Cape Town Fish Market

For the fans of this blog, of which there are many I’m sure (*sarcasm) you would have noticed that I like food, some more than others. My two favourites, which you wouldn’t have to be a rocket scientist to guess are; sushi and steak. Over the last few months I have eaten at, praised and critiqued a number of restaurants in the beautiful city of Cape Town. Some restaurants have been good, others not so much. As human beings we often enjoy complaining about things, and let’s be honest its quite fun. We enjoy a good moan and the occasional rant. Thankfully the restaurants I have eaten at up until now haven’t given me the opportunity to practice human beings favourite pastime, until now. The restaurant I am about to unleash my fury upon is, wait for it; Cape Town Fish Market.

Once again it was a Sunday afternoon, and the extended family and I were off to Grand west for a celebratory birthday lunch. We found ourselves in the bizarre location of Grand West (don’t ask). Eating at Grand west is an experience in itself the setting is actually quite beautiful, particularly where the restaurants are located. It almost feels like you’re in the streets of a beautiful, old-school Italian city. Whilst there were a number of restaurants at our disposal, we decided that Cape Town Fish Market would be our best option as the sushi cravings become infectious among the family. Upon arrival the waitress (who had become aware of the fact that we were there for a birthday lunch) located us on the bow of the boat. This may sound a little strange but the restaurant is in designed in the form of a ship. As cheesy as it may have been, there we sat on the bow of the restaurant/ship eagerly awaiting great food and quality service.

There were a number of things I didn’t like about my lunch experience that day, firstly; our waitress. We had one of those ones who would insist on writing every single meal down word for word, thus slowing our ordering process down and turning our happy, joyful moods into frustrated and annoyed ones. I’m surprised she didn’t ask me to spell my order to her letter for letter. You would swear she was studying for her matric finals the way she was furiously writing away at that note pad. There are a number of people that may feel I should cut this waitress some slack, to those people I say: Jog on. If I go to a well-established restaurant I expect quality service and if not quality service, then at least competency. Just like if you walked in to the office of a lawyer or a doctor you wouldn’t expect a below average service, so why should I when I walk into a restaurant? Since writing this blog my eyes have been firmly widened to the service industry in Cape Town and, frankly, I’m appalled. Our service industry is shocking and restaurants need to put an emphasis on employing quality, well-trained staff that can fly the metaphorical flag high for their respective the restaurant. Service can make or break ones dining experience. Cape Town Fish Market was a shining example as to everything that is wrong with the service industry in Cape Town, shocking.

Despite my impaired perceptions of the service of the restaurant, I found comfort in the cliché; “the proof is in the pudding” and decided that I should put the quality of service, or lack thereof behind me and attempt to enjoy my meal. I ordered a seafood platter with sushi as a starter. If you’re familiar with sushi restaurants you will notice that most of them have a ‘conveyer belt’ kind of system where you can choose and literally take the various sushi options on offer. The options are packaged in little Tupperware style containers. When our sushi was brought to us, the serving staff couldn’t even take the already made sushi and put it on a plate but rather they decide to take the sushi as is, Tupperware container and all, and bring it to me portion for portion. At one stage we must have had about 10 unwanted Tupperware containers on our table, chaos. The sushi clearly wasn’t freshly made and there was little to be desired within those little Tupperware packages. My main meal, the seafood platter, wasn’t bad; I’ve had better, 5 out of 10.

All in all my experience at Cape Town Fish Market that particular afternoon was one I’d rather forget, and had it not been for the great company I was with my experience would have been an absolute disaster. Service, service, service, it needs to start becoming a priority in the restaurants of Cape Town. A good meal can be ruined by poor service, in the same breathe an average meal; can be uplifted by a service that is of a high standard. In the case of Cape Town Fish Market the service was horrible; however would quality service have turned my negative experience into a positive one? No, the foods shit.