Verdicchio Restaurant and Wine Cellar

Wednesday, February 26th, 2025

Reviewed by Nirvasin Pillay

I have already raised my concerns with the manager, but will do so in writing here. She suggested raising my concerns once I have "calmed down", so here they are. We made an online reservation for 7pm on Saturday, 22 February 2025. We received two notifications post the reservation, making it very clear that we need to be there by no later than 15 minutes after our reservation time. We arrived at 7pm sharp, only to be told to wait as our table was not ready due to a double booking (exact words). After our table was cleaned, the host continued to attend to other guests before taking us to our table. Another (white) couple had arrived just before us without a reservation and were taken to their table before us. So the fun began. Once at the table, we waited nearly 10 minutes before a server arrived asking if we had been helped and proceeded to hand us menus and hand us off to Bongani. He took our drinks order, and seemed quite annoyed that just my wife ordered a drink, with me suggesting ordering a bit later. Our drinks arrived shortly after and we proceeded to place our dinner order (bearing in mind that this was already a good half an hour since we arrived). Whilst taking our order, Bongani had to go attend to another (white) couple behind us who had ordered the lobster, citing that their meal was "complicated". In the meanwhile, the other (white) couple who had arrived just before us without the reservation were already eating their starters. I tried to order an arrabiata pasta with the cheese wheel, but this was too complicated to do, and Bongani could not explain why, just that it was not possible. I have had cheese wheel pastas in many places before and in a few different countries with a variety of pasta dishes and this was never a problem before. He proceeded to bring in the manager to further outline that this would not be possible. I conceded and we waited for our food. The (white) couple who had arrived just before us without the reservation were already on their mains (lobster) by 8pm, whilst we had not even had a sniff of food. By 8.15pm, we had decided that we had had enough and vacated. I am not sure if it was the fact that we are Indian, or did not order lobster (which could affect the tip that Bongani received), but there was something clearly not right here. We travelled all the way from Centurion, late at night with a 13-month old only to have the single, most disgustingly racist experience at Monte, bearing in mind that this was the first we had been to Monte since our child was born. Having spoken to the manager explaining our gripes, she insists that she is not racist, having been born here in SA and that she is the only white person working there. I accept that, which only lends credence to the fact that she is utterly clueless about the behaviours of her staff. I sincerely hope that all the promises of reviewing the camera footage of our night there materialize and that racists like Bongani cease to work in the hospitality industry ever again.