A BAD EXCLUSIVE VENUE FOR PRIVATE FUNCTIONS

On the 8th and 9th of July 2022 I planned 2 events for my brother and my niece. We initially booked The Oyster Box for both occasions but due to a change in itinerary we ended up booking 9th Avenue for the 9th of July.

The exclusive venue booking fee at 9th Avenue Waterside Restaurant is overpriced with absolutely no value. If you would like the worst private booking experience then book yourself 9th Avenue. These are the reasons why I will never recommend a private booking for one of their floors for anyone;

1. No reasonable setup times for decor 2. Strangers walking in privately booked venue 3. No PA system/ sound or event entertainment allowed 4. Too many restrictions for decor 5. Venue did not honour agreed setup times so we only had access to the venue to start setup 2 hours later delaying everything else and causing humiliation to our guests

My worst personal bad experience with 9th Avenue is paying extra funds in error whilst making a couple of deposits to settle the event invoice and getting zero honesty from their end to communicate that I overpaid them. They allocated the funds to gratuity without my consent or approval. I paid cash gratuity to the waiters that served us but the restaurant kept the extra funds paid in error to themselves.

I realised this error when Oyster Box Hotel had the honesty to advise that I had overpaid them with R200 and they requested my banking details to refund extra funds overpaid in error.

Tipping in South Africa is a standard practice that I always ensure I do, however, it is not compulsory by law more especially since I was dissatisfied with the venue and I paid R80500 to entertain 35 guests. The restaurant refuses to pay the additional funds paid in error and I will be challenging the company legally as we incurred more expenses from vendors that needed extra hours that weren’t initially agreed on.

The question is, did they even give this money to the waiters or keep it for the company?

I am not the first to experience this, I know of someone that was also a victim to this unethical practice.

I must commend the staff for doing a great job in terms of the food and hospitality. It is a great experience for couples or smaller groups but definitely a NO GO for private functions. There is no value for the exclusive venue hire of R25000.