Bloemendon't

I had given up writing restaurant reviews a while ago due to not really going to restaurants - blame the recession! But I have decided that food is far too important to let a little thing like a global economic downturn affect our enjoyment of it!

About six months ago we visited the lower of the Bloemendal Restaurants - you know, the one where you go for the wine tasting.

We spent about 20 minutes trying to get the attention of the waiters before giving up and leaving.

Today, thinking we really should give the place a second chance, we again went there for lunch.

We arrived at about 2.10pm, to a restaurant that was about half full. The first 10 minutes we just waited to be seated before going over and interrupting one of the three waiters and asking them for a table. Then the next 10 minutes was waiting for menus. Then another 10 waiting to order. At about 2.35 our order was taken.

In the meantime, we were slightly disconcerted by the table next to us saying very firmly to their waiter while they sent their food back to the kitchen that the quality of the food and the waiting was (and they used another word which I will spare you) rubbish.

They promised the food within 15 minutes, so it arrived in 25, just on the dot of 3pm - 50 minutes after we arrived. This is lunch remember, and we had ordered two chicken wraps.

The wraps arrived supported by a cast of green salad that would have cheered Cecil B DeMille in quantity if not quality, as it was dry and undressed.

The wraps themselves were described as 'Thai Chicken' although I'm not sure what was Thai about them. The chicken had grey patches on it which we investigated forensically and unsuccessfully, and was completely without taste of any kind. They had attempted to create some level of flavour by drizzling the outside of the wrap with some sort of cheap sweet balsamic-flavoured liquid. This made it impossible to use your hands and attracted flies. It also added nothing to the taste.

The glass of Sauvignon Blanc that accompanied it was actually quite good, but do yourself a favour - buy it at Pick n Pay and spare yourself the pain of a visit to Bloemendal. A wrap from KFC, Nandos, McDonalds at two thirds the price would have been much preferable and much tastier. That fact is quite depressing and when the best you can say about the restaurant that you are eating at is that it aspires to match the quality of a major fast food chain you should probably go elsewhere.

The best part of the meal was definitely the butterscotch sweet we were given on leaving.

Not worth the pricetag.