Recently I've been thinking a lot about the restaurant business, mainly because it's my dream to one day open up my own restaurant.
I've realised that in South Africa specifically our restaurant culture is extremely so, more so than anywhere else I've been.
Firstly I think it's a huge problem that in SA people are willing to buy into concepts rather than quality. Two nights ago I went to Dukes in Greenside. Luckily we had a reservation because usually you'd have to queue for hours sometimes to discover that the kitchen has closed before you get a table. Its uber popular, its super trendy. The concept is gourmet burgers, with the best ingredients, the most outrageous yet delicious combinations. I've been there once before, when Dukes first opened and I was thoroughly disappointed then. Granted I wasnt eating red meat at the time so could only choose from the chicken and vegetarian options so i decided to give them another try. I don;t understand how people rave about the taste and quality of Dukes burgers when my burger was extremely over-cooked and dry, the bun was stale and falling apart, the wedges were undercooked! The only thing I can think of is that people are paying for the concept rather than the quality. I've seen it with lots of other places too! You should not be serving up a concept day after day on monogrammed crockery if you can't deliver on actual taste. I actually prefer my neighbourhood Chinese restaurant with a tiny sushi conveyor belt and a card machine that never works because even if it doesnt look like much the quality of the food is awesome and the service is good.
Which brings me to my next point about service. In south Africa instead of rewarding good service we tip out of guilt. Sure, being a waiter is not the best job in the world, but it is a job and we should be trying our best at any job that we do. We live in a society that's meant to reward hard work yet we look down on waiters and patronise them by tipping even when their work isn't up to scratch. A Greek/Finnish friend of mine was shocked that in SA waiters demand tips even when they forget orders and the kitchen is late with your food. Yet we all feel a sense of extreme guilt if we don't. We say " Ag shame I wonder how he's even getting home so late after his shift" or " Awww man she probably has three kids to feed just give her a good tip". don't get me wrong we should be empathetic and sympathetic but if we're rewarding bad service can we really then complain that service isn't good? And staff should not take it personally either. If you've got a bad tip its not some rich brat with a vendetta against you but rather someone telling you that they werent happy with your service and you need to do better next time.
