Jiko

[imatoad]

Dined at Jiko last trip, food and service were fantastic. Took a few minutes before we were seated and spoke to the African host and hostess about where they were from, talk about two really nice, informative CM's, they couldn't tell me enough about their hometown's in South Africa. Great overall experience.

 

[LindaR]

Unfortunately, our experience was negative and we probably would not choose to dine there again. It was not a problem with the food, rather a problem with the waitstaff......

We (dd16 and I) chose to have an early dinner there. I'm not certain I remember exactly what I ordered (salmon, I think - it's what I usually eat) and my daughter ordered the filet over mac'n cheese.

When the plates were placed in front of us, our waiter disappeared. I did not notice at first, that he had not given my daughter a knife to cut her steak. She was very discreetly trying to cut her steak with a regular knife (she was hungry) and look for him to ask for a better knife. Once he was finally spotted and we signaled to him, he came over. DD nicely told him that she was unable to cut her steak with the table knife and could she please have a steak knife. We were absolutely amazed at what he did. He made a loud noise, grabbed her plate, snatched the knife out of her hand and proceeded to chop her steak into tiny pieces suitable for a two year old. She was mortified. I quietly told him that his response to her request was not appropriate.........he left. Being a teenager, my daughter was trying to hide the tears in her eyes because the diners around us were looking at her and he had humilitated her in front of them.

She did not "ask" him to grab her food and cut her steak! All she wanted to do then was leave the restaurant, dinner unfinished.

Took me several minutes to turn the mood around. I spoke to the manager and told him what had transpired. He apologized.

Now, anyone with a teenager would understand that this experience is stuck in her head and even though that waiter may not ever be encountered again, she would not step into Jiko again.

My daughter and I eat out alot. Fine dining, family dining, fast food "dining", and she (and I) felt that the crass behavior of the waiter was very much out of place at this level of facility (wouldn't have gone over very well at ANY place).

Jiko - not for us.

 

[pozey]

Linda,

The behavior that your waiter showed should not be tolorated, whether it be at Jiko, Ruth Chris, The Outback, Western Sizzlin', or Joe Bob's Steakhouse.

His actions were appalling.

I am not sure that I would have accepted just the manager's apology. I am not saying I would ask for the mean to be comped, but I would have demanded the waiter apologize to your daughter in person.

 

[dkddis]

This was our first splurge restaraunt at the world for my wife and I so we went all out with appetizer, a nice bottle of wine and dessert. I loved the Lamb Shank and my wife had the Filet. The waiter was very helpful in guiding us on a good wine choice to compliment our meals. The app we had was very good (Taste of Africa) The whole experience was very good. I will go again for sure.

 

[LindaR]

Posey, I was trying to be brief in my storytelling! The manager did try to "comp" us for the meal. While it was a negative experience, I was still trying to use it as a "learning" experience, too. I told the manager to address himself to my daughter and let her decide. She just looked at him (you KNOW how teenagers can do this!) and stated that we DID eat our meal and we WOULD pay for the food and that we would NOT return to find out if "he could show us a better dining experience".

For us, there are too many wonderful places to try, to waste time on those who did not impress us.

IF we had gone back, she would have been tense and expecting something negative.......which would have colored her experience anyway!

 

[pozey]

Linda, I think you handled that wonderfully.

I agree that there are way too many places to have a great dinner than to return to a place you had a bad experience. However, in your case, I might give it another try some time on a later trip if you enjoyed the food. Most of the reviews of Jiko are positive.

In my case, it was more of me not really caring for the seasonings (or taste, if you will) of the food. Not that the food was bad - it just didn't "fit" my taste buds.

It's not that we had a bad experience at Jiko - the place was beautiful and the servers were great. It's just that it wasn't my cup of tea - so to speak.

 

[LindaR]

Pozey, I know what you mean about the "taste". We were very excited to try Boma. Didn't do a thing for us! We tried it at breakfast and we tried it for dinner. Couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. But we figured that maybe the spices were just too subtle for us. We live in the southwest and eat spicy mexican food regularly and we just didn't find anything special about it.

That being said, we like german food, french, italian, mediterranean.......!


Who knows? I feel the same about resorts. Disney (for example) creates so many different resorts so that there's something to appeal to everyone (if you don't like this place, you may like this other) and its the same for eating establishments! Gotta try everything once!

 

[pozey]

Linda, you are exactly correct. Food is very subjective. Some places I love, others can't stand and visa versa.

We live in Oklahoma and have some great choices in Mexican restaurants. Some very authentic and some Tex-Mex. We love them both. The same with BBQ places - we have some great BBQ joints around here.

I am currently planning our trip for June and am working on a list of restaurants. It's difficult. There are places that we've eaten previously that we love and want to go back to, but there are others we haven't tried and want to try. Decisions, decisions...