Hatching Day 2011

I celebrated another successful journey around the sun on October 9th by having lunch with friends out at Cafe Sophia, Eden of the Bay in Big Bay. The weather was gorgeously warm and sunny, perfect after a week of rain. This however meant that everyone and their entire extended families was headed to the beach. I ended up sitting in traffic on the Blouberg beach road but it wasn't all bad. There were lots of kites out and they were very pretty. Sitting in traffic means I could take a few pics too.

Lunch was not as nice. Detouring to miss the worst of the traffic as I was running late (as per normal!) I came down into Big Bay into a wall of sea mist. Now I love sea mist - the way it smells, how it dampens surrounding noises and how it can make the world look dreamy and other worldly. However, I don't love sea mist when it ruins my perfect sunny birthday. *pout*

Gathering friends at Cafe Sophia was a little difficult, getting a seat even harder and some of my friends didn't see us as we were sitting just inside in front of the kitchen. I have purple hair and it shines in the sunlight but that would be the key thing there "sunlight". About 8 friends did make it and we looked forward to a lazy lunch of cocktails and snacks.

More drama! Cafe Sophia need to learn about timing and a few things about caring for customers. Drinks were tasty ... when they arrived. 20mins for a cocktail when the cocktail bar is not busy? Really? The food was a disaster! Some of us order tapas while other's ordered meals. We all ordered at different times. Somehow the waitron thought we wanted it all to arrived at the same time. He never asked and we often couldn't find him. This delay in serving resulted in food sitting on the pass for too long and ending up over cooked or dried out. Some of it was even actually cold despite the pass heat lamps. They also managed to mess up some of the orders, bring out the wrong food and then claiming it was as ordered. Getting any of this chaos sorted out also was nearly impossible. Thankfully one of my guys friends, Craig, has worked in hospitality and started ripping holes into staff and management. Some items were taken off our bill and the tip was minimal. I tip for service, no service = no tip.

Hatching Day 2011 - Floating mountain,
a photo by magependragon on Flickr.

We pretty much rushed out of there as soon as we could because of the awful experience. I chose Cafe Sophia because I had been there for a breakfast special with a group of family and family-friends a few weeks back. That had run smooth enough, this was just a nightmare though. Most of us will never return.

Sea mist still hanging low, We ambled down the boardwalk looking for somewhere to get soft-serve cones but Eden on the Bay doesn't seem to have a single place on the boardwalk selling these. Not finding our wanted sweet treat, we parted ways.

It was ultimately a good afternoon with friends and we had fun despite the chaotic service.