Reasonable Expectations For A Restaurant

In this day of fast food and avoiding cooking, people spend a lot of time in restaurants. With the demand being so high, some shady characters are getting away with murder in terms of quality of food and service. This should be stopped and you can help by not accepting it. So what should you expect form a good restaurant?

The first thing you can expect is reasonable prices. You should not have to give an arm and a leg just for a leg of lamb even if the sheep it came from did. Some of the more upmarket restaurants, especially restaurants in Johannesburg, think that because they employ the best chefs they can find (often not true) that they can charge exorbitant prices for the same meals, just smaller portions. This is something I have never understood. I would rather go and eat a large well cooked piece of steak than a spiced beyond belief sliver of meat for the same price.

Do not settle for the tiny portions that these hopped up places seem to think is a fair meal. I have never heard of a customer complaining that the portions were too big after all. They just take home a doggy bag and have it for lunch the next day. Nothing wrong with that. The only time a ridiculously tiny portion of food is allowed to be priced at its weight in gold, is if the ingredients in that meal are only attainable from a tiny island in the middle of the ocean at an a certain time of year. Otherwise, you are being ripped off.

You should also expect a certain level of service. You do not have to put up with an useless waiter who cannot remember their own name, never mind the glass of water you asked for twenty minutes ago. All the restaurants in Johannesburg worth going to have hired quality staff and take all complaints seriously. Do give the poor fellows a little slack on a busy night. They often have to handle five or six or more tables of people each and just cannot be everywhere at once. The same courtesy goes to the kitchen staff. They can only cook so many meals at one time before they start getting things wrong, so just be a little more patient on a busy night and go with the flow. Of course, do not allow yourself to be walked over and forgotten on a busy night, a good restaurant should be able to manage just fine if s little slower than usual.

So, basically, the things you should expect from good restaurants in Johannesburg are as follows: reasonable prices, well sized portions and good service from both front of house and kitchen staff. If any restaurant falls short of these few expectations, you are well within your rights to complain to the management, and if that does not resolve the issue, to complain to the owner of the restaurant.

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