we were quite looking forward to dining at reuben's, and decided to spend our last night in franschhoek here. we pre-booked, so were quitedisappointedto arrive and be seated in the corner close to the kitchen entrance and bathrooms. two requests to be removed were met with "i'll see what i can do" and no follow-up. we also waited quite a while for someone to take our order. while i can understand that they may have wanted to go with a more casual dining experience, there are certain expectations at this price point. alas, this restaurant did not live up to them. the wait staff are either badly trained or we were in a position that was ignored; we barely saw our waitress and had empty glasses on the table for a while at some point.
we were presented with breads to start. the waitress had to be prompted to tell us what they were. neither was very good or memorable. the waitress didn't remove the plates when done, so we had to juggle the plates when starters arrived.
we went with the chicken livers and reuben's famous chilli salted squid for starters. the liver dish was pretty good, if a bit undersalted. a few more chicken livers would have been great. the same with the brioche, which was miles ahead of the starter breads. we've had the squid at the cape town reuben's before, and really enjoyed it. this one didn't measure up; it was very oily and left an unpleasant finish, as if it had been fried in old oil. the herbs accompanying the squid were nice and fresh-tasting in comparison.
the wait for the main was very long, with no attendance from the waitress in that time nor a reason for the wait. when it i eventually arrived, it thankfully didn't disappoint. the chateaubriand was excellent, certainly in the top 3 i've had in sa; it was perfectly cooked with a nice char on the outside, and very flavourful. it does however come at a price, r245, which is quite a bit more than most high-end restaurants. it was served with 4 (yes, just 4) triple-cooked chips, a small herb salad, and bearnaise sauce which was quite good. the lasagne was nice if undersalted, and could have done with more mushrooms to balance the sweet butternut. but overall a pleasant dish. it was also just warm rather than hot, but hunger kept us from sending it back.
we decided to go for desserts. the mango parfait wasn't nearly as good as the salted caramel dessert; the mango flavours were quite muted. the salted caramel dessert was excellent, with the chocolate elements in the plate shining.
we would return, if reuben's is here as we hear the quality is better when he's around.
we should add that several tables emptied out during the course of the night, but not once did anyone ask if we still wanted to move.