Darling Brewery- what's with the consistently bad service?

Darling Brewery- what's with the consistently shocking service?

In September 2017 my husband and I came up to see the flowers and popped in at the Brewery for beer tasting and lunch. It was midweek so you weren't busy. We weren't in a hurry and were enjoying the beer, but 40 minutes was a looong time to wait for our food- good food, but shocking service. Kept having to ask how much longer.

The next weekend I brought my three adult children to see the flowers. They were interested to see the brew pub and bring a group of friends up from Cape Town for a birthday party. So you were full- so what. You knew it was tourist season. You have x amount of seats so surely you can cater for this. An hour and many complaints later our food arrives. After I went downstairs and demanded service TWICE. Food not so good this time. My daughter and I had chicken salad. I got twice as much chicken as she did. Her chicken was burnt. How do you explain the consistency in two plates of food made at the same time for the same table. The pulled pork was tasty but cold.

So today we come up for the mountain bike race. By now we know better than to stay for lunch- bur coffee station is empty and we have 20 minutes to the start, so we order two flat whites- at R26 each- not a cheap deal. We wait 10 minutes, and the assistant isnow nowhere to be seen. I go upstairs and get some excuse and an apology. She's been looking for change for someone else and there was "some problem" with the coffee. So why didn't she tell me earlier. Eventually the coffee comes, but too late- we need to go to the start. THERE WAS NO-ONE ELSE AT THE COFFEE STATION FOR 10 MINUTES at around 9:35. So I just ask for my money back.

As soon as the race was finished, we went to the Padstal for lunch- and had a relaxed time with good service.

You are a tourist/events venue- why can't your management manage this? We have told all our friends who go up that way to surf/bike/hike/ do flowers- DON'T do the Darling Brewery. Perhaps you don't care because you draw the crowds anyway. Well you missed us coming up in winter with a crowd of mates for a day's outing with good beer and good food when perhaps it's not tourist or MTB season. And we won't stay in Darling now either- we will go to Stanford instead. And you've missed our mates mates and their mates- bad service spreads. It's a shame, because it's a cool place- but with very uncool service. Or maybe a very uncool staircase that doesn't facilitate communication with the waitrons and the kitchen?