried before’ restaurant and decided to try out Sophia’s Bistro in Illovo. The evening started out with loads of laughs, engaging banter and what promised to be a great culinary experience. The food was nice enough (let’s just say my taste buds weren’t twerking), the service acceptable, although it could definitely be kicked up a notch or two - everything was going ok. Enter one ol’ Nick, the manager of the establishment. Not so ok. Towards closing time, we are finishing off our last round of drinks; my friend goes to the restroom. After some time she comes back looking distressed and close to tears. Apparently some Einstein switched off the restroom lights and locked the door while she was in there. She called out to say that there was still someone inside, but got no response. After a few minutes of banging and shouting, the panic set in. She’s in the dark, locked up and doesn’t have a phone. The waiter who had been serving us, happened to go to the men’s restroom and heard my friend’s distressed calls, and summarily came to her rescue. Turns out the manager, good ol’Nick, turned off the lights and locked the door without checking. When the story is relayed to him, instead of an apology, he becomes defensive and tells us that he always checks, but probably forgot to do so this evening. Oh sorry, excuse us, just tonight huh? Well you have a patron banging wildly and screaming for help, and all you can say is ‘I usually check, but I probably forgot to do so this evening”. Really? (And why anyone would lock up while patrons are still in the restaurant is beyond me). The way in which he handled the situation was completely disappointing and unprofessional. Some people suffer from claustrophobia, you know. All he could offer us was some half-baked response. Needless to say, we let him know in no uncertain terms that we would never be back there again! It would seem that the waiters are the only redeeming factor of this establishment. Nick, you give Sophia’s a bad name…and a really bad taste!