Poplars Restaurant

Friday, February 23rd, 2018

Reviewed by Christa Matthee

We had our son's first birthday party at The Backyard Restaurant at D'Aria on Sunday 11 February 2018. What a disaster! I have been corresponding with the owner and the Events Co-ordinator for almost a week now and they just want to compensate me by a mere apology for the lack of service and all that went wrong. They did not meet ANY of my requirements that I clearly stated on an e-mail to them before hand. The service was pathetic on the day and the after service is even worse. List of points that I gave through to them: • When we arrived at more or less 12:00, the tables/chairs were not moved as discussed to have enough space for the Safe house. We had to move it out of the way to start the setup as the people would arrive in an hours time and the photographer in an half hour. My husband, my father-in-law (of almost 80 years old!) and a friend had to assist. We originally agreed that we start setting up at 11:30am. Thus we were running late, but it was still not ready when we arrived. • We had to sweep the floor and clean it up when we arrived in order to setup, as it was very dirty. • The tables where not set with the necessary cutlery and juice/water. After I requested that, they also did not bring the ice. We had to make do without it. • I requested a plate to place my cupcakes on from 3 different people, before I was assisted • I requested the pizza order twice and then we waited for over an hour to actually receive it. The adults started eating the children’s food as they were so hungry! • My son had a bad cut in his toe because of glass pieces that was lying around the left hand side of the area. We had to take him to the emergency room after the party to have a look at the cut. My Mother also picked up a few glass pieces on the other side under the table and threw it away to avoid another accident. That is not very child friendly and I would think you would make extra sure of that if somebody booked the venue for a children’s party. • On the invoice we noticed that there was a “cake handling” fee that I was not informed about. Thus I do not agree that we had to pay for that. • I went inside the restaurant and requested that waitress assist my friend with 2 little children to order something for them, but nobody arrived. I would never recommend them to anybody that we know. We are also in the kids entertainment industry and you have to meet the client's expectations and give the service that you agreed to beforehand and if not, you compensate them for the lack there off. You do not even negotiate or communicate up and down about it. You try to make up for it in any way you can to keep the client as a future supporter. But they just ignore my requests and say that although their service was bad (which they agree) they do not feel that they need to compensate me at all. Only for the cake fee of R100!