Nomuzi.com

On Friday night after watching Sheila’s Day performance at The Market Theatre, my beautiful wife and I decided on venturing into Newtown’s nightlife to have supper at Nikki’s Oasis joint. However just about everything on the book wasn’t right about the hangout.

I’ve been to this joint a couple of times, however this was the very first visit on my sober senses, as in all previous visits, I had already had one too many to care about the service and my surroundings.

We identified an empty but dirty table, where a dreadlocked waiter provided assistance and pretended to be cleaning it by removing empty bottles, but was actually not cleaning. I had to call the waiter and instruct him to clean the table, since he had failed to do so in the first place and only managed to remove the empty bottles. The normal procedure ‘as all waiters would do’ is to ensure the table is cleaned before welcoming us to take a seat.

One basic aspect that the eatery failed to address is the dress code of the waiters. The dude attending us was dressed as one of those Hillbrow muggers (spotting a cap at night) who once had a field day on me during my days in the densely populated flatland. Uniform projects a professional image for an establishment and makes it easy for patrons to identify the joint’s crew. The entire workforce was dressed on their preferred attire, which made it difficult to differentiate them from the patrons.

Luckily we were given menus, and I ordered my favourite beer ‘Grolsch‘ and my partner wanted something not offered at the joint which is milkshake. So she opted to keep her options open for a drink after meals. While busy engaging with the waiter enquiring about the availability of a product, his cellphone rang and he simply ignored me and answered his phone and moved away from our table without excusing himself.

After a long wait he finally attended us and took orders. I settled for an Oxtail with Dumpling, while my dear wife preferred Mogodu with Samp. The food took 45minutes to be served and to our disappointment, nothing was fresh to justify the long wait – if at all it was mildly preheated in a microwave and shoved to us, to make matters worse the joint was a quarter full to justify the long wait.

My dumpling was hard and cold, with the oxtail almost warm, however with each bite I took, I could tell its been prepared a day or so ago and only given a bit of microwave treatment to give it some life. The same applied with my partner’s order, nothing was freshly cooked, all warmed up. I would have ensure I thoroughly heated the food up on the microwave to convince my clients its been freshly cooked.

The joint played my preferred genre, which happens to be jazz, however the volume proved to be too much for my comfort. Loud music is acceptable in a nightclub, since you’re there to dance, however loud music in a relaxed environment becomes a pain since you struggle to converse with your companion.

If my memory serves me right this joint has been around for years and its very discouraging to note that the very basics on running an eatery are not followed. Eateries in Soweto beat this joint hands down for service and presentation.

Service matters all the time in the restaurant industry, even if the joint has an inferior interior, with a top-notch service your patrons will not see through your old chairs or metal tables.

My advise to the owner of the joint is to work on the very basics of running a business…it don’t cost a fortune and he will command respect and more patronage from new clients if that is addressed.

Right now, I’ll never dare suggest the joint to my friends for fear of embarrassing myself.