cargo hold

this restaurant has a light industrial feel to it, the showpiece being the large shark tank that adorns the wall. food was good, service efficient and friendly, and overall, a well priced night out.

loved it! food, atmosphere, the service! quail was absolutely amazing! went there for valentines day.. would love to do it again! @jayd.naidoo

i really wish you could rate the food and service separately, because it's particularly relevant for my experience at cargo hold. starting with the "bad", the service was horrendous. the restaurant wasn't that busy at all, and yet it took an hour to get anything to drink, and another hour to get our mains. we were very close to leaving eventually, but fortunately we stuck it out because the food was incredible!!

across our party of seven, we tried platters, line fish, steak, lamb and salmon and all of it was beautifully plated and delicious. for desserts, we tried the sorbet, apple pie and, the most wonderful of all, the chocolate fondant... bliss!

interesting interior, delightful food, horrendous service.

i'm an aquarian so when i found myself in durban for my birthday, cargo hold seemed like a pretty obvious choice for my birthday lunch. ch had been on my bucket list for years, so i was excited to finally be dining there.

we were seated right next to the tank and whilst the marine life had me enthralled, my ch experience sadly was not all that i dreamed it would be. my mother (who couldnt bring herself to eat seafood in front of the fish!) opted for the lamb chops, whilst i chose the quarterman's platter. my platter was decidedly average, the seafood was bland and in dire need of seasoning, quite frankly i've had better seafood at ocean basket. my mum however did enjoy her chops though.

i would recommend ch purely for the experience but it is definitely a tourist trap, once the novelty of "dining with sharks" wears off, it has little else to offer.

this is a truly unique experience. the ambience is outstanding. you are sitting next to a shark tank in a shipwreck. the food is incredible too. really high quality and taste. i had the crayfish thermidor and it was incredible. cooked to perfection and that sauce is simply gorgeous and fuses perfectly with the dish.

we went with great expectation. our 30 the wedding anniversary. we planned to have the seafood platter with shellfish. the restaurant speciality. travelled more than 100 km to hear they do not have crayfish or langoustines. serious disappointment and in my view just bad management. the food was good but will not go again. they should have told us when we booked

the view of the shark tank whilst dining was a hit for the little one. could barely get him to eat. it took a while for me to suck it in too.

we had the lamb shank, fillet steak, sea food pasta and chicken strips. the food was fresh. the lamb shank was the favourite. the steak was the 2nd best. the sea food was just okay. the chicken strips were quickly downed along with the fries so i guess they were great as the person who had them is quite fussy.

the cargo hold is a must do when you find yourself in dbn. note - the tables by the tank need to be reserved. reservations can be made 3 weeks in advance.

on the downside, the service was quite slow even though the restaurant was not filled to capacity.

an unforgettable experience! the seafood platter on its own was one of the best seafood experiences i have ever had ... mixed with the highly entertaining shark tank is a recipe for a very memorable night.

good quality food, great service and an awesome view of the shark tank while eating dinner. prices were fair but the menu was limited. small changes like serving salt and pepper out of silver canisters rather than plastic shop bought ones would make this restaurant feel a lot more like a five star restaurant than it currently does.

beautiful ambience, amazing experience
menu has a wide variety and the desserts are delicious
service was okay
book beforehand especially if it's peak period
👍🏽

wonderful experience, great service and extremely tasty food with an amazing atmosphere food presentation is tops ..........

cargo hold is such an asset for durban! it was my first experience at this restaurant and i was not disappointed.
the beautiful huge tank captured me from the moment we walked in..it is breath taking. the ambiance was quite relaxed, however, it had great sophistication to it. the decor embodies the sunken ship theme and transports you to another place. the food was absolutely lovely. my meal was amazingly well cooked, from the gnocchi to the rich basting sauce. my boyfriend had the prawn and fish combo and he loved it. my personalized dessert was the icing on the cake. it was delicious and oozed everything i love..and by everything i mean chocolate and more chocolate.
i love this restaurant. i can't find a fault.

not one to slander a place but when i get treated in a rude manner by a "top notch" establishment especially one that serves overseas guests, it gets my blood boiling.

arrived in durban for a holiday with my fiance on thursday night. i tried calling the cargo hold day in and day out from 12pm everyday on all three of their numbers they give, to make a booking as we thought this was the place to eat and get the full durban experience.

eventually sunday afternoon around 3pm someone decided to answer. now i get it places can be busy. but so busy that you can't answer, at least 20 calls a day on three different numbers, especially when your website says book in advance.

so after explaining to them we have been trying to get hold of them for 3 days now, we ask the person who answered if we may book for the evening and they reply very rudely that "we don't do a sunday dinner service". i then explain to them not a problem can we please book for 4pm. and once again i get a very annoyed rude reply back "we are closed". trying not to annoy the person on the other side of the phone call any further i mention to them as a general bit of knowledge for them to correct so that other people don't get confused that their web site is then wrong and says they close at 5pm. and that their google business account says they close 3pm and reopen for night service at 6pm. so they might want to change it. i then get a very annoyed rude and i'm done with you toned reply "that's because we are not busy so we are closed".

i was not arguing. i was just mentioning that maybe they should change their website and google business accounts hours to rectify confusion of other patrons.

if you don't answer your phone calls stick to your hours you are going to be quite. we were really looking forward to enjoying this once in a life time experience but after being treated like this i won't even set foot in the door.

really enjoyed it. seriously very good food. flavours. presentation. great.
very fine-dining.
service wasnt bad. compared to the rest of durban, the service was epic.
the aquarium makes for a unique experience.
but the prices blew me away. ridiculously reasonable. and for that quality! you can eat there daily.
seriously delicious. go.

we had lunch there yesterday and it was very much to our dissapointment. my family and i went to have a mini vacation in durban and spend the day at ushaka yesterday. we were highly impressed with the interior. on arrival our waitress failed to inform us of the lunch specials which we only saw leaving the resturant on the front counter. the menu was impressively written and sold us to the idea that this was definitely fine dining cuisine. however the 'tomato veloute' was not smooth at all, it was tasty. the chocolate tart my mom ordered was really just chocolate cake. the amarula cheescake was dense and the butterscotch sauce was crystalised. my dads desert was promised white chocolate mouse but received dark chocolate. overall the food wasnt terrible but it was not what the menu perceives and with a highly sold description, you expect the best! id reccomend simplifying the menu to what you really achieve.